Dune II

[pendell]

I finally got to see it tonight, after skipping all trailers and avoiding this thread and any and all spoilers. I'm assuming that this thread is OK to post in without spoiler tags... if not, I'll go back and add some after reading.

Mostly agree but some comments.

Casting: Generally okay, with the glaring exception of the Imperial family. Christopher Walken is too old, too low-energy, and too frail-looking to be a believable Sublime Padishah Emperor. He asserts no dominance, has nearly no imperial court apparatus around him to act as a backup (Baron Harkonnen has more minions!) and generally is not believable.

On the contrary, what we're supposed to take away from this interpretation of Dune is that the Corrino family, after ten thousand years of rule, is on its last legs. The last emperor does not have any male children (traditionally, not a sign of virility even though it's the Bene Gesserit doing this) and, in the books, is appointing many officers to ceremonial ranks, also a sign of decline in this kind of story; the army of a rising empire is made up of young men in plain uniforms who are interested in fighting. The army of an empire in decline has a lot of bemedalled and richly uniformed buffoons who either command no soldiers or shouldn't, a very top-heavy empire where the HQ staff eat up all the resources and the actual fighters are poorly led.

It's clear in the movie that the next Emperor is going to be an Atreides or a Harkonnen because the existing royal line is played out, so the BG intend to fold those genes, by way of Princess Irulan, into the new Imperial line in continuation of their breeding program. For the next Emperor, Gaius Mohiam chooses Feyd-Ruatha Harkonnen over Paul Atreides, so she manipulates the Emperor into allying with House Harkonnen to destroy Atreides and sends the Lady Fenring to gain control over Feyd-Ruatha.

Why?

My belief is it is precisely because the Harkonnens are thugs given over to their vices while Leto Atreides is a self-controlled, honorable man. Because Leto is self-controlled, he cannot be blackmailed, cannot be controlled by his vices, cannot be addicted to drugs, is immune to most forms of BG manipulation and control which closely resembles the Harkonnen's own methods -- to not trust good intentions or honor but to seek levers over their political pawns which cannot be defeated. He is, in other words, a loose cannon from the BG perspective. By contrast, the Harkonnens are two-legged beasts, but precisely because they are ruled by their appetites, they can be ruled by those who have power over those same appetities. Feyd-Ruatha has a sexual appetite, for example, and Fenring is able to both whet this and manipulate it to her ends. He also has an appetite for violence, and the BG can sate that by directing it to their ends.

This is why I view Paul as, not the villain of Dune 2, but it's anti-hero. An anti-hero, because at the end of the story he has adopted Harkonnen methods (for example, leaving his grandfather's body to be eaten by animals, a brutality the Harkonnens would have understood and approved of, if they were the ones doing it). But not a villain, because the alternative to Paul's action is not the Golden Path but the rule of Feyd-Ruatha. The galaxy-wide war he feared would have still happened, but it would have been waged by the Harkonnens and there would be no Golden Path at the end of it, simply extinction.

Florence Pugh doesn't look like a princess. Princesses, whether born pretty, ugly, or average, are generally dressed to show wealth, accent what beauty they have, and act as an advertisement for their house's wealth and glory (Princes do the same, but usually with military uniforms, medals, and swords instead of hairstyles and jewelry). Instead, she gets short hair worn slicked back and close and basic robes that you might see on a non-noble servant.

She's a Bene Gesserit. Her outfit has the same impact in their world that a tall pointy hat and a staff would in a more traditional fantasy world. It demonstrates the power of the Emperor far more effectively to have a daughter skilled in those arts than if she wore pretty clothes and baubles.

-Cutting the timeskip means Paul and Chani's relationship isn't as developed/strong, and they don't have kids (although we never see Leto II).

Not on camera, but they did have a sex scene or two. IF Dune Messiah is made, I think we will find that Chani is pregnant and comes back. It's not at all uncommon in the real world for divorced parents of radically different backgrounds to nonetheless pull together, at least for limited time and limited ends, to see the kids are taken care of.

As towards Princess Irulan -- remember that she is a Bene Gesserit. I can think of many, many reasons for their marriage to remain cool and formal, especially since Paul now has foresight to see exactly what happens if he gets too close to her.

-In the book, the Great Houses are all present, as is most of the Imperial Court, to witness the duel and what happens. In the movie, the Emperor brings one ship, has his guys stand around in ranks in the sun in the desert doing nothing until they are attacked, and then when Paul "wins" the great houses just say "no" and he sends infantry up in troop carriers to take on what was previously described as the warfleets of seven great houses. This plan was not approved by a five year old.
-The Spacing Guild is entirely not present. They were a major part of the negotiations over spice (why nukes? why not just "water of life reaction?" seriously, it takes like 20 seconds to explain) and are part of why the Emperor's little throneroom seems unserious. Nobody's there but the Emperor, his guards, and a few nobody minions with weird collars. I think one or both of the other adaptations did this much better.

I agree the absence of the Spacing Guild was greatly missed. Nonetheless, we did see heighliners in the first book so we know something of the Dune Universe, and I think we have to assume that the Spacing Guild not only prevented the Great Houses from landing on Arrakis, but also provided transports to the Atreides army -- transports the Great Houses do not dare fire on, because firing on a Guild ship probably means them being embargoed forever, cut off from interstellar trade and trapped on their planets. As I've said before, if the Guild sides with Paul because of his threat to destroy the spice fields, they grant Paul a powerful strategic advantage since he can travel by Guild anywhere in the Imperium while the Great Houses can be isolated and trapped by the simple expedient of the Guild denying their militaries passage.

Respectfully,

Brian P.