Dune 2 Paints Fake Doors and Denis Villeneuve Must Hate Chani

A review of Dune Part 2.

Dune Part 2 could have been a contender. Instead, it tried to give its moral center to Chani, a moral scold who is always frowning and unlikable 99.9% of the time. A bizarre choice.

I found the movie entertaining, with some great shots and sequences. It was clunky at times because it kept handicapping itself, and overall, it was forgettable. It tries so hard to undermine Paul’s triumph, desperate for us to see him as a future despot, as a space Hitler in the making, but it fails every single time. The blinking neon signs are gaudy but easy to ignore because we are speeding along on the hero’s journey.

What does Paul see in Chani?

Towards the end, when Paul marches in after his victory and declares he will let the Emperor live as long as he gets to marry his daughter, we get a close-up of Chani and her reaction. I suppose this was supposed to be a heartbreaking scene, but I didn't care. The dour Irulan seems a better match for Paul.

There is probably a lot of footage on the cutting room floor fleshing out movie Chani as a character, and in some version, this scene really is momentous and heartbreaking.

But all that was salvaged only made Chani superfluous and annoying.

In the books, Paul and Chani have a son, who is then killed in a Harkonnen raid. In the movie, nothing binds them. There is nothing lost. The movie wanted us to see things from Chani's eyes to externalize Paul's conflict, but it made her one-dimensional and boring.

It also didn’t need her for this role. The movie did fine externalizing Paul's conflict even without Chani's tantrums. The only people who want to look through Chani's eyes are people whose idea of fun at the movies is feeling smug and superior over all the rubes who don't know about media literacy.

Aka, losers.

The movie lobotomizes Stilgar, and he still came out better and more multi-dimensional than Chani.

Unless they put the second book through a paper shredder before they adapt it, Chani will end up as Paul’s concubine in the next movie. Given what we’ve seen in Dune Part 2, this makes no sense. But the movie has already thought of that. Paul says, “She’ll come around. I’ve seen it.”

That’s it. That line will give them the crack they need to squeeze in Chani doing a complete 180 and becoming Paul’s concubine, probably off-screen. I suspect they knew how weak their love story was, and this was the desperate attempt to duct tape it so the next movie would make sense.

Bigotry for modern audiences

Any time Chani used the term "fundamentalist," I almost laughed. That word doesn't belong in the Dune universe. What does it even mean? The word has a long history and evolution in the United States and has evolved over generations. For the Fremen, it makes no sense. Why would they consider the word a pejorative? But couple it with "Southern," and we know what it's supposed to mean.

The audience is supposed to impute their preconceived ideas of the South and the Bible Belt, infested with religious fundamentalists. The place where all of those bigots and backward-thinking people live. In other words, "fundamentalist" is supposed to mean "backward and naive religious bigots."

But it only means that because of "current year" politics. Not only that but the prophecies the Southern Fundamentalists believe in come true. Chani can complain that Bene Gesserit just made them up, but they came true. And what is the test of whether a prophecy is a true prophecy or not?

The split between Northern Fremen and Southern Fremen was unique to the movies, and it represents a complete failure of worldbuilding. They didn't think it through. But the filmmakers sure got a not-so-subtle dig in at people they love to hate. The Southern Fremen are still awesome and imposing. You can't impute "current year" baggage onto them successfully.

Again, like Chani, there is a movie that could have been made that more convincingly played with this north/south split. The hardened realists of the north who despise the religious zealots of the south, the zealots who have seen far less of war and Harkonnen butchery. But they didn’t make that movie.

The Force Hits Snooze and Sleeps In

More worldbuilding failures

I’ve read Dune at least four times in my life. It’s one of my favorite novels, partly because of the worldbuilding. Everything is fleshed out, and even if the author doesn’t explain something, you know he could have. Lots of doors remain closed, but if you opened one, you know it would lead to something vivid and well-imagined. And all the doors are real. None of them are simply painted on the wall to make it seem like the world is bigger than it really is.

For a movie based on a book full of such master worldbuilding, it paints a lot of doors on the wall.

There are many sins, but here are the two most glaring:

1. The Sardaukar's impotence. These are supposed to be the crack troops of the Imperium—unbeatable and fearsome. Part 1 did a decent job, but Part 2 didn't care. It really takes the weight of the victory away and lessens the ferocity of the Fremen. The Sardaukar are NPC enemies to blow away in a video game, nothing more.

2. The other houses did not recognize Paul's claim to the throne, and Paul chose violence immediately. This makes no sense, even if you take the movies and ignore the books. It literally didn't matter whether the houses accepted Paul or not. He controlled the spice. They had to acquiesce. They had no choice. Paul could let them bluster and stew forever. To misunderstand this point is to misunderstand Dune itself.

Verdict

It’s worth watching if you liked the first one and have never read the book. And if you already have the streaming service it’s on. A few fantastic sequences keep this from being terrible.

6/10