Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, March 1st, 2024) • Page 54

I disagree, he said he can see a path through which obviously seems to include marrying her. Paul can see the future, we can't. I can't see what else we'd need other than some expositional dialogue or voice-over explaining his thoughts and plan? Which would be dumb. Part of why it works is because we don't know his full reasoning.

 

Like Tolkien, Herbert leaves some things unexplained and I really appreciate that.

 

yeah, like if we got some explanation for the Harkonnens floating up the mountain I'd be annoyed

the world we see in Denis's Dune is the world that is and we just gotta accept it

 

He could of shown us Paul visions. I wish that was the direction Denis went with for the 3rd act after Paul drinks the worm juice, a much for surreal version where we see Paul trying to navigate a path through different futures. That is what happening but instead of seeing it he just says "I've seen a path" then we watch from Chani's perspective as a character with no agency.

It's is like watching Arrival from the husbands perspective where Amy comes in, says she had a dream and then just solves the problem.

 

I resonate with this - I really liked the glimpses in utero in this movie (obviously those are literal and not visions, but still) and would have loved to see a more surreal approach taking us inside Paul's perspective as he tries to discern the right path.

Still thought the movie was great, but a little more inventiveness per the above could have pushed the visuals even further (and broken up the constant beige).

 

While I do understand this, Denis has made it clear that he’s not interested in the surreal aspects of the text. Valid criticisms and preferences imo

 

Yeah I think that could be cool but I think the point is to keep us at a distance like Chani and every other character in the film. Paul is elevated to super human status and, to me, it's more effective to see his plan play out from the outside. The distance between him and the rest of the characters is more evident and it keeps what unfolds a surprise.

Also the way I envisioned it from how he spoke is less like him navigating different paths in his head and more like him seeing them all at once which is significantly harder to film. It's like cosmic horror sometimes working better in books because the imagination is stronger than what's physically filmable.

 

Yes I agree changing the perspective would have changed the message Denis was aiming for.

I really wanted him to take a crack at portraying it, Enemy and Arrival proved he has the chops to pull off surreal story telling and the Bene Gesserit scene with Freyd was awesome surpassing the books.

 

It would have been an interesting thing to see. Maybe he'll try something like that in Messiah? Would be interesting to go back to his point of view after everything.

 

Yeah he made them 500mil and Messiah is bonkers anyway so let him go wild!

 

This has been a cool, thoughtful conversation, but I think we’ve forgotten what really matters:

Rebecca Ferguson as a mystical cult lady hopped up on that worm juice, pregnant with a fetus that talks to her like Anya Taylor-Joy, is truly iconic.

 

It's a 5 star film for that alone.

 

back to watching Trump-Halud

 

I gone and dune it.

Saw this with my mom and brother, the latter of which only saw 20 minutes of the first one, so even though he liked this, I had to spend some time after explaining to him what he just watched.

As for me, I enjoyed it and can't wait for Messiah. Such a dark, tragic ending, and the way Chiani goes off in the desert feels way more realistic than what the book apparently did.

It did feel its length a little bit though.

 

Pen stays based

 

I saw this for the second time in theaters yesterday; this time in IMAX (not 70mm), and also this time not on shrooms kicking my ass for the first 20 minutes. Its status, for me, as an instant classic and a genuinely consequential piece of cinema is upheld upon further review.

A few of my minor gripes around pacing and the distracting Walken casting kind of faded away with this viewing as I was able to focus on a lot of the other details. Honestly, the only thing that really sticks out to me as a missed opportunity is Villeneuve not letting some of these shots breathe for more than 3-5 seconds. The exterior and particularly interior overhead shots at the southern sietch are prime examples of where I just wanted to bask in that gorgeous painterly composition a little bit more.

I've seen a lot of criticism of the Chani-Paul romantic dynamic not being earned or believable but I don't know about that; it hit even more for me on the second go around. The tenderness of that sandwalk scene; it's such a uniquely beautiful moment.

And man, some of the cues for those big swells in the score here are just sublime: that sonic boom of sound as the downed thopter explodes behind the running Chani, or Paul's leg gradually rising off the sandworm. Chills, chills, and more chills.

 

Didn’t know there was criticism of their romance. It’s probably my favorite part of the film. Zendaya absolutely crushed the role too. Was very impressed with her performance

 

Where my mind went after writing this that sentence:

 

Not april fools, but this film's digital date got pushed up. It's releasing tomorrow.

 

Zero clue what the hell they are thinking with that when it's still pulling in $10m+ a weekend.

 

I'm not mad about it.

 

I guess it's not available to stream today after all.