2024, Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) -- cinema
This one is still settling in. It doesn't have the visual cues that separate it into segments like the first. But for a few visits to Geidi Prime, home of the Harknonnen, and Kaitain, the home of Emperor Shaddam and his daughter Irulan. Its all sand sand sand, with a wee bit of a visit elsewhere.
Almost a week later and it never settled in.
But for some butt discomfort (three hours in a seat does a number on my muscles) I was entirely enthralled all the way through this movie. So the "not settled in" kind of weirds me out. Nothing really stands out in my mind-memory as, "I loved that!" and yet I can say with (mental) comfort that I did love the movie. Maybe as I speak of it (as Kent said, this blog, for me, is more like us sitting at a table, chatting about it), more will come to mind.
So, the movie picks up immediately after the last. Paul (Timothée Chalamet, Lady Bird) and Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, Silo) are escaping into the desert with the Fremen of Seitch Tabr, still carrying the body of Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds). A Harkonnen patrol finds them, the Fremen scatter, Paul and his mother hide. There is a fight, high atop a rocky outcropping, and as the Fremen make quick work of the environment-suit clad Harkonnen soldiers, their bodies fall with booming thuds to the sand below. After, the Fremen collect gear from the vanquished, as well as water from their corpses, but only for cooling systems -- their bodies are too full of chemicals to be used as drinking water. But still, not wasted.
Then, we are then introduced to Irulan (Florence Pugh, Outlaw King), who narrates into a recording device, giving us some more political tidbits of the situation in the Galaxy.
Much of the early movie is Paul and Jessica finding their place among the Fremen of Seitch Tabr. Some are as Stilgar (Javier Bardem, Jamón, Jamón), beholden to the prophecy of the Lisan al-Gaib, an off-worlder who will bring back life to Arrakis. Others, such as Chani (Zendaya, Spider-Man: No Way Home) and her friend Shishakli (Souheila Yacoub, Le sel des larmes), don't believe in the prophecy and openly mock the others. And many think Paul and his mother are just spies, but Stilgar knows she is Bene Gesserit, and has her replace their own dying Reverend Mother -- he has to play politics as well, to keep all on the path he wants them on. The ritual involves drinking the Water of Life, a blue goo taken from a drowned baby worm. The Water gives Jessica all the memories of previous Reverend Mothers but also transmutes her unborn daughter into... something more, something sentient & intelligent, while still in the womb. For Jessica, all of this is her manipulation to bring about the Bene Gesserit's own prophecy, of the Kwisatz Haderach.
Soooo much of this movie is about solidifying the utterly dense mythology of this book series in our minds. I am not sure how successful it will be to the wider audiences. I am decades past my reading, and only remember the loudest notes. I also have the two previous adaptations muddled in there. So, while I cannot speak to authenticity, I can say it is powerful. The metaphors of white saviour to a desert people, political machinations vs faith, the jockeying of power between patriarchies and matriarchies, and the desire to not be utterly controlled by a destiny that will bring so much ruin --- so much is covered, and it may be this volume of ideas that is supplanting the emotional weight that allows a movie to settle into my brain pan.
Paul doesn't annoy me as much in this movie as he did in the first. I really respect how Chalamet and Villeneuve handle the young man coming into his own, as he tries to adapt his own desires for revenge to the prophecy of the Fremen, and the machinations of his mother, but without taking advantage of the Fremen. He also has a budding romantic relationship, which fell entirely flat for me. I am not a Zendaya hater, but she did nothing for me in this role, and their relationship did not seem believable to me. Meanwhile Bardem utterly embodied his Stil(gar) suit -- (groooooan) wholeheartedly dedicated to his faith in Paul, but also ready to dispense with whatever didn't fit this square peg into the round hole of prophecy. He seemed a bit desperate, but also astounded at how much did align for him. And funny -- the only humour in the movie, if you didn't laugh at Gurney Halleck's (Josh Brolin, Old Boy) attempts at musical poetry.
But the story also has to fill in the gaps elsewhere: the Harkonnens trying to resurrect spice production after taking the planet back from the brief Atreides rule, and the Emperor (Christopher Walken, Gigli) himself, dealing with the impact of what he did (the destruction of a great house), and how it affects his daughter's respect for him, as well as her own insertion into the long game politics, as she is tied to the Bene Gesserit. I will definitely have to watch a second time to see if I end up caring about these other plot points. I mean, they are directly from the book, but I found myself not caring at all about them, but for the incredible imagery. Geidi Prime, the black & white oily planet seemingly without any colour, would make its own good story, but here, I just wanted to get back to Arrakis and see how they are going to get Paul along far enough to attack the Harkonnen. The years long passing from the books (he actually has kids during this period) is not possible in this adaptation, so I was curious how they would escalate Paul's rising in power among the Fremen. The movie uses the Harkonnen response, the arrival of psychotic Feyd Rautha (Austin Butler, Masters of the Air) who obliterates Seitch Tabr, forcing the Fremen of the north hemisphere to ride their worms south. This is what instigates the retribution against all the Harkonnen, a united people north and south, all under Paul, now Muad'Dib, who has to accept his role, embrace it fully, bitterly.
The "final battle" where Paul brings about the destruction of the Harkonnen strongholds on Arrakis, this is where Villeneuve's flair for vast scenes excels. The atomics tossed at the mountains, the arrival of the worm allies, the huge battle between Fremen, Harkonnen and the Emperor's Sardaukar. It all culminates with Paul confronting the Emperor and the castrated Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård, Thor). By now, Paul has fully accepted his role in all these plots, and schemes and stratagems. He has seen the future properly and how so many futures could only lead to numberless deaths, without resolution. So, he makes the hardest choice, that he will become the Emperor (in effect) by taking Irulan's hand in marriage. He will go against the other great houses. He will begin his Holy War proper.
If at any point, this movie, and this story, fails me, it is at this conclusion, because its not a conclusion at all. Most not familiar with the mythology would be "WTF?!?!" as Paul has gone from not wanting to be anyone's messiah to not only leading the Fremen of Arrakis against the Harkonnens, but now against the entire galaxy. Still not sure how these desert guys know how to fly a spaceship, but sure, whatever. We knew there had to be a third movie (at least) for the story to be told properly, but this whole scene feels... abrupt.
I guess, after all this writing, and all this muddling in the back of my brain, this movie refuses to settle. I don't have that impression that I did with the first movie. That could be explained down to simply that there was nothing new here, this is still Villeneuve in the world of Dune, so the wow-factor is not possible. I have already had that impressed upon me. Perhaps with further viewings, as I sink past the story I already know, and see the film making, it will once again come to impress me, to wow me, to astound me, as the first movie does.
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