I don’t want to repeat the reviews you’ve already read. It’s a superb film. If you enjoyed the first, certainly see the second. Performances, cinematography, soundtrack – all sublime. It’s a masterpiece. But I do have some thoughts on the structure.
Spoilers ahead.
My only criticism of Villeneuve is that he occasionally goes too long and I would’ve cut the story up differently so that we don’t lose some key exposition.
When I watched the first instalment of Dune I got restless at the point Paul and Jessica are forced out into the desert after Duncan Idaho has made his last stand. That’s where I’d cut it. Instead we get a 20 minute sequence where Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar and the Fremen, and the resulting fight with Jamis feels rushed. It’s a critical moment in the start of Paul’s introduction to Fremen culture and it feels a little tagged on at the end. As an audience we’ve just gone through this major sequence where you have this huge cinematic battle and the downfall of House Atreides – that’s enough for us for that film. It would’ve been neater to cut before the Jamis fight, as we then end with Paul heading out into the desert and the unknown, thus properly ending the first chapter of his story before starting the next.
The same goes with Dune 2 – the pacing seems a little rushed due to the structure. Effectively we get three major phases of this film:
- Paul becoming Fremen but resisting becoming Lisan al Gaib / Kwisatz Haderach / Space Moses;
- The rise of Feyd, him arriving on Arrakis, Jessica going south, Feyd destroying the Fremen in the north;
- Paul accepting he now has no choice but to go south, to become the Chosen One, and then proceeds to wipe the floor with everyone.
My contention is Villenueve should’ve stuck to the first two of those in Dune 2. The last part feels somewhat rushed, and the final confrontation / battle is somewhat anticlimactic – in all fairness, this is exactly the same in the book so maybe he’s being faithful to the material.
But if Villenueve cut at the point where Feyd is on top, where he’s burnt the holy site of the Fremen, where he’s killed some of Paul’s Fremen allies, where the antagonist has essentially forced the protagonist’s hand, forced Paul to go south to become the leader of a holy war even though he doesn’t want to… well that makes for a killer ending in itself and sets up a third film that has fantastic stakes. It also gives him more time to explore Paul becoming this almost god-like figure and his estrangement from his own humanity in a third installment.
At that point Dune 2 also becomes Empire Strikes Back – the Dune Luke is battered, bruised and humbled and the Dune Darth is on top. We’ve got a properly dangerous and threatening antagonistic force with teeth in Feyd, and it makes the third film super compelling.
Feyd has an awesome build up in this film, Butler does a great job. The monotone sequence in the arena is spectacular, the Bene Gesserit seduction scene adds depth and intrigue, while his arrival on Arrakis shows how he adds to the antagonistic force in the story. He’s a compelling villain. But, as the film is, you get this great villain somewhat squandered – he has a great build up and while the fight at the end is good, we’ve not seen enough of him to think Paul isn’t going to win. He’s becomes more Darth Maul than Darth Vader.
You can also spend the time you free up in both exploring more of the lore that gets a little lost in the pace of Dune 2 that helps explain some of the more confusing aspects in the film.
We need more on the Fremen – the films don’t explore why they’re such good fighters. A large theme of the series is about breeding and ecology. You have the Bene Gesserit and their rich people breeding programme, you have the Sardukar who are bred and picked to become super solders, you have Navigators who are bred to become space-travel computers and so on. The harsh environment of the desert, the natural abundance of the super substance of spice, in combination with the Fremen spartan / honour / martial culture, essentially makes the Fremen superior to almost all other humans in battle. Arrakis is a natural breeding programme. That simply isn’t addressed in the films.
We don’t get a lot on the fact Jessica is Harkonnen – we need more explanation about how the Bene Gesserit are conducting this secret generational breeding programme across the great houses in order to try and breed the Chosen One into existence. That’s why she didn’t know, that’s why that Bene Gesserit sleeps with Feyd, that’s why they think they can control everyone.
Finally, we also lose everything about the ‘Mentat’ which is critical in understanding why Paul is this super man. The Mentat are basically the Dune equivalent of Supercomputers. Remember this guy from film 1?
Yeah, they’re really important, and unfortunately he, and the Mentat in general, are completely cut from Dune 2. In the Dune lore, the galaxy doesn’t use AI or computer intelligence because there was basically a computer vs human holy war when AI became too smart for us. Instead, in this future, we use human computers – Mentat – who have the capacity to make huge calculations in a manner of seconds. And Paul is essentially part-Mentat.
Discussing Mentat also explains why Spice is not just a seemingly magic substance. The Spice basically dials up Mentat powers to 11. It allows Navigators (a super-form of Mentat) to do the huge sums required for space travel without computers. That’s why 1) Spice so valuable and 2) why Paul is so sensitive to it. We also get nothing on the fact it’s the worms making the Spice. That’s why the blue magic liquid Jessica and Paul drink from the Mini-Worm is so potent. It’s a super dose of Spice. When he gets the blue super dose, it’s turns him into a god-level calculator – he’s able to ‘see’ the future because his mind is doing vast calculations of all possibilities in each and every moment. It’s why he loses his humanity – it’s why Paul essentially ‘dies’ to become the Kwisatz Haderach. He goes to a level of perception where he’s beyond basic human interaction.
And finally, if you structure it a bit differently, Jessica can have that goddamn talking baby. Although I am thankful Denis cut the sister. Boy, that’s a weird part of an already weird book.
Gin Lane 