Ron Does Stuff

I’m going to be honest with you guys straight off the bat — I was not a fan of the Dune books. I like the general story being told — up until “Children of Dune” — but I was not a fan of Frank Herbert’s writing or the way the first Dune book was structured, with Princess Irulan’s diary(?) entries starting out the chapters. It just didn’t work for me!

I’ve always liked the adaptations of Dune more than the actual book, so I was predisposed to already liked this Denis Villeneuve adaptation. However, I thought the first movie was…only okay. Still, I had high hopes for this second installment because more action happens in this one. Will I be let down instead?

Spoilers for those who haven’t watched yet!

Dune Part Two starts right where the first movie ended, with Paul and the Fremen headed back to the sietch with Jamis’ body with them. Immediately, the audience is overwhelmed by the stunning visuals — the wide shots of the orange desert really feels ancient and overwhelming.

From there, the movie moves at a much quicker pace than the first film, following Lady Jessica’s ascent as Arrakis’ Reverend Mother, Paul’s reckoning with his destiny, and the start of the Holy War that is going to factor in the next movies — if they’re going to get made.

This movie definitely had me hooked right from the beginning, with the Harkonnen soldiers gliding up that rock. The visuals really are arresting and go a long, long way in keeping me focused.

The performances are also uniformly great, such as Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica who is slowly descending into madness as she is standing in for Alia, who only appears in a vision in this film. Timothee’s performance really gains steam throughout the movie, and when he has that confrontation with the rest of the Fremen tribal leaders you really feel the power and the horror of what is happening. And because I am a broken person, I thought Austin Butler’s Feyd Rautha was really hot? I am an unwell person.

But the performance that really stood out for me was Zendaya, who turns in a Nora Aunor-esque performance in the movie, conveying so much with just her eyes and facial expressions. And anyone who knows me personally know I don’t just hand out the Nora Aunor comparisons.

While I didn’t agree with all the things that were removed, condensed, or tweaked, I do understand how those decisions were made. I particularly liked how the film addresses the now problematic visuals of having a white man lead a population of non-white people to “paradise”. Very white savior and they handle it well, I think.

The decision to further bring to the forefront Paul’s hesitation to take on the mantle of being the Mahdi is also a great move, giving Paul a lot more complexity than previous adaptations and lays the groundwork for the future movies, at least up until “Children of Dune”.

Now what about the stuff that I didn’t like? While Rebecca Ferguson does a great job at laying the foundation for Alia’s future psychosis, I do wish that they just had Alia out in this movie and not just confined to a vision Paul has. Admittedly, it’s hard to find a child actor to do Alia, but if Kirsten Dunst can succeed with Claudia way back in 1994 surely another child actress could also do it now in 2024.

I also understand the tweaks they had to make with the Paul and Chani relationship to make it work for today’s audience, but I do wish that their conflict in this one was resolved in this movie as well. I feel like they’ve already done enough groundwork for most of the movie to prepare the audience for a third installment.

Finally, while individual parts of the movie — acting, cinematography, soundtrack — are all top notch, the movie as a whole didn’t seem as impressive? I’m no film studies major or anything of the sort, so I don’t think I have the right vocabulary to describe it, but Dune Part Two felt antiseptic and very “great gowns, beautiful gowns” to me. And the gowns were beautiful.

In fact, at some points in the movie, I missed the campiness of the SciFi Channel adaptation. Was the acting as good? No. Was the special effects as good? Not at all. Were the gowns as beautiful? One could argue that some of them were! But despite all of that the SciFi Channel adaptation had a charm and a heart to it that I just enjoyed.

Did I regret paying money to watch Dune Part Two on IMAX? Not at all and I’d recommend people to watch it on IMAX as well because it really is a stunning movie. But I also want to point out that the SciFi Channel adaptation of Dune is available on YouTube and you don’t have to pay anything for that.