So after hearing about the mutilation of Chani's characterization, seeing clips of it, reading about the "Fundamentalists in the South" (All white btw) and having noped out of the movie once before after 5 min when I saw the other Fremen in the movie LAUGH at Stilgar's faith in Lisan-al-Gaib, I finally decided to go all in a bad day and bear down and watch this.
TLDR: This isn't a good review but more a collection of bitches.
Good grief what a wasted opportunity for a great movie, instead its an OK movie by a director with Amazing! talent who's narratives often seem to fall short of his visual abilities. The movie looks amazing but is a terrible adaption of the book/story.
Low expectations met.
-After a great Part One, almost every scene with Chani was ruined for me. Zendaya is a fine actress (I guess) but her constant scowling and skepticism make literally 80% of her scenes, particularly with her gayish Jewish gal pal, unwatchable. They should have just named her "Kareni" "Libral al Bitchi" meaning "I want to speak to the planet manager". I assume the over time Chani gal pal hating him less was supposed to give some arc to Paul's acceptance into the Fremen but did they? I mean they finally gave him a name but was he *really* a part? Did he think of himself as a Fremen? More on this later. They finally made her a little likable then they killed her to give more screen time to Feyd. Edit: This woman would have made a better Chani.
-Paul's constant I am not the Madhi shtick. Look: Peter Jackson's writing some humility into Aragorn worked because he is insanely competent every time he is on the screen, and Viggo has the gravitas/mileage to carry it and make his reluctance look like well-earned self-doubt. I love Timothee Chalamet; he is an insanely good actor but can't make the first act hesitation look like anything but cuck bitchiness. He is a great Kwitsatch Hadaerack in act 3, though. I think the writing fails everyone here; while the script has an arc showing his growth with the Fremen, it leaves out his becoming Fremen, both them adopting him and he adopting them, which was a huge part of the book. His encounter with the Emperor, which in the book and especially in the Lynch version feels like this great payoff, feels rushed and strangely unsatisfying.
- Paul goes native, and to write him as using them misses a huge point of the novel. There a few lines that pay lip service to the concept of "today you become Fremen or you die" when he learns to ride the worm but I can't think of another time where its mentioned; the rest of the time he speaks as an outsider. See Chani's whole fucking character. It's more "Modern Audience" Political BS seeping into the movie, why we can't have nice things, etc. And Despite training for years and proving himself multiple times in combat already, he has to have his mother save him early on, and well as Chani. Did the audience forget the first movie already FFS? He doesn't need GrrrlPwer, he's literally the Chosen One they spent 90 generations trying to make and then planting the seeds for which on the planet. The Lisan-al-Giab can't be a native-born Fremen, it's literally "the voice from the outer world"; all of Chani's liberal arts college bullshit is just grating. Why didn't Paul just say "We aren't Colonizers!!" Wait, he didn't say that, did he? So much early stupid dialogue I may have blocked it out.
-"We will be Harkonnen"- What a fucking let down. Great, its revealed in later books that Paul is part Harkonnen, part of the Bene Gesserit breeding program, so lets spoil that here for what? Nothing. Paul does nothing different than he would otherwise. It feels like a "Let's be bad guys" moment but for what purpose; other than more future sullying up Paul.
-Paul never gets a tan while living in the desert; his skin color never changes. I mean, Harkonnen's are Black Sun Vampires I guess but they don't live in the deep Desert.
-The art direction and the direction overall in this are first class. Dennis V isn't a great narrative person, see this movie and BladeRunner 2049 but he can sure as fuck make beautiful movies.
-Fuck all the time spent on Giedi Prime. Who cares? Feyd is another Harkonnen Psycho but more of a threat than Rabban, Waaaay too much screen time, although Austin Ekler(sp) does a great job in the role, Lispy pale people don't scare me, Thanks Tika Wahtiti.
-After the initial meeting, they more or less ruined the reunion with Gurney and by they I mean Chani.
-The slapstick argument about the family atomics. Just WTF. Making Stilgar a dick for almost no reason. See also the trapdoor spider/Jinn comments: "DUNE MOVIE IS CULTURALLY AWARE LIBERAL WHITE PEOPLE DONT GET MAD".
I could do this seemingly all day but its just an endless supply of bad decisions, where Part One felt good in the decisions they made with a few exceptions (cough/Kynes/jamis);
-Speaking of Jamis, WTF with this dead made-up black guy? Why are we still talking about and to him near the end of the movie?
Villaneue still has a great eye and art direction, some scenes were great but this one fell so short of expectations after the get setup from the first. It's just a collection of little things that didn't need to be there, pulling elements in from future stories and outside commentary to make Dune something it isn't on the page. "IT'S A CAUTIONARY TALE; PAUL ISN'T A HERO", well maybe that was Herbert's intention but he didn't put it in the first book.
It's like, hold on, Woke Execs, with Part One we are going to stay close, we are really going to fuck it up with Part Two. Stay excited! So now they are making a third movie. The Bad news is you have to like and care about Chani for that to mean anything, no one knows Alia at this point because you didn't really introduce her, you already scuffed and bitched up Paul making his sacrifice at the end seem less so. Who the fuck knows what they are going to do with the story.
Sad.
