More sci fi on screen
Dune Part 2 plus a top 10 list in a footnote
I watched Dune Part 2 ... and it was ... meh? I mean it was visually interesting. The IR camera work was pretty amazing and did its job of making Giedi Prime look alien. However, it also made it seem different from Giedi Prime in Part 1. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of heightened visuals1 in Part 2 making the film feel disconnected from the more realistic Part 1. Basically the two films are at different points on the formalism/realism spectrum.
Dune Part 1 had me thinking it might enter into my top 10 sci fi movies of all time2, but Dune Part 2 might not make my top 20 — dragging Part 1 down with it. It’s not because of the visuals — I like how Part 2 looked. It’s because it didn’t deliver on the improvement over Dune (1984) and even the book that seemed in the offing after Part 1.
Before getting into the criticisms, let me point out some things I enjoyed. I loved Alia being a fetus and Jessica can communicating with her. I loved the portrayal of Jessica in general — she has agency throughout the film. She’s probably my favorite character in Part 2. The Fremen are not a monolithic culture (the “planet of hats” trope) and there are different views of the purported Lisan al Gaib. Paul and Chani’s relationship is better. The production design remains good — though I don’t see why the Harkonnen spice mining equipment and ornithopters have to be evil / different. I thought that equipment was generally CHOAM company equipment left to whoever was taking over spice production on Arrakis? Were those ornithopters in Part 1 Atreides ornithopters? Imagine the impact on oil production if every platform had to change out when a new CEO came in. Ok. I guess I’m getting into criticisms.
I thought there would be more political intrigue — as hinted by a meeting between Mohiam and the Baron in Part 1 (something I noted in my review of the book as one of the differences with the films). However, all that seems to have done is make the Emperor seem solely a figurehead in his dotage3 with the Bene Gesserit running things as a shadow government. That’s not only a simplification of the politics in the books, but makes the Bene Gesserit out to be more Machiavellian in the short term rather than just working at purposes orthogonal to the politics of a single lifetime.
People say that Dune (1984) becomes a mess essentially at the point in the story where the break between Part 1 and Part 2 occurs. And I agree — it’s just too much story to compress into about an hour. But Part 2 has almost three hours to get what is effectively the same general story in Dune (1984) across and still feels almost as montage-heavy. There’s no real story arc — more a story line; it doesn't work as a standalone film. Another way to put this is that Part 2 is a simultaneously rushed and bloated 3rd act to Part 1's 1st and 2nd.
I was surprised to see Part 2 use is a plot element from Dune (1984) that isn’t in the book — deliberately attacking spice production. As I wrote in my review of the book:
One thing I noticed on re-reading was that the book shows Paul’s gambit regarding the Emperor as more opportunistic compared to the 1984 movie which is more deliberate. In the book, the Baron instructs Rabban to take out the Fremen. Harkonnen effectiveness is low and there are lots of losses. Thufir (captured by the Baron after the attack on House Atreides and made to work for him) uses this information to convince Baron to cut off Rabban in order to make him look bad and install Feyd. Paul then sees Rabban is cut off and plots his attack. While Fremen do raid both smugglers and the Harkonnen spice production, and Paul notes they could destroy the spice if they wanted to, spice production not deliberately attacked to reduce it. Rabban being cut off by the Baron’s (Thufir’s) scheme is what makes spice production fall and brings the situation to the attention of the Emperor.
Spice production is one of Paul’s chips in the final negotiations with the emperor, but (in the book) the Baron has huge stockpiles of spice that he is selling4 to pay for the expense of the Sardaukar — there should have been ample spice. Destroying production would have helped the Baron! This stockpile is not mentioned in Dune (1984), so Paul’s attacks on production would have had an immediate effect. The stockpile is mentioned in Dune Part 1 (see previous footnote), so the immediate effect of declining production would be mitigated. In the book, the Emperor primarily shows up because the Fremen are in rebellion and the Baron, played by Thufir, is mishandling it.
In addition to the muddying of the larger political motivations, we still don’t really get the “beware charismatic leaders” message that everyone (especially Herbert) says is contained in the book despite there not being any real evidence of this theme in the text. In the first two books we have the story of Paul coming of age, becoming the hero, and then (after skipping ahead between Dune and Dune Messiah) regretting his role in a terrible war that happened off screen — on his way to a penance of sorts. We don't see him causing billions of deaths in either the books or Dune Part 2 — only visions or recollections. I will say it again — it is not a cautionary tale if the events you are cautioning against only happen as a passing reference.
At best in Part 2 we get Paul portrayed as a jerk to Chani by marrying Irulan because of the love story built up over the film — which I will admit is done a bit better than Dune (1984) if only because the montage of events is longer and the chemistry between Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya is better than between Kyle MacLachlan and Sean Young. “Beware relationships with politicians” is all we get.
[Updated below] The end of Part 2 feels rushed and simplistic. The politics of the Landsraad — you know, the whole motivation for the plot — seem tacked on compared to Part 1. I will watch Part 2 again5 to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but Dune (1984) at least had the spacing guild in attendance at the final showdown and the other houses are offscreen, but in orbit6. The Emperor doesn’t even have much of an entourage in Part 2.
The rumors are that there is going to be a Part 3 that gets more into later books. Maybe this film suffers from the “middle film problem” in a lot of trilogies. However, that shouldn’t be happening — the story in the book is wrapped up right where Part 2 wraps up. The book has issues, but the ending being rushed and simplistic isn’t one of them. Despite having less time to get through the same amount of plot, Dune (1984) still felt like it let the scenes breathe a bit.
Update 14 May 2024
So I re-watched Dune Part 2. I wanted to make sure I was giving it a fair examination. I would also note that I was probably through 80% of a bottle of sake on the first watching so e.g. forgetting the Landsraad was in orbit at the end is at least explainable. Overall it wasn’t quite as meh, but still not as good as Part 1. Several notes follow:
Not all the color grading is heightened — some does appear as the original in places.
[Regarding the first attack on the (for some reason evil-looking) Harkonnen spice harvester] Why didn’t the Fremen just use the lasguns first? Did we miss a scene where they disabled a shield on the harvester? But if the harvester had a shield on it would be attacked by worms faster. They do seem to use lasguns first later. Was there something — a tactical or strategic rationale — that I missed? Didn’t they say they had to shoot when the shield on the ornithopter was off? But the projectile hits a shield …
People starving instead of being killed in the jihad? More realistic, yes, but I guess the book is not very specific on this point. The whole “consequences of the charismatic leader you’re supposed to beware of being vague” issue comes to the fore with this kind of stuff.
It occurred to me that if the Harkonnens could wipe out the Atreides without the tacit approval of the emperor — or even against his wishes — then the emperor would appear weak. Therefore the “secret plot” doesn’t make that much strategic sense. You have “the emperor wasn’t involved, but therefore he’s weak” versus “the emperor was involved, and therefore could be stronger than we imagined using the Harkonnen’s as pawns” — overall, politically, it doesn’t make much sense to keep it a secret except that supposedly the Landsraad would rise up against the emperor. But mightn’t they equally rise up if he appears to have no control over the Great Houses?
Apparent even in the movie posters:
Kind of thought up this list on the fly; it’s not in strict order, but the overlap with any other top 10 list I made up on the fly would be non-zero on average. Nostalgia is definitely a heavy factor at the very top and the bottom. I like Star Trek IV (1986) more and more over the years and Blade Runner (1982) less and less (still looks cool, like Dune Part 2). The “science fiction” elements are a major factor as well — at least for everything besides The Empire Strikes Back (1980) which is purely nostalgia and movie-making quality. Honorable mentions to Annihilation (2018), Primer (2004), and Akira (1988).
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Arrival (2016)
Alien (1979)
Solaris (1972)
District 9 (2009)
Dune (1984)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Star Trek IV (1986)
A view that was not mitigated by Christopher Walken’s performance.
That he deliberately wants to keep the price at a high, but not too high, level — he’s not just dumping the supply on the market. It doesn’t appear in Dune (1984), but does in Dune Part 1:
BARON HARKONNEN (CONT'D) Send word to Giedi Prime to begin selling our spice reserves. Slowly! We don’t want the price to fall. You cannot imagine what it cost me to bring such force to bear here. I want you squeeze, Rabban. Squeeze hard.
I purchased it on Amazon Prime as the difference between rental and purchase was only like 20% ($30 vs $25); I was anticipating liking as much as an average Villeneuve film.