'Dune: Part Two' briefing

3 (out of 4)

           May thy kino falter and flop!

Ah, finally I can understand how I feel about Dune: Part One! Well first thing’s first it sure as shit has nothing on its better half. Part Two packs a serious wallop, working with only half the pages condensed into its predecessor, which is certainly a strategy — if I wanna get immersed, of course I don’t want to drown in exposition but I also don’t want to feel like I’m subjected to superlatively composed SparkNotes. The best part of Frank Herbert’s world is his obsession with internal psychology, and through it a multi-lensed, panoramic exploration of politics and sociology and religion but IN SPACE. Almost like the Bene Gesserit’s planted and played upon legends of the Lisan Al-Gaib, the canvas of Part Two savors the way the tale eventually funnels, mounting to an intersection of insanity that just plain gets out of hand — the finale is so climactic and culminating that what accounts for about the 20 pages out of over 600 transposes to 30 minutes runtime at least. Structurally Villeneuve mostly manages to crack the way the book glosses over a few-year time jump, finding alternate, accommodating augmentations for Herbert’s way of diminishing the action to brief illustration outside of the single combat moments.

So Dune: Part Two is a far heftier feat, a legitimate blockbuster (as Part One was choked by WB’s simultaneous streaming and theatrical policy in 2021) that will etch itself alongside other formidable, fascinating sequels and epic, split-narrative “payoff” movies. Assuming Denis is going for Messiah and likely calling it quits (fans would kill for God Emperor, less Children of Dune, and maybe WB will oblige if the French-Canadian doesn’t) then, despite the fireworks and finality, at its best this operates like a mighty, masterful middle chapter fighting for rank up there with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, you know, the best of them. As far as prizes of patience go, nothing matches The Return of the King’s pent up, fully felt fervor and adaptive finesse (even ghost army glue), but this is comparable to Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for accessibly artistic sundered sequels, cornucopias of pleasure and distraction.

Herbert’s world has been realized in both sturdy, sensible enough screenwriting and confident, basically exquisite production detail in all respects. Villeneuve’s sequel is part of a larger picture, considering expensive, expansive, living, breathing Hollywood sci-fi has been Denis’ strongest and only suit since Arrival. His graces are in his value of intimacy and introspection, and an ability to cater to trendiness without selling out. Blade Runner 2049 could’ve been ironically soulless but actually resonates much deeper on the visual and emotional front (than this OR the Ridley Scott original, I must say), Arrival could’ve been Contact without that Zemeckis HEART, and even the first Dune could’ve been a sloppier and far more shaved off summation. Both parts make for a near-ideal example of talent and tale — cinematographer Greg Fraser and he have worked miracles before, and Hans Zimmer’s most rumbling, tumbling score, though too close to Part One’s pulsations, highlights the film’s peaks of direct drama. Certain passages are truly bowel-shaking. But, as it goes, it’s a movie so close to greatness you wish there was some Lynchian instinct in Villeneuve to shake things up, to get riskier. Denis is no Buñuel but he made Maelström — if you can have a talking fish narrate your movie you can get weird in Dune of all things, Christ.

I cannot deny certain mesmeric spells but honestly, why isn’t this just a little trippier? His vision of Jamis at the end of the first film is more psyched out than anything here, which is crazy since in the novel's back half Paul’s been living off that spice, sending his already borderline supernatural ass to the brink, then the literal Kult Kool Aid (that neon blue Water of Life) takes him even further. I think there were more than a few missed opportunities for bold surrealism be it the flavor of Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky who famously abandoned an ambitious adaptation — at least Denis’ stitches things with some nice lens flare wipes, drifting vertical transitions not unlike Panos Cosmatos's stuff. And it’s hard to get more ‘far out’ than the introduction of the 1965 novel’s third and final part, which uses flowing dreamscape language to color the lapse of a few years in the desert — instead the movie makes the time jump disappear with a monster battle sequence, our anti-heroes scuffling with smugglers and Sardukar. It almost feels like you could levy Chris Tolkien’s complaint about Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies demographically targeting teen boys, but it’s more ironic here considering how conflicted they decide to make Paul: cautious about that Golden Path but ultimately very, very vengeful. Still, whether or not there’s enough movement to keep casuals awake, the movie’s positively gorgeous shot by shot. You can’t undersell the beautiful practicality, the tasteful reduction or incorporation of the CG, the perfect costumes and miscellaneous awe of the set construction.

But I’m sorry, Austin Butler as Feyde-Rautha? Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan? Christopher Walken as the Emperor? Were they begging for a legacy built on memes? Beyond funny casting, there’s a word for what’s been done to these characters — Denis didn’t fuck them up but contrary to the way The Lord of the Rings’ archetypes are more or less “humanized” through doubt or other emotions to make relatively static figures more complex, Herbert’s psychologically spacious, musing characters have been flipped, flattened to their extremes, either painted one coat or at very least scrubbed of most specifics. Sorry, I almost think I ruined the cinematic experience of Dune (both parts) by reading the book but here we are — now I have a good reason to whine “Why is Chani like this? She’s one of Paul’s most faithful followers in the text!” I can’t blame Zendaya for how they wrote her, I supposed you need some way to spell out the themes for dummies (“Paul, what you’re doing, um, ISN’T GOOD!”), but I smelled trouble from the moment I heard Denis call Chani the real protagonist of Part Two.

It’s the most egregious change but it does prove how subjective his take, how this story might just be too strange, with too many avenues within the web of personalities and politics to be taken for only one person’s interpretation. But of course the casting and acting takes you most of the way there even if the character nuances nag me. Young Timmy C. is the most believable 14-year-old turned messianic war leader you could ask for. I don’t know why everyone’s jazzed over Austin Butler, he just imitates the Baron’s (Stellan Skarsgård) drawl and general creepiness, like uncle like nephew I suppose. Josh Brolin as the grizzled Gurney Halleck simply murdered his role just like he slaughters stunt extras toward the not at all reeled in righteousness of the finale of coups and duels. But Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica do this swap, where its like she’s just another evil manipulating witch before she’s the more resistant of the two when Paul leans in hard on his zealotry. Jessica was always different from the Bene Gesserit, she doesn’t exactly stir the pot, likewise Paul in the books is trained by mentats and fighters and Bene Gesserit, the teen titan’s just living out his life — it’s so wild seeing him go from “oh he’s humble he doesn’t want to do this” and flipping on a fucking dime, thanks to misconstruing the aqua de vida. Tyranny cannot be a slow boil — the audience could come to the wrong conclusion! The schism between the fabricated skeptics (led by Chani) and the “fundamentalists” are just for spicing up conflict, rendering Javier Bardem’s Stilgar into a fanatic from frame one — Paul friends do indeed become followers just not so damn fast. I personally feel that characters were codified, typified, some not even close to their original state.

In other adjustments and/or omissions, where the FUCK is THUFIR HAWAT? How can you nix that drama about the Atreides traitor, he and Gurney suspecting Jessica to be treasonous, especially when your invented conflicts are lame? They do the Baron dirty — how can such a cool, colorful bad guy end up so boring? When they reintroduce him he’s still in his black bath, I guess your choices are limited when you can’t show him molesting and killing young boys (THAT WOULD BE HOMOPHOBIC)… At least they justify not leaving Emperor and Irulan offscreen by framing Part Two with her historical journaling on the tale of the Atreides, a nice nod to the almost academic accounting of Herbert’s chapter arrangements. Then I’m sorry but I wanted young psychic cherub Alia to hilariously undermine the denouement’s grand confrontations, just like in Lynch’s 1984 fiasco/cult favorite I would love a jesting little freak giggling “I’m enjoying this way too much!”

But it’s all too silly and distracting (see ya next time Anya Taylor-Joy!) when you’re after the emotion of the outcast prince, the new Duke himself stabbing Baron Harkonnen in the neck, rather than a blue-eyed grandmotherly toddler taking the Gom Jabbar and ending that fool. In Paul’s hands alone you get a cleaner epic revenge setup BUT YOU ALSO want everyone to simultaneously feel for a fact that the false prophet angle is, what, righteous and wrong AT THE SAME TIME? If revenge is the name of the game and you want good dark motivation, why completely omit Paul and Chani’s child and swift death during the destruction of Sietch Tabr, sorry does that make him a little too sympathetic? God I hate when my jihad is spoiled! It’s no fun if Zendaya is scowling and suspicious of all the religious exploitation even though Chani still has to fall for this twink. The coolest part of Paul’s Golden Path is not how it’s paved to his exact liking but rather how he plays into it, and whether it’s REAL or not doesn’t matter, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. But this script feels the need to point with neon signs to how obviously frowned up this is supposed to be through Chani’s eyes, while Denis’ dynamic staging and cinematic low-risk high-reward clip reinforces just how badass his ascent is, because, in many ways, it is?

I think Villeneuve had a tough time unravelling the internal intricacies and moral quandaries at the heart of it all, as admirable a job as he does. There I go, like the first movie, spending most of my time whining when it’s often and in sum a thrilling, marvelous experience. Like the Bene’s, there’s a blindness that comes from the widest vantage, but I can’t see the macro-level here, though I’ve glanced at the stories past Paul’s upending of the empire, and it seems things become even more dour and narratively tricky to transfer to a visual format. This story alone, so it seems, is tough enough to reckon with between arresting world-building and its cautionary air — Paul himself is this true inversion of the prototypical hero, both in film and in culture. I can’t reprimand him for some mostly decent abridging. Oh NO mmmm aahhhhh where was the COUNT? One sexy scene with Léa Seydoux as Lady Fenring works for me (and although not in the books, interesting lore)… see it’s a balance.

The Battle for Arrakis is over… the Holy War is about to begin. It’s still a great slice of Denis doing his thing, getting around to action only when it matters, personally knowing it’s all gonna look pretty gorgeous, smooth sailing, pure hyperkinesthetics. In the circuits DV said something along the lines of ‘I would do away with dialogue if I could, the power is in the image itself’ and admittedly that’s where he’s strongest. The movie has its near-perfect otherworldly detail and mise-en-scene, lighting, visual effects, sound, score and roughly every damn technical quality you could crave. For mainstream entertainment, this is the best we’ll get in a good while, in spite of simplified and, at worst, shortchanged adaptation. This gamble could’ve scaled from incredible to embarrassing and double goes for the next one, if only considering there’s not exactly the same clout around Frank’s Dune sequels — but I think I’m on Denis’ side through the end. Let’s savor this as an unclouded high point, regardless of the subtext this movie dutifully scrubs out for more telegraphed moralizing — I know Herbert regretted some reader's treating Paul as a hero, and if that finds resolve here, sure, fine. Denis Villeneuve’s fondness for radiating a recognizable sci-fi world from Herbert’s imagination is not lost though, even if some subtlety has sifted out of the screenwriting.