@thearmag3ddon here with yet Another Movie Review You Didn’t Ask For:
Spoiler Warning #1. There will be spoilers.
Spoiler Warning #2. This review will probably confuse you if you conflate critiquing something with not liking something because anything less than praise and adulation means dislike. (Oddly that’s one of the messages of this little movie here.)
Because…this movie is worthy of all the praise and adulation it is receiving. But there are also some things to talk about.
Firstly, let me just get to this. This is why. If someone were to ask me “Why movies?” I would immediately say, “This.” When I think about film, the art and craft of it, a presentation of something that is best experienced on a big screen, and feels like it is capturing something much larger than the lives we experience, it is this. This movie is why movies. It feels too big for your television. You want to cup all of it with your hands, but like the sands of Arrakis itself, you never will be able to fully. (Dang that was poetic AF.) I recently had a conversation with someone about both Killers of the Flower Moon, and Napoleon and while I feel like they are both fine enough films in their own right, both of them mostly feel like they are smaller and built for your TV. This movie, absolutely, definitely, is not. And I love it. It makes me remember why movies. And how dare you Nicole Kidman gaslight me into thinking Jurassic World or Elvis and let’s throw in Avatar Way of the Water or whatever, are magical when this and Return of the King exist.
So there’s that. I loved this movie. And I feel like it should win awards. Like a lot. From acting to costumes, to cinematography and direction, it is the thoughtful brand of science fiction that is pretty rare in a post Star Wars world, with deeply embedded takes and messages about phenomena that happens in our own world. Which science fiction at its best is one of the best vehicles to explore said phenomenon in a what if context.
But now the other part…
This has never happened to me before, ever when watching a movie, but as I left the theater a random person asked me what I thought about it. And well…I had to actually think. And I told them, I liked it. Then I paused. I had to say how I truly felt because I could kind of sense they felt it too. Then I looked into his eyes and we kissed. Lol jk, No, then I said. “But I felt….incomplete?” And then, after a bit of a pause himself, he agreed. Then I asked him if he’d read the book and series, and he said “no.” Which was then my confirmation that it wasn’t just me knowing that there was so much more that wasn’t discussed on screen. He mentioned how he assumed the direction the second movie would go from the last one, with a time jump. The events in this move felt rushed compared to the first. The logic of decisions made rather. I said yep. He wondered what the deal was with the baby in the womb. It felt…cursory since it was such a unique idea. I said yep. She’s actually a far bigger part of this story even if not integral to moving the plot forward. And then he mentioned that while yes, this was great, he felt like he was also missing something. That he couldn’t figure out. It was his second time seeing it, so he’d gone back to experience it again. And I just said…Yep.
Then…
I vomited everything I knew about the books that I could remember and the differences in this film and why he might have felt the way he did. LOL But it was interesting to me in that moment also how his response to everything I said to me felt like illumination and understanding rather than seeming to being put off by this other information and not liking the movie. Because also, that’s how I felt. It’s still great.
I am by no means a Dune scholar. I personally experienced the story for the first time on the then Sci-Fi, not yet SYFY channel in 2000, became obsessed, jumped into the books but also didn’t study or feature them as a part of my identity to any great degree. I remember intently the ads and trailers from Lynch’s 84 outing and what I saw didn’t really appeal to me. I mean it had a weird guy floating erratically around in a circle, and WHAT IS THIS, but it also had Sting so that was cool, but pass. I have watched it since, post reading the books and while some people judge it, and might dismiss it, I don’t fault it for existing the way it does. For the time and place, and technology in the state that it was in 1984, Lynch did the best that he could adapting what is a dense book with a million ideas in it. The world wasn’t ready to do a mini-series on TV or a series of movies either, just from a technology meets financial standpoint. It fails but it’s an impressive failing because still in a lot of ways it is iconic for Dune including the costume aesthetics and the phrase “the Spice must flow.”
But anyway, I’m not a scholar, but I have a couple of friends that know the ends and outs much better, and they too also love this current 2021 and 2024 take while also being privy to some areas where it either might have glossed over or changed a few things as well. No hand wringing involved. It just is. And it has to happen from one medium to another, it’s always just…how you do it. Here, it’s done great. But yeah, they can speak to that part much better than I. But I will say this… for me the changes helped bring out an important theme which meant the plot had to change, even if sometimes it felt “dumbed down” for a mass audience, but I did think it was still effective in telling its version of the story. And yes, this includes how we leave Chani, and what she does and doesn’t do in this version. I actually like it even if it’s a pretty bold departure. It’s not nuanced however. But it works for film. So you get a pass.
In relation to the source material, in some ways Denis Villeneuve’s Dune feels like a high level look at the story in Dune the book. And I think a lot of that comes from what I kind of theorize is his grounding as much of the story as he can so that this is more art and less Hollywood. Like…that’s his thing and how he chose to focus on the events that happen. Spaceships. Boring. Realism, bring it. To each their own, and his expression is done well enough so it’s not a matter of incompetence, but rather choice. I say that, while looking at Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender where it felt the change was a change that kind of ignores the original meaning and instead decides to do more of its own thing and doesn’t do it well enough to be interesting, at least for myself. Dune the movie is done well, yet the Space Guild, Guild Navigators, Thufir Hawat, the deep blue eyes of Fremen and those exposed to spice, as well as how Alia Atreides is portrayed here, all things that mark the weird and more sci-fi aspects of the story are given very short, almost cursory riffs. Understandable if you want to portray things as “believable.” The biggest indulgence we have into the realm of the incredible is obviously the Sand Worms, which would have been an affront to human and Fremen Kind if they were glossed over and depicted less epic, but the rest was…breezy?
Especially with the Guild, Guild Navigators, and Thufir, they are deeply tied to the “WHY” of the story of Dune, which was a war over Spice, therefore in some ways the conflict feels more revenge and less political. And I think the lack of these elements which are foundational even if not specific to moving plot points forward, is why the movie feels to me and my fellow now mysterious moviegoer as incomplete. From the conflict over the spice and understanding the real why, we get to examine the other deeper things like religion, control, and exploitation of indigenous people. Politics IS here in this version, it just exists on a more base, easily understandable emotional level than the nuanced, not always spelling out the maneuverings of an aristocracy self absorbed with sustaining itself in the name of its citizens while also doing things to the detriment of said citizens. Spice, and the things that…flow from it, is important beyond the plot, and speaks to the level of importance it holds as the glue for the entirety of society in the form it exists, why the world is the way it is in the first place, and without that substance the entire empire would come crashing down in an instant. Through it we see the lengths and deals and exploitation involved to secure that substance and well…you can see where I’m going, right? It’s oil, it’s diamonds, it’s water, it’s land, it’s tea and the justification for it is Manifest Destiny. In this film however, it is a cursory thing; sparkly glitter that gets mentioned every once in a while. And because of this also, we don’t really get one of the biggest reveals that the book has to offer. Another big why, that’s tied to so many dilemmas about what our ANTI-HERO needs to do to succeed in his current endeavor. Again spoilers if you’ve not read it, and the movie doesn’t really cover it, but the worms aren’t just there because they look super cool.
Villeneuve hyper focuses on a path to this film being a success, kind of like how Maud’dib does with his Timey Whimey Spice Vision, in which the aspects of devotion to religion, cult of personality, and propaganda get the spotlight while other elements are presented as simply that’s just how it is, like we are a part of that society so therefore we should know. I guess, kind of like how you might take oil for granted. But anyway, that’s why the story and examination is important. Because it gets you to look at the things you are familiar with in a way that makes you understand that this ish ain’t normal in the least.
Dune for me was jaw dropped on the floor, fantastic. To me it is one of the greatest pieces of film ever made. But also with a little reflection, I do think it doesn’t quite tell all the story that it can. I don’t really fault it for that in a similar way that I don’t fault Lynch’s Dune as well. I also think it appears as it does because it’s being set up to tell more of the story down the road, in its own time, and thus, it will be done on its own terms. I have faith…ironically, that even as I notice the things I wish were there, I also can see how those things are being set up to be further explored in a Dune: Messiah movie and Children and beyond, which, actually would be a brilliant move for a movie, because Messiah is so cerebral it’s kind of boring. Lol
Anyway, I liked this movie. A lot. But ironically, the lower budget, clunky effects of Sci-Fi Channel version was far more faithful. This movie is a masterpiece. And I think two things can be true. It can be great but also even the guy that only just now discovered it feels it in his bones that there’s something that’s been left on the table to explore further. I love that people are starting to discover this world and I hope like a lot of great movies, it inspires you to go read the books next.
Then you’ll see because there’s a whole lot more for you there to see. And you don’t even need to take a Hero dose of Spice to see it. As a matter of fact, I’m going to get back to it right now and finish this dang series. Good and bad. Looking at you Brian Herbert.
I give Dune: Part Two, 4.5 Dune Popcorn Buckets out of 5.
Until the next review that you didn’t ask for, @thearmag3ddon, signing off.
…And no Christopher Walken is not distracting. He kind of brings it.