The movie almost had me going well into the first hour; I think it would have been perfectly fine entertainment if we'd just gotten to know the local inhabitants of the planet even better, and shared more of their struggles. That stuff seemed pretty compelling, at least up until it dove headfirst into a lot of poorly explained and half-baked hocus focus.
But the more the movie went on, the more boring and aloof it seemed to me; there's probably a lot more to the backstory of some of the characters in the books, but in the movies, it's hard to find anyone to really care for very much, at least for me. Even at this point, I am a lot less interested in what happens to Paul Atreides than in what happens to the average Fremen, how their culture and their society is going to be affected by the ongoing galactic turmoil.
Believe me, nobody would have been happier than me if the movie had been worth the hype. I absolutely love it when a movie really delivers.
I mean, I think it's fairly obvious the source material was written coming from a very patriarchal, colonialistic and Euro-centric view of the world. Whether or not an adaptation is able to transcend that would be fairly significant in even trying to be mature. I'm not really convinced that DV has risen to the challenge.
For the most part, I’m always down for more complex, more nuanced, more postmodern and less straightforward stuff, including perspective shifts, and such.
That said, I think both the novel and Villeneuve’s take on it (especially Part 2) do make it pretty noticeable that Paul isn’t
WARNING: spoilers below
entirely a hero; in fact, in my reading he is very much deliberately a bit of a villain who manipulates the Fremen. Sure, he believes some of his own hype, but there’s also a substantial degree of manipulation there
entirely a hero; in fact, in my reading he is very much deliberately a bit of a villain who manipulates the Fremen. Sure, he believes some of his own hype, but there’s also a substantial degree of manipulation there
. All of which does suggest (to me) that we get a reasonably critical take on Paul.
I don’t know who could watch Villeneuve’s Part 2 and not notice the shift towards
WARNING: spoilers below
’Oh, right, so now he’s buying into the hype a little bit and really leaning into his imperial revenge fantasy’
’Oh, right, so now he’s buying into the hype a little bit and really leaning into his imperial revenge fantasy’
. Same with Jessica pretty much
WARNING: spoilers below
building a cult from the ground up
building a cult from the ground up
. As far as I’m concerned, that was a big part of why l enjoyed Part 2 more than Part 1, towards the end I for sure did not for a moment perceive Paul as ‘a good guy’. That’s what makes it fun! Granted, maybe not everyone sees it that way.
In terms of the backstory/things being left unexplained, I think that’s a valid criticism. Then again, the novel is famously cumbersome and rather convoluted, so to me it just doesn’t seem feasible to work the background stuff in organically. It’s just a limitation of the medium.
In terms of focusing on Paul over the Fremen, I don’t know, again, the original novel is clearly a messianic-ish Judeo-Christian pastiche thing. If you’re making a conscious decision to adapt that, convoluted as it already is, doesn’t it make sense to focus on that as much as you can? Granted, I understand you don’t feel Villeneuve has done a particularly good job adapting, which is fair. However I’m always a little perplexed by the complaints that such-and-such film didn’t pay enough attention to the disadvantaged communities in the narrative, whatever they may be.
I mean, I understand that you’re more interested in what happens to the Fremen and that’s valid (I’m someone who usually wonders what will happen to such-and-such villain’s kids, we all have our own stuff that we focus on), but I was much more interested in the ‘higher’ politics and the Bene Gesserit. Ultimately Villeneuve himself is probably more interested in Paul than the Fremen, and I think that’s also valid. It seems a bit odd to require any science-fiction/high-concept speculative storyline to pay attention to the disadvantaged communities.
I felt a lot of attention was paid to the Fremen, personally. If anything, I got a very clear sense from Part 2 (more so than Part 1) that whoever ventures into the desert uninvited won’t fare well, no matter what heavy artillery they bring; that the Fremen are actually really powerful and bloody spectacular at self-defence. As such, I didn’t feel that I needed any more on them.
I didn’t think the film was great or anything, but perfectly serviceable.