When is a Victory not a Victory?!

The current state of modern mainstream cinema must be in so much shambles where the early acclaiming reactions that this one has been gotten proved to me how people are in such a needy state to cling to a mere significant appearance of above-average high quality in the form of a bonafide pop-culture phenomenon new classic so that people can call their own, just as say Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers as Dune Part Two has been somewhat compared to and hailed as by the big outlets and ardent fanboys.

Not that I (fully) disagree with those assumptions or the positive takeaway from Denis Villeneuve’s new movie, as in many ways it is likely one of the recent films that did came close to land such streak, just on the levels of awe and spectacle in high-genre piece this manages to pull off. Leaving me feeling so much satisfied just like recent blockbusters examples like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, Godzilla Minus One and The Batman; that harkens back to classic pulp-genre conventions and cover the mere basic of its pulpier origins and/or original material to deliver, like it or hate it, a true cinematic spectacle worthy of the big screen!

I believe Villeneuve was in a tight spot when he received the chance to fulfill his dream and finally embark on his so long awaited chance to make a Dune adaption. He had a FANTASTIC Eric Roth script at his hands that, if any of the leaks from the time were true, not only held extremely close to novel but expanded upon it considerably, as form of presentation of Frank Herbert’s universe as well as an audacious exploration of the same. However, the trick part was… how to sell this to a mainstream audience.

In reflecting on where his own Blade Runner 2049 may have failed to spark greater audience interest, where his stark, contemplative sensory style stuck in trying to respect the meditative-tone and legacy of the original classic that was continuing; to approach Dune the same way was way too much of a risk taking for studio financiers that were breading down Villeneuve’s neck, thus concessions had to be made. So all his directorial language could still be present, but he had to adjust both him, and Herbert’s world, into a safe / conventional identity so it could present Dune’s world to a massive audience.

That resulted in an adaptation with so much streamlining that sacrificed nuance for “accessibility”, and calling it a hold right in the middle of its spanning story instead of an actual proper ending. But somehow, the rich textured universe in grand spectacle and the galactic-Greek tragedy narrative that resounded in Villeneuve’s first Dune outing still ringed some interest to leave casual audiences eager and interested for more of this bizarre world of political intrigue and spice-harvesting sensorial mysteries, and the Dune fans, both the ionate and the pissed ones with his adaptation changes (and cut offs), begging for more!

So from an adaptation that started off so restrained, building of terrain that finally pays off at last in the shape of a galactic epic of mesmerizing spectacle that most expected out of the first movie’s daunting overwhelming presentation, that’s now given way to space-opera adventure spanned through the vast sand of Arrakis. Becoming the stage of a guerilla war film and intricate political thriller gaming of survival and holding advantages, meeting hands with a romantic drama that sees a coming of age journey melded in a nurturing of culture and blossoming love in the shape of a biblical epic of old!

Where high emotions are captured in intimate personal levels but whose consequences echo in galactic scale. Never the Lawrence of Arabia comparisons, as high over-praised those might be, never felt so fitting as it does here, seeing a intimate character study, sprawl in gargantuan size! But where the previous film got dominated by the lingering atmosphere of a dynasties’ downfall, Part Two escalates from a biblical epic adventure to encapsulate an ever growing feeling of apocalyptic size menace and downright religious annihilation, as Villeneuve’s vision for Herbert’s novel comes to fully fledged life!

Enough to land on a sci-fi landmark masterpiece?! No, but part of a fully accomplished vision getting its raw unleashing here, that for Villeneuve haters and often preachers of a cinema that has lost its imagination and signature, it no longer seems to be enough, or proper. People that think everything fantasy / sci-fi and high spectacle genre needs to tackle back to the fantastical creativity of the Wachowski or P.W.S. Anderson. That’s why the more grounded dark ‘gritty’ visions of say Snyder, Nolan, Jackson and now Villeneuve, are looked down upon.

I don’t really know how they can be any pleased at this point, especially in a movie where Villeneuve keeps to his guns, but does shows to have finally learned how to direct conventional action with visual flair, going away from the usual criticism thrown at him by them of a stilted formalist. While he’d ran away from the direct confrontations in the first movie, almost facing them like prohibitive sadistic gratuitousness, here he believes in the solemnity of the physical-exchange of bodies mutilating each other in agile movements, running under mega spice-harvesters and sandcrawlers, palpable ship explosions, giant worms devastating and changing the desert landscape wherever they through or making us feel riding on top of one in chaotic immersion with poetic momentum.

While most of the action consists in raids and ambushes to spice harvesters, that sees Frank Herbert’s original Vietcong warfare and indigenous war against oppression inspirations from historical minority groups for his Fremen people, blossoming at full burning light! Is action with content nuance, which makes me be a bit forgiving to how short the final epic battle plays out because makes logical thematic sense given how Paul’s mighty becomes so unstoppable and powerful that his forces can destroy the greatest army of the galaxy like the Sardukar, in one clean swoop, an epic-looking massacring if you will!

The cockblock feeling of the first film becomes a sensory delight on a grand scale, allowed to feel the spectacle of this world and its endless possibilities that Villeneuve is finally taking advantage of and exploring to its maximum, where the very grounded approach makes the bombast and scale feel even more ENORMOUS! Each sequence carries tension and detailed – something not just reserved for the action bits!

With the world still beaming the same level of tactile immersion elevated to the next level of the next synthesizer note that Zimmer's far more beautiful score here delivers. This finally feels like the director of Blade Runner 2049 is still at work, not jumping all over the place in distracting intermissions of expository dump and actually letting his sensorial ticks and meditative pacing act in benefit to leave each locale and narrative moment breed its way through.

From the deserts of Arrakis looking more beautifully orange than ever to Giedi Prime’s black colorless sun that sees Greig Fraser using infra-red camera lenses making natural B&W lighting to striking effect. And the set design that builds the place like a Gothic morgue in the form of a cult temple and almost perverted sexual architecture that is violating you and distorting human senses, wearing the H.R. Giger design inspirations – originally made for Jodorowsky version – up its sleeves with that surrealist biomechanical architecture violating the physique of human body, evoking a living nightmarish reality.

The world still breeds identity to each faction and atmosphere, breed in story and lore without ever fully going deep into them but presented in keen detail, from bodies getting liquefied and their water reused or sanctified to mystical water of life productions coming from baby sandworms inner piss; or presented through its various nuances through a carefully architected tray of characters. That where some may lack fully fledged nuance, all have carefully crafted roles in the building pieces of the bigger picture. From shouting Dave Bautista’s Raban playing the coward tyrant predicting the Harkonnen’s demise.

Or Florence Pugh’s Princess Irulan doing her podcast-quote dictionary narrations as a form of translating her quotes in the Universe text from the books to a direct politician participant in the ongoing events, trying herself to held the survival of her house through some Bene Gesserit-training counseling. Holding control and advantage against the fragile male sex over genetic control and voice seduction living room to Léa Seydoux briefly shine at the full range of her order's power of sexual / genetic control.

Whereas Austin Butler blossoms in a overly-caricatured psycho villainy that absolutely works through a delightful perverted sadist that’s pretty book accurate, enhanced by full domineering screen-presence that honors the Harkonnen spirit and their sole hope to keep control, under Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron’s carefully ordained eye to keep his dice fully ready to use whenever shit hits the fan while enhancing his gluttony crave for power like unquenchable desire.

While much of the psychedelic side from the novel is (hopefully still) barely yet touched upon or resumed through 2001 A Space Odyssey-looking fetuses with an adult conscious – that’s not the most offensive change I could imagine for Alia’s absence here, and whose bizarre presence still very much resonates its expected effect of…”Abomination”; carrying along with Paul’s journey continuing to be the central moving piece into the world of Dune!

Maybe once and for all breaking the white-savior stigma some still try to throw at Dune – both the book and the movies – that clearly didn’t understand the core point of the story as of yet, so much so that Villeneuve has to cautiously verbalize its theme over and over again (THAT’S NOT HOPE; THAT’S HOW THEY SLAVE US, etc.) towards the audience in what could feel otherwise repetitive hammering, is at least digested through a intrinsic dramatic playing of politics and fundamentalist beliefs colliding in the powers of who hold above and its affected victims of circumstance.

As Paul that goes from his privilege birth right as a Duke to then lose everything overnight, embarking on a revenge-seeking journey, but soon mutating to his relationship with the Fremen – through Chani – that becomes a reaffirmation of his value alongside a new reality, people and identity that he adopts as his own – with a genuine sense of personal fit or ulterior motives?! The feeling still remains tangible, where finds comfort and his most human self, but slowly getting moved towards an eventual radicalized transformation in the designs projected upon him, that sees an individual’s once purity of essence being sacrificed at the altar of dogmatic rulership!

Never maternal nepotism felt this high-stakes apocalyptical, but if Rebecca Ferguson is going all in for the a tyrannical dark holy-mother Bene Gesserit consumed now by the burden of a Reverend Mother and embracing advantage of elevating their position in the game of thrones of space, while hilariously talking with her conscious womb like a nagging mother (mirroring something far darker from the future novels that left me pumped); then am all in for it!

The cyclical game of “plans within plans” finally gets a room that’s not merely streamlined simplified like in the first film as Villeneuve smartly adapts it through the very relationships of his characters that find much more to chew here than just expel exposition about the awe of the world they inhabit. Tossing the ball of leverage and opportunity between one another:

- Whereas Jessica only becomes a Revered Mother…or else she will have no purpose among the Fremen if not “be their water”;

- Stilgar only blindly believes in Paul’s Lisan al Gaib status so firmly because he desperately needs to have his faith answered as a salvation and liberation of his people ( You underestimate the power of faith says Pugh’s Irulan) – and Javier Barden persists as the crown achievement book to screen perfection of an character-casting adaptation;

- Even Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck comforting presence as ally still serving Paul, doing out of honor and love / loyalty for the Atreides banner and blood? Sure…as long as he can fulfill his blood-thirsty revenge against the Harkonnen, darkly taunting Paul to choose the heavier methods of obliteration against their enemies.

Paul is carrying revenge, but finds love in his pursue, thinking maybe he can carry out both in his conquests, having control over his own destiny, of his own actions, to maybe prevent the apocalyptic aftermath that his visions predict. That was his tragedy in the book and it’s also his tragedy here, going with the flow of an unstoppable chain of events. Where Timothée Chalamet finally breaks his own teen-actor stigma and midway through the movie sells the terrifying walking entity that Paul Muad'Dib becomes.

In the first movie the Baron asked: when is a gift not a gift?!; referring to the Atreides’ demise; a similar question could be applied here saying: when is a victory is not a victory?. That’s Paul final conquest, his vengeance and the elevation of the Fremen from stray rebels to full dominant military power, means the end of billions of lives across the galaxy.

Tearing down a 10.000 year dynasty of the Corrinos, seen in Walken’s Emperor and his ancestral power lineage that Paul comes not just to usurp but to completely break and alter the geopolitical stage of the galaxy under his rule. But how much did his “heroic endeavor” cost?! The only possible result of a prophecy being fulfilled by the very powers that created it! Is both acting as an open gateway for Dune Messiah to come right up in the adaptation line, as well as a rather perfect morally taunting and bleak conclusion for the story told in both movies.

It’s presented as gloriously epic, but darkly depressing in its realization. Concepts of heroism and ‘chosen-ones’, a promise of change and that corrupts it from within; from the plague of colonialism awaken from personal interests of control and power – the protagonist’s own or others, all mixing together in a turmoil formed out of faith and political, dramatized in space-medieval feudal tragedy. The poetic bittersweetness that Dune left with is pretty much left intact right here, so from me you might only get few adaptation wise nick picks and some third-act fast-hurried pacing issues. But other than that, I left this with nothing but pure fulfilling joy.

Much like its final epic battle and tense close-quarter duel minutes, it’s not glorious, it’s a massacre: of war victims, family ties, a corruption of beliefs and cultures and even the love between two people, is sacrificed under the altar of power. Oppressors rise and humanity persists to be neglected and walk over. The ultimate prophetic downfall of the fragile corruptive human nature trying to control its own destiny and letting the rest of the world pay for it, at the sore cost of culture, identity and love.

A LOT from Herbert’s Dune is not here (well, at least we FINALLY had some Gurney knocking that Baliset!), which might persist to be a incomplete side of Villeneuve’s achievements, but finding its heart and spectacle in such a carefully crafted masterwork still results in mesmerizing effect. Dune went mainstream, but retained its tragic soul!