Calling All Intergalactic Golfers: Sandtrap Crisis on Planet Arrakis Needs Immediate Attention
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: (If you don’t have a clear memory of Frank Herbert’s original novel [Dune, 1965] or the first part of this adaptation [Villeneuve, 2021], I think you’d benefit from at least a brief summary of the events leading up to … Part Two so here’s my attempt at such [if you want more details you can go to this site and/or my review of what’s also called Dune: Part One—plus, there’s a lot of clarifying info be found at yet another site, so dig in]. In the year 10,191 the universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV [Christopher Walken] who plots with the current rulers of desert planet Arrakis, the House Harkonnen—led by Baron Vladimir H. [Stellan Skarsgård]—to leave this crucial site [where the invaluable “spice” is mined, allowing extreme human health/awareness as well as quick interplanetary travel] to House Atreides—led by Baron Leto A. [Oscar Isaac]—so that later the forces of the Emperor and the Harkonnens can attack Arrakis, kill the Atreides family due to the Emperor’s fear of Leto’s rising power. The reassignment occurs, following by the planned attack during which Leto dies but his concubine, Lady Jessica [Rebecca Ferguson], a member of the mystical female Bene Gesserit, and their son, Paul [Timothée Chalamet], escape, are taken in by the desert’s indigenous Fremen, specifically a tribe led by Stilgar [Javier Bardem], due to a growing belief Paul is the prophesized messiah who will free the planet from occupation; for now, though, Paul’s more intrigued with Fremen Chani [Zandaya], whom he has seen frequently in his dreams. You also need to know the spice mining is frequently disrupted by the huge, powerful sandworms that come bursting out of the dunes when they sense human activity.) As we now move on to Part Two we find Lady Jessica is pregnant while back at the Emperor’s domain his daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), is disturbed by how her father betrayed House Atreides. Paul and Jessica reach the Sietch Tabr desert community where she will become their Bene Gesserit Mother Superior as the current old woman is dying, but to do so she must drink the powerful Water of Life (taken from a young sandworm) which will kill her if she’s not ready for the new position; however, she not only survives but also now has the ability to speak telepathically back and forth with her unborn daughter.
Meanwhile, Paul’s seeming manifestation of the messiah prophecy (the savior will be “The Voice from the Outer World”) is seen by Chani as just a group-hallucination fed by false Bene Gesserit intentions as a means of instilling control over the Fremen; nevertheless, soon she falls in love with Paul as he declares he only wants to fight alongside the Fremen against their invaders, not rule them. As Paul invests himself in Fremen knowledge and culture, he even accomplishes the tremendous task of taming/riding a sandworm, a skill that will be shared with other Fremen later in this narrative; ultimately he even takes the new name of Maud‘Dib Usual, as all of this occurs in the northern half of Arrakis, distant from Baron H’s dwelling in the city of Arrakeen where he’s disgusted with his nephew, Gloss "Beast" Rabban (Dave Bautista) because the spice mining’s been disrupted too much, cutting down on the Baron’s profits, so he instead installs Rabban’s psychotic younger brother, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), as ruler, with Bene Gesserit Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux) sent to evaluate this kid as the possible long-desired Kwisatz Haderach. (A superbeing, male Bene Gesserit, the result of many generations of careful breeding which Jessica was supposed to contribute to with a daughter but instead she manifested Paul; Jessica’s intended-daughter was supposed to mate with Feyd-Rautha to produce the intended-messiah result, due to Jessica secretly being the daughter of Baron H., but she disrupts that plan with Paul now seen as the likely Kwisatz Haderach—got all that? If not, you can consult this lengthy site, particularly in the “Breeding program” section about 1/3 of the way down, for more detail and clarification.) Jessica travels to the planet’s south (mistakenly considered uninhabited by Baron H.) where the Fremen are more fundamentalist, more likely to fully accept Paul as their prophesized savior, even as he’s having disturbing visions of planetary wars in his name, but during a raid on a spice harvester he reunites with Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Paul’s former mentor in the use of weapons and combat who shows Paul the hidden stash of atomic weapons Paul’s father had procured, soon will be put to use.
Feyd-Rautha launches an attack on the Fremen of the north, forcing them to migrate south; when they arrive, Paul drinks the Water of Life, goes into a coma for 3 days, awakened when Jessica convinces Chani to mix her tears with the Water, apply it to Paul’s lips. Now Paul has intense clairvoyance, sees his soon-to-be sister Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy) as an adult on a watery Arrakis, learns the horrid truth that Baron H. is his grandfather. Next, Paul wins over the support of the southern Fremen, declaring himself as the Lisan al Gaib (from Arabic, “Tongue of the Unseen”), issuing a challenge to the Emperor who comes to Arrakis with his army, the Sardaukar, ⇒but before they can stage any attack they’re caught off-guard by the raging Fremen who use atomic weapons and sandworms to end the hostilities (in the process, Paul kills Baron H., Gurney kills Rabban). Before he died, though, Baron H. summoned the other Great Houses to send spaceships to Arrakis for support; however, Paul keeps them at bay by threatening to destroy the spice fields with his atomic weapons so it comes down to a direct demand by Paul to the Emperor to forfeit his throne, allow Paul to marry his daughter (to unite 3 of the Great Houses in an attempt to bring peace to the universe, despite the heartbreak for Chani), but first he must duel Feyd-Rautha to the death, which he does, after which Irulan agrees to the marriage. However, the representatives of the Great Houses don’t accept Paul as Emperor so the Fremen attack them using the captured Sardaukar ships, starting what Paul feared as a holy war, although with his increasing power and ego he knew it was inevitable, while Chani leaves, alone, on a sandworm (easily setting us up for a sequel, which Herbert obliged with 5 more Dune novels, a tradition then carried much further by other authors).⇐
So What? As best memory serves, I think (almost assuredly) I read the original Dune novel sometime in the late 1960s/early ‘70s, yet now I remember nothing from it (I might also have read at least 1 of Herbert’s sequels, but if so that memory’s completely gone); I do know for sure I saw David Lynch’s Dune (1984)—with Kyle MacLachian as Paul—was marginally-impressed by it, despite critical distain, which somewhat came about as Lynch’s intended 3-hour version was chopped down by Universal to only 137 min., surely sacrificing clarity and complexity in the process. Considering what Lynch went through with the truncated mess of his version (which led him to request his name be taken off any showings of that film), I can only imagine what difficulties with distributors and exhibitors a noted Mexican director would have encountered if his intended 1975 adaption had been able to find financing as his version was set to run for 14 hrs. (among the cast we might have seen: Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Alaín Delon, Hervé Villechaize, Mick Jagger; details about this massive conception are found in the documentary about [Alejandro] Jodorowsky’s Dune [Frank Pavich, 2013; reviewed, our March 28, 2014 posting]).
So, I came to Dune, Part Two with little investment in what had come before, how well this new version would compare with Herbert’s original novel (significantly a crucial concern for many, as this book is so revered among sci-fi aficionados) even though in my review of … Part One I had to admit I had mixed feelings about it because of the seeming-repetition of familiar elements from the many Star Wars movies (evil emperor, long-awaited savior, characters with psychic connections to cosmic phenomena)—just as this new Dune … has major elements that remind me of Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) with the male protagonist joining indigenous people on a faraway-planet to wage war against heartless invaders, plus the taming of large beasts needed for warfare—even as I have to absolve Villeneuve and all connected with these new Dune adaptations because they’re just being very true to the contents of Herbert’s novel (as best I follow a current summary of it), which appeared years before Lucas and Cameron brought their stories to screen, so maybe the fault lies with them, inadvertently at best (?), borrowing from Herbert. Still, I’m shallow enough to continue to be bothered by story elements that seem so familiar to me from other sources even though I know this is not the fault of this current cinematic team who are just trying to finally, successfully bring an acclaimed narrative to a level of filmic achievement that'll satisfy a large congregation of audiences.
They want to simultaneously please those intimately familiar with the tales of Dune along with folks who simply want to revel in a technically-flawless exhibition of fictional conflict where moral warnings are clear about the dangers of greed (Emperor Shaddam IV, the heavies [literally, in the case of bloated Baron H.—with another allusion in my mind, to Jabba the Hutt] of House Harkonnen) and overarching-ego (Paul Atreides). You may have seen countless manifestations of this ancient good-vs.-evil story—that’s what genre novels/plays/movies are about, with the expectation that they’ll offer some originality along with the conventions*—but in Dune, Part One and … Two the familiar is kept interesting, especially as conveyed with outstanding visuals (cinematography by Greig Fraser) and sound (Hans Zimmer), although with audiences still flocking to this new addition I still followed COVID-paranoia-caution by watching it on streaming, just as I'd turned to HBO Max for … Part One.
*If you go to this site and scroll down a bit you’ll find a lengthy-yet-accessible essay on this topic by Edward Buscombe, “The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema,” contained in Barry Keith Grant’s Film Genre Reader IV (2012, pp.12-28), a book I recommend on the larger topic of expectations and explorations in American cinema, although some of the essays are of the barely-comprehendible academic variety, yet with 36 of them to pick from I think you’d find many as quite marvelous to read.
The answer as to whether this conclusion to the original story will be as Oscar-successful as … Part One was will have to wait almost a year for an answer, but the older one did pick up 6 trophies (Best Original Score [Zimmer], Sound, Production Design, Cinematography [Fraser], Editing, Visual Effects) and was nominated for 4 more (Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design) which bodes well for … Part Two, given its current CCAL numbers (more on that just below) are higher than for … Part One where the Rotten Tomatoes positives were notable, though, at 83%, the Metacritic average score was 74%. But no matter how much … Part Two continues to impact audience/critical/industry consciousness over the coming months, we’re likely not through with the antics of Paul Atreides because Villeneuve seems determined to follow-up with an adaptation of Dune Messiah (Herbert, 1969), where he’s already working on a script, Zimmer’s already working on new music, with reports coming out this April that Legendary Pictures is again on board for the project (however, I doubt there'll be any more vagina-alluding sandworm popcorn buckets at the screenings the next time around). Nevertheless, if you’re intrigued by aspects of … Part Two but just are curious to see how a lot of name actors function in these roles then I shouldn’t forget to mention Charlotte Rampling plays Reverend Mother Mohiam, who seems to lead the Bene Gesserit group (and serve as [biased] Truthsayer to the Emperor), and, if you decide to explore … Part One, you’ll find Jason Mamoa (far from Aquaman's oceans) as Duncan Idaho, swordmaster of House Atreides, who sacrifices himself to save Paul and Jessica from a hoard of Sardaukar soldiers.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Back in 2021 Villeneuve was concerned when Warner Bros. decided to simultaneously release Dune (Part One) in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters and on HBO Max (now just Max) cable (due to COVID concerns about public attendance) as he feared that would seriously impact the box-office success needed to convince the studio to greenlight … Part Two. He didn’t have to worry, though, as it pulled in $108.9 million domestically, $407.6 million globally, easily supporting this sequel (by comparison, Lynch’s 1984 version got a mere $31 million worldwide [against a $40 million production budget], almost all of that coming from northern North America). As this new one’s already made $280 million domestically, $705 million globally (far and away now #1 for this year in both tabulations) after having opened 2 months ago, March 1, 2024 (still playing in 1,334 theaters; would have come out in fall 2023 but for the writers’ and actors’ strikes of last year), I felt it necessary to turn my attention to it (but still waited for streaming to start on April 16, 2024, although I’m sure it looks spectacular on a large screen) after spending so much attention so far in 2024 on reviews of leftovers from 2023, some generally under-the-radar-fare, 2 documentaries, and 2 (marvelous) truly independent works volunteered to Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark.
With little doubt, the CCAL highly supports this move on my part—as the film’s still easily available in theaters or, if you prefer, via streaming where you can rent it in 4K for $24.99 from Amazon Prime Video and AppleTV+ or drop down to HD to add a $19.99 rental from Spectrum—with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 92% (based on 418 of them so far), the Metacritic average score is a quite-healthy (for them) 79%. An example of those positives comes from Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times who clearly had fun as a viewer: “Even as we marvel at the stunning and immersive and Oscar-level cinematography, editing, score, visual effects, production design and sound in Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Part Two,’ we’re reminded at every turn that this is an absolutely bat-bleep crazy story with some fantastic but also loopy and at times almost ridiculous plot elements and characters [… yet] Even when 'Dune: Part Two' gets a bit lost in the weeds, or should we say sands, of the plot, it’s an impressive and at times gloriously beautiful piece of work.” Overall, I must agree, even as I'm also not fully overwhelmed here by the length and some of these story elements.
Still, there are those who aren’t so impressed, such as Justin Chang of The New Yorker: “Yet if the movie is, among other things, a timely parable of Arab liberation, it’s at best a slippery and reluctant one, in which the politics of revolution feel curiously under-juiced. […] Those of us who retain a stubborn fondness for Lynch’s much maligned adaptation will sense what’s missing from Villeneuve’s: an imaginative density, a hint of psychoneurotic danger, the grotesque, teeming aliveness of a fully inhabited world. Not that it will trouble anyone’s sleep, least of all the heads that rule over House Hollywood. The only world that matters here is the one that this “Dune,” a box-office messiah, has already conquered. Power over spice is power over all.” However, to access the spice you apparently have to go to war to control its production of it, and we all know that “War What is it good for? Absolutely nothing,” or at least that’s what we learn from Edwin Starr’s 1970 hit, “War” (written by Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong at Motown, first recorded by The Temptations in 1970, then re-recorded in a more popular mode by Starr) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZJRJ pbGkG4 where the lyrics tell us “War I despise / ‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives […] War can’t give life, it can only take it away.” No hesitation from me on any such harsh denunciation.
Certainly disgust with war is the situation in both parts of this new Dune, yet what are the few survivors of House Atreides and the Fremen tribes supposed to do when they’re unjustly attacked through the evil plot of the Emperor? (You could easily ask this same question of the innocent citizens of Ukraine regarding their brutal invasion by Russia, telling us there must be circumstances where war as self-defense, as many nations of the world in WW II would testify, is necessary; yet, how cruel that self-defense needs to be is a question posed from the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings of 1945 to the Israeli invasion of Gaza today, a question with multiple answers depending on who you ask with scant overall satisfaction likely to emerge. There’s little doubt on screen here, though, as to who the unjust-aggressors are in this tale, with the photo above of the invading army reminiscent of the Nazis.) Dune: Part Two is a hell of an experience (for us and Paul), even if it may seem too familiar in its particulars, too horrid in its destructions, but at least it shows how raging power, whether wielded by House Harkonnen or Paul Atreides, can become all-consuming, possibly negating whatever noble intentions may have ever been understood in the distant, or recent, past.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
An option for you to remember: Beach Boys documentary coming on Disney+ on May 24, 2024.
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 13,661 (as always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers); below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
No comments:
Post a Comment