Dune 2: I have opinions

So, finally got around to seeing Dune 2, which is a designation I don't care for. It's really not a sequel. It's just the continuation of the first movie, which stopped right after the Harkonnen attack House Atreides on Arrakis. Really, the first film only got to the very start of the good part of the novel when Paul Atreides first encountered the Fremen on Dune. So, really "Dune 2" is just the good part of the first novel.

SPOILER ALERTS: I AM GOING TO NOW DISCUSS THE FILM. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

I had mixed feelings about going to see this movie. I did not particularly care for the first one, but Dune is one of my all time favorite Science Fiction novels. I have read the entire series, as well as the expanded prequel universe his son wrote, the Butlerian Jihad trilogy being by far the best of his son's work. They got progressively worse as they went along after that. 

Really, the first 4 original Frank Herbert novels are all amazing in their own right. The 4th: God Emperor of Dune is truly one of the most mind blowing science fiction novels I have ever read. He was at the peak of his imaginative powers for that one. The later two Herbert novels are, frankly, trash. After God Emperor, he started cranking them out for the money. He should have stopped at the 4th. He was never going to top that one. 

So, that brings me back to Dune 2. It's worth seeing for the cinematography. They filmed it on location in African deserts, and so it is a sight to behold in terms of eye candy. That's about all I have to say about it that I particularly liked. 

There were three major issues I had with these two films. One was that I thought a lot of the major characters were horribly miscast. I did not like the guy they have playing Paul Atreides for all of the first film and a majority of the second. He looked like a small desert wind would blow him over. I have to admit I also had trouble readjusting to seeing him in Dune after his weird foray as young Willy Wonka. Granted, that was not entirely that actor's fault because Dune 2 got delayed because of the writer's strike and it would otherwise have been in theaters before Wonka came out, but that was just a twist of bad luck and timing. So, I won't hold that against him.

To be fair, he finally came into his own as a believable Mu'addib late in the second film. He finally showed some guts and real cult leader acting skill and not like a sissy French boarding school girly man, which I thought he appeared to be for 3/4's of the film. I wish he had shown more of that charisma earlier on in the films. He finally got there, but it was a bit too little too late. I still think he was largely miscast.

The other general casting, particularly in the 2nd film were strange picks. Christopher Walken as Emperior Corrino was very strange. I kept expecting him to mutter, "I got a fever, and the only solution is more <strike>cow</strike>worm bell!"  He just seemed largely lifeless and a dottering old koot. In the books, he was still at the top of his conniving political game.

I did generally like the portrayal of the Bene-Gesserit. They got the creepy factor down pretty well with those. Paul's mother was generally believable, but her ongoing discussions with her unborn daughter was really something from the 2nd novel that I don't think anyone who was not well versed in the Dune novels would have gotten. That was sort of a weird post facto addition to the original novel.

This leads me to another criticism I have of this batch of Dune depictions. The director really did not explain a lot of the political intrigue in any way. He just assumed people had read the books. While I don't like being preached at as a moron neophyte in films based on books, I have to think a lot of people who have not read the books would have had real trouble understanding a lot of what was going on in the film. There's no reference to the Space Guild, to the IXians, and virtually no discussion of why the spice was so important to the economy and ultimately to power other than as a weird drug. You had to have spice for space transport (hence the Guild). All that was glossed over, which I thought was a bit of a mistake to not even mention any of those factions or other houses. 

They did discuss House Harkonnen to a greater extent, even should flashbacks from Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen homeworld. Though, why those scenes suddenly become black and white I still find a bizarre choice. I liked the black and white, but no explanation was ever given why they shifted to black and white around the Harkonnens. It seemed a weird cinematic gimmick for no reason. 

The casting choice for Baron Harkonnen was very strange. I found he came off more as Marlon Brando in Island of Dr Moreau creepy weirdo than Marlon Brando, the scary Godfather architect of a crime family. He was better than the guy who played Baron Harkonnen in the 1984 version, but not nearly as conniving or amusing as Ian McNeice's portrayal in the 2000 mini series, which I still think is a better portrayal than either big screen rendition. That one actually captures the political intrigue in the background the best of the three in my opinion.

I am still digesting the portrayal of Feyd-Rautha. It was an excellent portrayal, but not how I would have envisioned casting him. I think he almost stole the show in the second movie. He was almost too powerful and brutal. And maybe that was the point. I need to think on that element of the movie more.

So, finally, I get to my major beef with the film: the butchering of the Chani character. I really disliked how they turned her into this feminist harpy character. The film even ended focusing on her and her dumping of Paul Atreides-something that was completely made up for this film. That is not how the novel ends. Leave it to Hollywood to rewrite the ending to one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written to have an in your face feminist screed ending. That was not the point of the character, and Fremen females were not soldiers. In a Jihadist honor/shame society, Chani would not have had the option to basically give the Mahdi the proverbial finger and bring shame on the tribe. I almost physically gagged when I realized that was how the movie was going to end. That was truly a travesty, and I think one that really gums up the plotline if they want to film Dune: Messiah, the second novel. 

The fact that the genetically engineered Messiah can see the future but not the death of his beloved Chani is really what fuels him to become the Preacher in the second novel and repudiate the violence and power he created by becoming the Jihadist Mahdi in the original novel. That's truly a great second novel, but I think that ending with the Chani re-write in this current film is going to undermine the tragedy that becomes Paul Atreides in the second. 

So, if you are a Dune fan, it's worth seeing for the cinematography. If you are a purist like me, be prepared to be somewhat disappointed on the substance and nuance.