just watched dune part two, and i gotta tell ya, after being blown away by the scope and promise of dune part one, part two seemed a rushed and jumbled mess to me.
i know i’m in the vast minority on this, but part two of course, could have, and should have been expanded into at least two or three separate movies to do the story justice. the majesty of the first movie was mashed into a frenetic eye rolling dash to the finish with nothing happening that should have hit me, with the same tingles up my spine, as when i read it all those decades ago. not one scene or event made me feel anything.
but wait a second did them just defeat the entire galactic empire in the span of 90 seconds. boy that was convenient huh. blech,
i did not like it at all. imma rewatch at 2160 when i can, and maybe come back to edit, but i kept waiting for the cool shyt to start, and they blew on past all the cool shyt for 2 hrs and 45 minutes.
the whole thing was nothin but a dust storm.
I do agree that the weakness of Part Two was that it was rushed, but i don’t agree that it was incoherent. What it really needed was key scenes and events to be more fleshed out - say another 30-40 minutes?
It certainly didn’t need to be split into two separate movies, though.
While I agree about the missing key scenes, I think it could have had a 3rd movie. I do agree with OP that it was rushed.
I don’t know how to add spoilers, so I’ll just say that there were key points that diverge from the book, and with more time, they could have been fleshed out and made a more faithful movie.
I’ve read the books several times over, so I think I know exactly what you’re referring to. While I agree that you could potentially stretch Dune to three movies, I don’t think you necessarily need to for the sake of a movie franchise.
In the books everything happened over 3 or 4 years not over 2 weeks like it seems to in the movie.
Yeah, I know. I was disappointed that certain key scenes that I loved in the books were either cut or dramatically cut down, but I understand why they did it.
My guess is that going into this series, the producers/director were not confident that they could get three movies out of it and keep the studio happy and so decided to squeeze it into two. Remember that while most critics and sci-fi fans loved Blade Runner 2049, it was considered a commercial flop and many accused it of being “too slow” . Perhaps it was felt that three Dune movies would have suffered the same fate?
Personally, I would have vastly preferred it had they gone the Lord of the Rings route and released 3hr30 minute extended editions of Dune Part One and Two, but apparently that’s not the way they wanted to do things. Either way, under the circumstances, I think they did a decent job with the constraints they had.
This was one of my complaints about the movie too, but after seeing it I decided to listen to the audiobook and tbh the book ends similarly. The final chapter is just rapid-fire story progression, ending with little fanfare after the dude just coup’d the entire galaxy. So, this complaint remains for me, apparently as a element of the canon. I’m still looking forward to the next book though, going to start it this week!
Yeah, when I first read the book I did that thing where you space out and read a page and a half while absorbing nothing, and I was similarly taken aback how it progressed from “let’s blow up the shield wall” to “Irulan and I are married and ruling the galaxy now” in basically a 30 second lapse of attention
but wait a second did them just defeat the entire galactic empire in the span of 90 seconds. boy that was convenient huh. blech,
Not even close. We saw the beginning of a galactic war in which billions will die in the name of Duke Altredes.
Yeah the end of the books are better, the movie make you think we will see the battles.
No we only see the immediate start.
That’s what part 3 is for.
If it comes
I haven’t seen the second Dune yet, but the first Dune to me was kind of a waste of a bunch of plot building exposition when it really felt like the movie wanted to be a series of stunning visual and action set pieces that told a story without needing words.
I just kept thinking while I was watching the first Dune that I wished it was made like the recent Mad Max was, because while the subversion and complexity comes into the plot in the second Dune, the first Dune movie’s plot was pretty forgettable especially if you are already tired of the trope Dune is subverting with Duncan as the hero figure (I was bored of superhero movies and YA adult fiction with universe saving wizards a longggg time ago). The universe and environments put up on screen were NOT tired however, and I just wish they showed me more of the world of Dune without attaching exposition and plot to it.
I do agree thatit was disappointing how the main battle was just over in the blink of an eye… Would have been fun to watch the worms crushing more troops!!
I was also disappointed, but for different reasons. I was pretty sure that I could take a potty break in the middle of it and get back without missing anything “important,” but I come back and that scrawny little motherfucker’s already in the throne room.
To be fair, the final battle is glossed over in the books as well. But I agree, when adapting to the big screen, they definitely should’ve showed more battles at the end.
I was really happy it wasn’t more of a focus
I was actually really happy how short the action sequences are. I hate action movies. I’m glad the spent more time developing characters and their relationships
I really liked that the first film was like 30% plot and 70% worldbuilding and exploring. I don’t read Dune because of the plot, I read it because it’s so interesting with society and technology and cool concepts. The first film really did that for me. The one big action fight where they were betrayed was fantastic. When I read the book, it seems like basically one family and a few of their guards gets killed. The film showed the scale of a city-wide invasion and slaughter and it was really grand.
Second film though, that felt like it was mostly just fighting. Got kinda boring after a while. It’s not what I look for in a Dune story. If I wanted that, I’d go back to Marvel.
So yeah, that’s how I felt. But tbh, almost anything would be disappointing after how amazing I thought the first film was.
I felt the Geidi Prime stadium scene was an infra-red footage showoff first and foremost. I wondered why so much runtime went toward setting up
spoiler
the na-Baron, only for him to die in the last 10 minutes.
Granted, I haven’t read the books. Perhaps it’s key to the story later, or illustrates something about the Harkonnens…
The point better explained in the book and kind of glossed over in the movie is that Fayd and Paul both about equally fit the characteristics of the Kwisatz Haderach that the Bene Gesserit were trying to breed. They were sort of shadow images of each other, and it was a real coin toss which one would win that fight and show himself to the the real KH.
A bit more concise, Jessica was supposed to have a daughter with Leeto to be with Fayd to be the Kwisatz Haderach. However she has Paul instead and pretty much kicked off 3500 years of Atredies rule for the known empire. Fayd is shown to be a worthy adversary for most people (cunning and physical) but Paul is on a different level at that point.
Coin toss? One of them could see the future, was taking loads of spice, and was already declared as TBD Kwisatz Haderach by the Fremen. How could anyone place bets on Fayd at the point of the fight?
Only a handful of people on Arrakis really knew Paul’s full capabilities at that point. Remember this is the first time even the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother who trained Jessica really knew what Paul could do.
By their genetic calculations, Fayd was a contender. This fight proved he wasn’t.
Others have answered partially his purpose, but the Baron’s plan was for Raban to exploit and crush Arrakis as much as possible to recover the funds spent on the invasion, then the na-Baron comes in as a benevolent saviour for the people. The Harkonnens get a bunch of money, control of the spice, and a cushy job for the Baron’s favourite
How would a complete psychopath who has been waging war against a people come in as its savior? That doesn’t make sense to me.
It’s different in the books shrug
I think the first time Feud-Rautha comes to Arrakis in the book is with the emperor and Baron and those guys right at the end. No-one on the planet knows of him yet
Interesting, I feel that didn’t come through in the movie at all. Also, didn’t the Harkonnens already have control of the spice after the betrayal in Part One?
No, I don’t think it was in the film at all either. The Harkonnens do have control one again by the end of part one but they are feared and hated. The plan was to play on this reputation with “The Beast” Raban whilst making as much money as possible. After a few years, the population are “liberated” by Feud-Rautha who will be a much kinder ruler and so the people will love him. Of course, they will still be under Harkonnen rule and still giving them spice and money, but probably too stupid or relieved to notice this. (part of the motif of the media is that Harkonnens rule through fear and don’t really understand people very well, in the way that the Atredies do)
Ah cool, that makes a lot of sense now. Without going into all that detail however, I agree with the original comment that they shouldn’t have spent so much time introducing Feyd-Rautha, or should have introduced him in the first movie. As is, it was a lot of screentime that never pays off, except for being cool looking I guess.
I mean he impregnated a witch. I think thats going to be significant later.
While a serviceable film, part two was a much looser interpretation of the book. If you’re interested I’d highly recommend reading it.
I suspect there will be a directors cut/extended version too be released. If not, I know I’ll be disappointed. David Lynch’s Dune had a Directors Cut that added almost an hour. Although it was mostly… Lynchesque, abstract dialogue, strangeness, etc.
Denis Villanueva has said he doesn’t do director’s cuts. What you see is what you get.
Also 80s Dune’s longer version is very much not a director’s cut, Lynch let his name be removed from that version so the director is officially “Alan Smithee”.
That’s the 1984 one right? I remember the dialogue being almost word for word what was in the book (the only other movie with dialogue super close to the book I can recall is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). It even included people’s thoughts which is super rare in movies.
You have to see it as the conclusion to part one. It’s not intended as a stand-alone.
I seriously wondered if the release group had messed up the rip, and had scenes missing or in the wrong order. One scene Paul is starting his training, the next that’s apparently all done and they’re now attacking a harvester. It’s not like I wanted a training sequence montage or anything, but movies aren’t usually paced like that. There was lots of jumping around in time and space, for quite small scenes (typically of a Harkonian murdering an underling or two).
I’m assuming it’ll be like Rogue One, another choppy film that makes sense when you already know where it’s going, so I’ll re-watch it along with Part One at some point, and hopefully enjoy it more.
That’s one of the things I liked about the film. It was pretty jarring at the time but when I’d realised what they’d done I was like “yep, I didn’t need to see that. Nice little three or four scenes to show that time has passed and they’re becoming integrated with the Fremen.” Didn’t need to spend any longer on it imo
It’s not like I wanted a training sequence montage or anything
Now I’m imagining Paul carrying logs on his shoulder through the sand, with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background.
rogue one is fucking perfection, dune two is not (i rewatched it. still a rushed jumbled mess)
Agreed. It should have been long and drawn out and boring like the source material.
People are saying the source also focused more on world building and skipped over the action sequences too, tho
I agree. I still enjoyed it, I thought it was good - possibly it just didn’t live up to the promise of the first. For the visuals & music alone I’m glad I went to see it. But it was definitely rushed, I think two films that stick closer to the text would have worked better personally - especially if they had a closer tone to the first.
