Dune: Part Two

I stood for the entire 2 and a half hours to watch the movie, not because it was so exciting that I had to stand up to watch it, but because there were bad guys.

There were very few people watching the movie in the giant screen hall during the day. I was sitting in the aisle seat in the fourth row from the end. There was a man five seats away from me. There were two women in the third row from the end, directly behind me. Apart from these two women, there was no one else in the last three rows of the theater.

As soon as the movie started, the two older sisters behind me started talking, one leading the discussion and the other seconding it. They were not whispering, but talking at a normal volume. The older brother who was five seats away stood up and moved to the other end of the aisle, the far side, against the wall. I didn't intend to tolerate it, so I turned around and yelled at her, "Don't talk while watching a movie." The older sister yelled back, "What's wrong with talking?" The older brother in the distance supported "Don't talk while watching a movie," and the older sister who was leading the discussion asked a soul-searching question, "Who said you can't talk while watching a movie?"

I was stunned for 5 seconds. Yes, there is no law to follow and no one enforces the law. It seems that rules and public order and morality cannot defeat magic. Well, let's use magic to defeat magic. So I stood up and told the elder sister that there seemed to be no rules against standing to watch a movie. Then the elder sister shamelessly attacked me for being uncultured and threatened: If you have the guts, just stand and watch the whole movie.

I'm really good at it. She didn't know I was an Iyengar yoga practitioner, and she had never heard of the mountain pose. Standing doesn't hurt your waist, so it's like practicing. The whole process took 2 and a half hours, and I ate and drank as I should. I practiced the standing poses in yoga one after another. The sand dunes were also very beautiful. It turns out that watching a giant screen movie while standing is so effective.

The older sister was a tough and cowardly person. She didn't change her seat to fight me the whole time, but she didn't dare to speak. She only dared to cough and mutter. The older sister next to her didn't dare to respond to her. If she dared to continue talking, I prepared a darker magic - go to the seat behind her, take off my shoes and put my feet on the seat above her head.

I know she can see the movie, the screen is too big to affect her understanding of the plot. But I also know that there is a black shadow standing on the huge screen in her sight, suppressing her for 2 and a half hours.

After the movie, I put on my bag and said to her something I had been thinking about for a long time: "I've used these two and a half hours to leave a shadow in you, so that every time you watch a movie for the rest of your life, you will not forget that you are a stupid idiot."

The elder sister yelled back: "You bought a ticket and stood for two hours, you are an idiot." But she walked out while yelling, so I didn't have the chance to cast a more aggressive spell. After all, with his back facing me, I am a grown man, so I wouldn't chase after someone and cast a spell.

Just when I was feeling down, the elder brother who had supported me in the same row came over, expressed his admiration for my perseverance, and offered to buy me a cup of coffee. I gladly accepted. During the chat with the elder brother, I learned that he was from Tainan, Taiwan, and was on a business trip to Nanjing. He was also a science fiction fan. We lamented for a while that business was difficult now, and also talked about the original work of Dune. The elder brother said that he would let his wife practice yoga when he returned to Taiwan.

After we separated, I sent a WeChat message to my eldest brother: "Saying no to those who bully us usually comes at the cost of being looked on coldly. But this cup of coffee today allowed me to meet a companion among those who need to protect each other. It was very heartwarming. Thank you."

The above is my first experience of watching a movie while standing.

A significantly revised version of this article was posted on the “Kanlixiang” public account. Here is the original version I wrote.

The last scene of Dune 2 is when Chiné leaves Paul and his great galactic crusade, walks up the dunes alone, and summons the sandworms to return home. The last shot of the movie is fixed on Chiné's complex face - trembling lower lip, wet eyes, twisted eyebrows, and stubborn and resolute eyes. If we recall the original work, we will find that the ending chosen by director Villeneuve is surprisingly consistent with the original work and has an even more surprising conflict. Here we can quote the last paragraph of the original work:

"You're saying that now," said Cheney. She looked across the hall at the tall princess. "Don't you know my son so well?" Jessica said softly, "Look at the princess standing over there, how arrogant and confident she is. It is said that she has extraordinary literary attainments. We hope that she can find comfort in those things in the future; other than that, she will have nothing." Jessica smiled bitterly, "Just think about it, Cheni, that princess will have an empty title, but will live a life worse than that of a concubine - although she is the queen, she will never get a moment of tenderness from her husband. And we, Cheni, who bear the title of concubines - history will call us wives." The original novel also ends with Cheryl's reaction; however, in the original novel, Cheryl was only fighting for a position beside Paul; while in the movie, Cheryl's departure was due to her heartbreak over Paul's fate. This consistency and conflict hides all the secrets of the 60-year entanglement between the novel and the movie Dune.

1. National Mythology

From a Chinese perspective, it is difficult to understand why Americans are so obsessed with the text of Dune. Since Dune was published and became a huge success, the West has always wanted to adapt it into a movie. During this period, there were some failed adaptations, such as Jodorowsky's version. Although the movie itself did not enter the final shooting, H. R. Giger's art settings for the film had a profound impact on later science fiction films and TV series; there was also David Lynch's version that was filmed but controversial; of course, there was also the American TV series of Dune that had little influence later. As Chinese audiences, they are probably more familiar with the real-time strategy game Dune produced by Westwood Studios. It can even be said that the earliest Dune novels and story introductions introduced came from translated game guides. If contemporary Chinese audiences do not understand the text of Dune and the history behind this text, they will probably be puzzled after watching the movie: Why would Hollywood use such a large investment, such a large production, and an almost all-star cast to shoot a cliché story from the 1960s? Why is Dune so important to Hollywood?

The answer is also very simple: "Dune" is essentially America's "national myth."

There is a famous statement in the Lord of the Rings: history becomes legend, and legend becomes myth. The basic purpose of any nation's myth is to answer a question: "Who are we?" As an immigrant country where there are no indigenous people, the United States has no history and naturally no myth; it is the only country in the world established on "ideas", which also determines that the United States has no identity based on history in its national consciousness, but only political identity with ideas: no matter where you come from, as long as you come to the United States, you are a new person, this is a new world. Therefore, the "myth" of the United States is essentially progressive and forward-looking; this is why the genre of science fiction can rise, grow and become a mainstream genre in the United States. Because only Americans' identity is forward-looking, not backward-looking: the American national myth tells you that it is not important who you were before, but who you will be in the future is important.

Dune just happens to play such a role. As a text, it happened to appear in the 1960s. In addition to the background of the Cold War, it echoes the national liberation movement of the Third World after World War II. Objectively speaking, the United States and the Soviet Union at that time did play a positive role in dismantling the colonies of the old European imperialist countries; since the end of World War I, when Woodrow Wilson proposed the "principle of national self-determination", the United States has shown a state of interweaving and contradictory idealism and realism in diplomacy. At that time, the United States generally still considered itself a righteous, bright and powerful force, a "city on the hill", and had the obligation to lead the world into a new era. The resolution of the Suez Canal crisis in 1957 was also thanks to the United States and the Soviet Union helping the Arab world and pressuring Britain and France to finally give up the jurisdiction of the Suez Canal. It is hard to say that the release of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 was not affected by the Suez Canal crisis: T.E. Lawrence in real history wanted to promote the liberation of the Arab nation, but ultimately failed. His failure was caused by the fact that Britain and France broke their promise to overthrow the Ottoman Empire and let Arab countries become independent after the end of World War I, and conspired to divide the Arab world with the Sykes-Picot Agreement (in connection with the Balfour Declaration in which the British Empire supported the return of Jews to Palestine during the same period, we can only quote the famous saying of John Khan Jr.: If Britain does something, it will not be nothing at all); if T.E. Lawrence himself did not die in a car accident in 1935, but lived to 1957 to witness Egypt's recovery of the Suez Canal with his own eyes, would he finally feel proud? Dune began serialization in 1963, and its most basic character relationships and story structure are basically a replica of Lawrence of Arabia: the foreign protagonist integrates into the local ethnic group with a mission, gradually begins to identify with and accept the culture and ideology of the local ethnic group, and finally leads the local ethnic group to overthrow the brutal rule of the foreign race. And this story model is a myth that the United States tells itself: Although "I" am the heir of that powerful empire, I will eventually bring progressivism and lead the weak to liberation. In this process, I, as the new world, drew a line between myself and the old world. This theme, combined with Frank Herbert’s in-depth study of desert ecology, his obsession with Middle Eastern culture, the clear metaphor of using spices to represent oil, and the research on psychedelic drugs in the 1960s, formed an all-encompassing text like Dune, which eventually became the American “national myth”.

The status of this "national myth" can be clearly seen by looking at the borrowing (copying) of "Dune" by later American popular culture: "Star Wars" is actually a "Dune" that cuts out complex elements, simplifies good and evil, and incorporates the binary opposition of "New Republic vs. Old Empire" of the greatest glory of American history, the victory of World War II. The national myth status of "Star Wars" is clearer and more solid than that of "Dune". As for this "Lawrence of Arabia"-style story structure, it has become a basic paradigm in later Hollywood movies. "Dances with Wolves", "Pocahontas" and "Avatar" are all of this type.

So, it is not difficult to understand why Hollywood attaches so much importance to Dune: the American national myth must be taken seriously. This text is too important to be entrusted to our most outstanding science fiction film director of our time, Villeneuve. And Villeneuve did not live up to expectations and brought us such a work with the contemporary spirit of the 2020s. So, 60 years later, what has remained unchanged and what has changed in this version of Dune and the novel Dune?

Second, the spirit of the times

In the 60 years since Dune, we can see that Americans have told themselves the story of "Lawrence of Arabia" over and over again; but we must eventually return to the old saying: "My Lord, times have changed." In 2024, this set of "Lawrence of Arabia" stories seems so old-fashioned and reactionary; and the core of this old-fashioned and reactionary lies in who is the subject in this story?

The subject of the myth is, of course, "Lawrence," the white savior. This is also true in the original Dune; all the plots revolve around how Paul embarks on the destined path of becoming "Kwisatz Haderach," and other people are either obstacles or helpers, and there is no subjectivity in this process; Paul himself is also in great pain: "They were my friends before, and now they have become my believers," but this situation is inevitable. Just as Jessica and Chinnie are just two vases who help Paul and obey Paul to become the savior of destiny in the original book. And because the author Frank Herbert himself is too obsessed with his metaphysical thoughts about the fate of mankind, Paul himself is just a "walking aphorism maker" in the original book. In addition to speaking for the author, his own personality is very vague.

This is the core difference between the film text and the original text: the film text strengthens the subjectivity of the characters; many characters and relationships that are very sparsely portrayed in the original work have been greatly strengthened in the film. The original work of "Dune" has completed a great world construction, which is that it is detailed and interconnected, precise, and has infinite imagination. The ecology of the Dune planet is the focus, and for this reason there is a special character, Lett Keynes, as a guide to lay out the ecology of the planet and describe the cultural traditions of the Fremen in detail. As for the rest, the Space Guild, the Sisterhood, the Emperor, and the political structure of the entire empire, these parts are described very little, but they are all very critical, leaving readers with a lot of imagination. Each faction has its own "personality", although it cannot be expanded due to space limitations, but the personality itself is clear enough. For example, the personality of the Harkonnen family is brutal, but how brutal it is and how the family operates specifically are not explained, and readers can fill in the blanks by themselves. Fed-Rosa Harkonnen in the original work is basically a tool of the Sisterhood - used to trip up Paul in the end. In the movie, the subjectivity of these characters is strengthened a lot, and the parts omitted in the original work are expanded. The pure black and white Harkanenjiedi Prime shot with infrared is not only visually impressive, but also Fed-Rosa's pure crazy character is highlighted, making it very reasonable for him to challenge Paul in the end and fail.

From beginning to end, Chini did not believe in Paul's theory of "the savior from heaven", and thought that all this was just a conspiracy of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood; Chini, who did not believe in the existence of any savior from the beginning and was full of subjective spirit, was the core character of "Dune 2".

As a member of the sisterhood, Jessica knew very well what she was doing. She chose to violate the sisterhood's instructions and gave birth to Paul, which showed that she was not a character willing to be manipulated. At the same time, as a conspirator behind the scenes, she guided, or forced her son Paul to take that path. At the end of the movie, she realized the terrible prospect of the great galactic holy war and understood that she had done something extremely terrible.

Paul himself actually didn't believe in this stuff, but the environment forced him to take the path he wanted to avoid - if he chose to give up, the result would be the failure of the Fremen and the demise of the Atreides, which was the failure and demise of justice; if he took that path, he knew very well that the result would be a holy war throughout the galaxy and the death of 60 billion people. Until the end, he still knew deep down that his choice might be wrong, and fate had strangled his hands.

Looking back, just as the national myth of Manifest Destiny that the United States told itself 60 years ago, we have witnessed the bankruptcy of this myth in the past 60 years - the United States is not a "city on a hill". It has provoked wars everywhere and promoted "democracy and freedom" in the Middle East, leaving behind only devastation. It claimed that it wanted to liberate the oppressed and weak nations, but in the end, the biggest oppressor was itself. In order to resist the oppression of imperialism, the Middle East world even evolved a social form such as "resistance society", but in such a society, there is no myth that defectors from advanced countries bring advanced technology and ideology and eventually become saviors. The complete bankruptcy of American propaganda and narratives is the result of the moral bankruptcy of the United States.

This is also what is so amazing about "Dune": if you only watch the first part of "Dune", it is indeed a national myth of manifest destiny; but as the story goes on, the protagonist becomes his opposite: he leads the Fremen in a pan-galactic holy war, and the oppressed become the oppressors in turn. All the halo of Paul as a savior fades, and he becomes a tyrant - so, will the possible third part of the movie be shot like this?

3. Will there be a sequel?

Comparing the ending of Dune 2 with the original novel, the story obviously has not ended. In the movie, Paul's sister has not yet been born, and Alia, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, only appears briefly in Paul's hallucination. So, if the movie really has a third episode, how will it interpret this story?

Frank Herbert completed a great world construction in the first part, and many elements have appeared repeatedly in later science fiction works. However, from the text level, it is the combination of this great world construction with a clichéd story of prince's revenge that forms the effect of "American national myth". However, it must be admitted that "Dune", as a science fiction novel, has been collapsing since the second part - this collapse is in the literary sense. From the second part, the narrative of the novel has basically completely given way to the author's endless didactic impulse. From a simple point of view, it can be seen that the dialogues and inner activities of all the characters in the novel, as well as the references to a book in the world of the book that must be in front of each section, are all in a format similar to "famous aphorisms". If we talk about the number of words, famous aphorisms may account for more than a quarter of the length of this series. I can't imagine any book (except for the "World Famous Quotes") that can make the whole book full of the author's opinions on human nature, society, the world, the universe, evolution, and all other fields, and these opinions can be self-consistent, valuable, and not nonsense. These so-called "famous quotes" may not really have some insightful philosophy when you take them apart, and they won't look abrupt when put into the "World Famous Quotes", but once they are put together, they stand out inexplicably. Basically, the later the book is, the less the plot narrative is, and only the characters in the book are constantly fighting and making witticisms. It is understandable that the author has in-depth thoughts on the prophecy of fate, heroes and anti-heroes, and the urgent urge to push all these thoughts to readers, but after all, the core of the novel is still the story, and the success of "Dune" is mainly due to its great world construction, not this set of metaphysical philosophical thinking. Not to mention that starting from the second part, the Harkonnens, the emperor, the dune ecology, these originally attractive world building elements were completely abandoned, and the main plot of the novel revolved around Paul and his descendants' prophetic ability, which completely became metaphysics. No wonder that whether it is a film or game adaptation, the adaptation of "Dune" stopped at the first part - people are still more interested in sandworms and Harkonnens.

Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that if there is a third episode, the story of "Dune 3" will part ways with the original. Its theme should be similar to the original: how the hero in the prophecy goes to the opposite of himself and eventually becomes a devil. In this process, it is very likely that Chini will become the protagonist: how she fights against Paul, who has become a villain.

Of course, there is actually a better option: not making a third film at all.

As mentioned above, in 2024, it has basically lost its meaning for the United States to tell itself this national myth again; even if the plot of the third part is how the savior turns evil and becomes the opposite of himself, not many people will believe it anymore - the savior turning evil is not the problem, the savior itself is the problem. The final liberation of the oppressed and weak nation is not accomplished by an external savior, as contemporary history has clearly told us.

Another point is related to Denis Villeneuve, the director of the two Dune films. As the greatest contemporary science fiction director, the two Dune films have brought out his personal characteristics to the extreme - he is a director who is good at capturing "unspeakable things". The so-called "unspeakable things" are those things that cannot be described in words but can only be conveyed visually, which are unique to movies. In the field of science fiction, it is generally called "sublime". For example, the huge superluminal spacecraft of the Space Association in the first film, and the shot where Paul first met the sandworm: the sandworm stood up in the dark, revealing a round mouth and dense teeth like hair; and the black and white fireworks on the Jedi Prime in the second film, which exploded like ink. It is these "unspeakable things" that inject the trembling, Kantian sense of the sublime that arises from respect for huge and terrifying things that we cannot control into our hearts. And this is exactly why there is no better reason for the third "Dune": instead of asking him to show a vulgarized story of the fall of a hero, it would be better for him to shoot the rumored "Rendezvous with Rama": a huge, unknown and silent alien spaceship flies into the solar system, and humans send an expedition team to board this giant man-made object... This story can bring his aesthetics to a new height.

No matter what, both Dune movies will leave a mark in the history of science fiction and film. We can say that it is the last glory of Hollywood science fiction movies; or the last afterglow of American national mythology; or to put it vulgarly, in such an era when AI graphics are popular and AI video production has begun to emerge, the appearance of Dune at this time point can be interpreted as a special meaning of 18,000 words. However, this article does not intend to make such an interpretation.

Major spoiler alert: no sandworms were actually harmed in the making of this film.

I didn't watch many Hollywood movies last year, but I found that the ones that left a deep impression on me were "Oppenheimer", "Mission Impossible" and "Wonka". The main actors all reunited in this movie.

The reason why you should watch "Dune" is the same as the reason why you should watch "Investiture of the Gods". It has been filmed and the production level is worthy of the status of the original work. Of course, if you can watch it on the big screen, then watch it on the big screen. The bigger the screen, the better.

In terms of the story, it is a very clichéd story of how the chosen one reaches the pinnacle of life. It sounds very exciting, and in fact, it is indeed developed in the way of exciting stories. It's just that the director continues to maintain the sense of ritual of the series, so that the process of the protagonist of the exciting story not appears too frivolous.

The action scenes, like the story, are exciting but not completely exciting, and the sense of ritual overwhelms everything. Rather than showing a smooth battle, each fight is more like a display of the process of a physical experiment. When you make a certain action, it will trigger a certain result, which is determined by the physical laws of this planet. Whether it is shooting, firing, or fighting hand to hand, it is a demonstration of the laws of physics. This is not an action movie, but some of the action scenes will make action movie fans feel very familiar, such as Paul leading the Fremen to suddenly jump out of the sand to execute an assassination, coupled with Paul wearing a hood most of the time, it feels very much like "Assassin's Creed".

The prototype of the Fremen is the Arabs. They take spices with hallucinogenic effects and, under the guidance of the prophet, yearn for the so-called heaven, which is very similar to the Assassins in history. In the current situation of the conflict between Israel and Kazakhstan, such a movie seems to be supporting the Arab world. However, the name of the villain Baron Harkonnen, who continues from the previous film to this one, is Vladimir, which makes it difficult not to think of the initiator of another war going on at the same time. On the positive and negative sides, the protagonist's allies and opponents are all our old friends. Of course, in the second half of the film, the protagonist also sees the blood relationship between himself and his mother by drinking the water of life. Sure enough, old friends are on the same side after all.

The protagonist's A story is about fighting monsters and leveling up all the way, from being an outsider suspected by the Fremen to finally reaching the pinnacle of power, fulfilling the prophecy, and becoming the chosen one. Villeneuve's previous works were all serious, but this time he added some comedy elements. Javier Bardem's character, Stilgar, is the funny man in this film. His interaction with Paul always reminds me of Tu Dou and Lu Yan in the recent film "Don't Panic, My Lord". No matter what Paul does, Stilgar can explain it in a direction close to the prophecy and make sense.

Villeneuve is often called "Villeneuve" for his extremely high artistic level and professionalism, but compared to the last director who was deified, Nolan, his works seem unfriendly and too cold to ordinary commercial film audiences like me. Nolan is undoubtedly better at balancing business and art. As an old Nolan fan with nearly fifteen years of experience, I naturally like Nolan more. The improvement of the sense of refreshment and humor in this film shows that Villeneuve is trying to "come down to earth" and get closer to the general audience. Putting down the airs and actively showing goodwill, but not completely giving up his own style to please blindly, this is still a plus for me.

Most films have story A and story B developing simultaneously. When story A reaches a dead end, story B seeks a breakthrough, and finally the two lines intersect, creating an explosive feeling. What is different about this film is that the direction of story lines A and B is opposite, one goes up and the other goes down. Paul's upgrade and cheating road is basically smooth sailing. In the middle, the perspective switches to the new villain Fedrosa in this episode, and tries to create a sense of oppression for the protagonist and the audience by shaping his cruelty. But we all know that he poses no threat to Paul, who has the aura of the protagonist. This is like making a movie based on "Journey to the West". In the middle, there is a plot showing that the golden leopard bullies men and women, which will only make this character more hateful, but the audience will not think that this golden leopard can cause enough trouble to Sun Wukong.

The B story of this film is the one with more twists and turns. The emotional line between Paul and Chinnie is also his own inner growth line. Chinnie has always encouraged Paul to remember who he is, and Paul is indeed working in this direction. He has always rejected his mother's guidance, insisted on staying in the front line against the Harkonnens in the north, tried to integrate into the Fremen, and became a Fremen warrior instead of controlling and using this group of simple natives in the name of the prophet. Paul made this choice because he foresaw that in the future, his power would lead to hundreds of billions of heads falling. But when he was involved in the vortex of this power struggle, his fate was no longer in his own hands. As the enemy's offensive continued to intensify, he had no choice but to accept his destiny, unite all the forces he could control, and launch an attack on the highest power. Therefore, the inner growth line of the protagonist of this film is actually a compromise and even a collapse all the way, so the emotional line tied to it is destined to end in a parting of ways.

In addition to the perspectives of the protagonist and the villain, the film also adds the perspective of Princess Ilelan as a transition. When the princess discussed the Fremen rebellion with her father, the camera turned to the rise of Paul. When the princess discussed another candidate for the son of prophecy, Fedrotha, with her mother and the sisterhood, the perspectives of Fedrotha and the Harkonnen clan were brought out. The young widow can be regarded as renewing her relationship with Timothée Chalamet this time. Before the male protagonist proposed a political marriage, he had to make a true confession to Chiné, and he was a scumbag clearly and openly. "A Song of Ice and Fire" was greatly influenced by the original "Dune", and Robb Stark was inferior to Paul in this kind of sobriety and restraint, and he was not a scumbag enough. It is difficult to be a good lover and a good leader at the same time.

In recent years, the CP of Vivino has been in love and hate with each other. Basically, if Nolan releases a movie, Villeneuve will also release a work within a year. Last year, Hollywood movies were full of mediocre works. Nolan's "Oppenheimer" stood out from the crowd and helped filmmakers and audiences regain some confidence. The Hollywood blockbusters in the first two months of this year were not as good as last year. I hope that "Dune 2" can also play a role in boosting the market like "Oppenheimer". Not only do the two films have the same heroine, but they also have atomic bombs. Oppenheimer developed the atomic bomb, and Paul in this film directly picked up a warehouse of atomic bombs under the guidance of Gurney, but this pile of atomic bombs finally exploded and made a noise, without showing much destructive power. It can be regarded as a salute at Paul's proposal ceremony to the princess.

Like Oppenheimer, this film also has a strong presence of sound effects, with occasional rumbling sounds that reinforce the sense of ritual mentioned above, and Hans Zimmer's majestic score is almost integrated with this sound effect. The pump drums used by the Fremen to summon sandworms in this film always remind me of the terrifying stomping in Oppenheimer. The shock of the sound effects directly caused the seats in the theater to vibrate. It was a 2D movie, but it had the experience of a 4D movie. This wave is definitely worth it.

I saw news that Anya Taylor-Joy also starred in this film. After watching it, I found that she only showed her face for a few seconds, basically playing a supporting role. But her role is not a supporting role. Anya plays Paul's sister Alia. In fact, she has a strong sense of existence, but she has been in her mother's belly, communicating with the outside world with the help of her mother's mouth and eyes. Because of spices and water of life, Paul and his mother can know the past and the future. The adult Alia appears in this foresight of the future. Here I would like to complain about Paul's ability to foresee the future. Since the last episode, this thing has basically been unreliable. Of course, we know that many times Paul foresaw the future and changed his course of action, which led to the change of the future. But this makes this function of foreseeing the future seem a bit funny. Personally, I may still prefer the tragic feeling of Villeneuve's previous work "Arrival" that fate cannot be changed, and the ending has been foreseen but still goes towards it without hesitation.

The Dune series basically brings together the most popular young actors in Hollywood in recent years, so there is the feeling of team building of the leading actors in the movies I watched last year. I was looking forward to more scenes between Anya and her peers, such as Timothée Chalamet and The Little Widow, but unfortunately her role in this film is too limited. When I walked out of the theater, I saw the poster of Furiosa Prequel at first sight. If you haven't seen enough of this movie, the audience who likes Anya can watch it to their heart's content in two months.

Text/Mengli Shishu

If Dune allowed people to enter a refreshing science fiction world, then Dune 2 only allowed people to see a dull and mysterious story. Although director Denis Villeneuve perfectly continued the special effects aesthetics of the previous film, he failed to provide new vitality for the development of this story, and even failed to control the overall rhythm. The complicated main line seemed to involve many grand propositions, but they were all empty.

I once gave Dune the evaluation of "a delicious appetizer". Denis Villeneuve's attainments in visual aesthetics make this prologue adapted from the science fiction novel of the same name more like an extended trailer, but it can immerse people in the desert alien world he created. But in Dune 2, people found that the tip of the iceberg still leaves enough room for imagination, but when the so-called iceberg gradually reveals itself in front of you, it does not seem so shocking. The movie spent a lot of time shaping the characters, but failed to complete a sufficiently exciting group portrait.

As the plot unfolds, there are a total of four forces in Dune 2, the Atreides family of the male protagonist Paul, the Harkonnen family, the villains of the movie, the Fremen, the natives of the desert planet, and the Emperor's Corrino family. The movie needs to show the group portraits in all aspects, and also needs to complete the character growth of the male protagonist Paul, as well as Paul's personal emotional entanglements. These different clues take up a lot of time, but lead to the existence of all characters except the protagonist in the whole movie as tools. The story itself has become a prince's revenge story on the sand planet. Paul's protagonist halo runs through the whole story, and the religious fate, family disputes, and power struggles that are seen in a hurry have not been in-depth, making it difficult to arouse enough interest.

To give the most obvious example, Paul, who has prophetic powers, is hesitant in the face of his fate. His hesitation itself is a good dramatic tension, and the movie spends a lot of time describing this part, but it does not really reflect the struggle of the characters. The love between the protagonists is like a child's play, and the characters' motives are not clearly explained, which makes Paul's character's character even more unclear. The director has never been able to focus completely on the protagonist in the movie, and the adapted plot he added does not have a good group performance, so the sense of fate is greatly weakened, and he loses sight of one thing while focusing on another.

Therefore, even though the magnificent scenes with beautiful lens aesthetics support the visual attraction, if you are not familiar with the original Dune and are not fascinated by the story itself, then most of the time in this movie, it cannot bring you a hearty and refreshing feeling. Even the so-called battle at the end is just a sloppy ending where the villains have no power to fight back after the sandworms arrive. This is because the positioning of Dune 2 is not a special effects popcorn movie, it is more like a plate of beautifully made steak. However, when you think it will be tender and delicious, it is actually old and hard.

The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Although Dune 2 is not a bad movie, it fails to connect the past and the future. Under the magnificent perspective, the lackluster individualism cannot cover up the emptiness of the essence of the movie.

Looking at the calendar, I haven't realized that it is already March 2024. It turns out that nearly 3 years have passed since the first "Dune" was released in October 2021. For such a blockbuster whose predecessor received many praises and had good box office, its sequel was not released in a hurry, but seemed to have been postponed once. It is enough to show that both Warner and director Villeneuve have more confidence and confidence in this sequel, and they are also more demanding in their creation.

After a few years of the pandemic, the film industry has been hit hard, if not broken. The first Dune was even released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO MAX. You can imagine how much people's viewing habits have changed in the past few years. I am the same. I used to be very active in wanting to know which movies were shown in theaters every weekend, and I would apply for various memberships every month to calculate how many movies I could watch to make the most money. I would never watch TV if I could watch movies in theaters, and I would never watch digital versions if I could watch movies on film. I can be said to be a die-hard theater-type movie fan. Now, I have become a member of all online platforms, and I am too lazy to go out when I see online versions.

Therefore, under this situation, directors who stick to their own creative style and insist on creating visual and auditory enjoyment for the big screen are even more valuable. Last year, there was Nolan's "Oppenheimer", and this year's most anticipated is "Dune 2". Speaking of these two directors, they can indeed be called the mainstay of Hollywood's middle-aged directors. "Vivino" is not in vain!

Villeneuve started his career in independent film in Canada, and gradually established his own aesthetic style through exploration. If Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 in the past few years cleverly conveyed the fusion of vision and philosophy to the audience and gained attention and recognition, then the Dune series is the time for him to gain the title of "master".

In Dune 2, Villeneuve's film aesthetics uses a lot of real-life construction and real-life shooting techniques under sufficient budget and production time, and flexibly uses technologies such as screen frame changes to highlight this "invisible special effect" and create a more shocking realism. For example, the clever editing that reflects the hugeness of the spacecraft itself and the vastness of the universe is better than countless CG shots in the impression. The battle between the sandworm cavalry and the imperial army at the end also makes people feel that this is real. And compared to the previous work, Dune 2 was shot entirely with IMAX cameras. I also specially picked the 70MM screening this time, and the audio-visual aspect was really shocking without exaggeration. If you only decide to watch one blockbuster in the first half of this year, Dune 2 will definitely be the most worthwhile one.

Just like the feeling when I watched the first movie a few years ago, whenever I look back on this "most difficult story to film", I feel that it takes great courage for Villeneuve to take on this series of adaptations. There have been many film adaptations of the novel "Dune" in the history of film, but the results were either "stillborn" or unsatisfactory. After all, everything on the planet Arrakis is a brand new concept for the audience, from interpersonal relationships, to natural landscapes, to all the contradictions and conflicts surrounding "spice", etc., which are beyond the scope of ordinary people's understanding.

In the first part, Villeneuve simplified the story in the introduction in a way that was easy for the audience to understand. He also cleverly erased the mark of the times and gave it more universality.

Herbert's original novel was written during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two factions, the Atreides and the Harkonnen, check and balance each other, rob resources, and even kill each other. These settings are the epitome of the two superpowers at the time. The relationship between the two factions is not as simple as plundering the same resource. For example, their two leaders are cousins ​​and old enemies. As "invaders" who are in urgent need of the precious resource "spice", both sides adopted completely different tactics against the planet Arrakis and the Fremen - one is integration, combination, and subtle influence, while the other is violence, infringement, and plunder. It can be said that the good and bad are "obvious". At the same time, they are controlled by a higher-level cosmic empire. The apparent disagreement is actually just a pawn for this mysterious empire. Therefore, after the two sides are wiped out in a war, who will eventually own the precious material resources becomes illusory. Not only the fate of the Fremen, but the fate of everyone on this planet has been pushed to the limit and is in urgent need of a release point - so in the second part, the story focuses on the change in the state of mind of Paul, the savior.

Without giving too much spoilers, in fact, apart from the future setting and the cloak of science fiction, the story itself is a very classical dramatic structure. Everything is attributed to the entanglement of blood. Paul, who wanted to be an ordinary aboriginal, was forced to pick up a dagger and became the "Hamlet" of the empire. The film uses a lot of clips to show how Paul went from an ordinary stranger to a savior from the altar. The vast crowd supports a person and worships him as a god. This may not be "smart" for the audience in modern civilization, but this is also one of the texts reflected in the original work of "Dune". In the context of the Cold War, where is the way out for ordinary people under the checks and balances of superpowers? Many movements that promote change in history do not have strong theories to support them. If the so-called savior is not Paul, it may be someone else-so at this moment, Paul's inner entanglement seems so fragile. He has no choice. He can only pick up the sharp dagger. This is the driving force of fate. In the face of fate, where should personal gains and losses and even love go? "Dune 2" will eventually tell you the answer.

If I have to simplify it into one sentence to express the urgency of watching Dune 2 in the theater, it would be its final battle. The expectation for more than two hours will not let my hope down. The spectacular but barbaric and mysterious sandworms in the first film have been domesticated and become part of the battle this time. The moment they poked out of the sand was too shocking. No matter how I describe it in words, it is distorted. The magnificent and cruel war scenes, coupled with the tragic ending of the story, Paul has gone from being an ignorant child in the first film to a prince of revenge. I hope that the next film can continue to be filmed. I am very much looking forward to this series becoming another legendary classic.