I had the pleasure to see Dune (what we now would call Part One) on my local IMAX, and it was an incredible experience! Not only was it one of my first major theatrical activities in the latter pandemic days, but it also just truly blew me away. I only knew a little of the story, from a roommate who became obssesed with Frank Herbert’s book upon which this film is adapted, but aside from what he relayed off and on I knew very little. Perhaps that’s why I was so ready to be absorbed by the story, and though it was clear from the start what we’d see was essentially a massacre of a people (and the survival of very few), I was still enraptured even knowing what was coming. I thought the primary cast was excellent, with a shoutout to Isaacs in particular, and I thought Stellan Skarsgård was terrifying as Baron Harkonnen. I wish we had seen more, or especially heard more, of Zendaya’s character Chani; however, by the end of the film I left blown away and trusting director Denis Villeneuve would up her role and just in general bring us an excellent follow-up with Dune: Part Two.

This past weekend I once again found myself back in the same IMAX ready to see Part II, and again I was blown away by the spectacle. Villeneuve was able to put the unfilmable (what Dune was often presumed to be) on screen, and the visual effects just again captured by attention and imagination. Likewise I found the acting again worthy of praise. I am still sad I had to wait for more of Chani; however, I thought Zendaya wonderfully portrayed a character I’ve since learned was slighted in the book but was given more by Villeneuve in this film. Butler in particular I’ve become incredibly wowed by, thanks to Masters of the Air, and now his psychopathic antagonist role as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Ultimately as a film it was all pretty incredible; however, I realized alas about an hour or so in to this nearly three hour movie that ultimately the story lost me. Therefore I was able to admire the cinema of it all; however, it no longer held my interest in the same fashion.

Now I think this is largely an issue with Herbert’s original source material, as I’ve heard that for the most part Villeneuve made changes I’d honestly deem to be improvements over the original. What I now knew though, so much more than what I saw the first film, is that Dune ultimately came from Herbert’s want to interrogate colonialism, especially as seen in the Middle East, as well as the white savior mythos. I’m all for that, as it’s something we certainly need to interrogate more, and though it was apparently too subtle for some with its original release I’m likewise a fan of critiquing the white savior trope as its been a crutch in films for years. Alas though what I felt on-screen was less a truly unique look at this, and more history cosplaying as sci-fi in a way that felt too lean. This, along with the gratuitious violence, was a major complaint of mine with Game of Thrones too, and why I only watched one season. I know it’s fine to “pluck” from the past to present a new story; however, I feel it needs more than just window dressing, and adding sand worms and dragonfly robots isn’t quite what it takes.

Of course you may love all of the window dressing. Afterall I too was originally taken with the world at large, especially that of Arrakis which takes the incredible real world locations, such as Wadi Rum in Jordan, and presents it in a way many of us will never see otherwise. Likewise though I don’t love all the costume and character designs, most notably I thought the Bene Gesserits looked too hilarious to be taken seriously, I at least felt like in Dune: Part One it was part of the charm. By two it was too much, made all the more clear by the extended sequence which introduced Butler’s Feyd-Rautha and the broader world in which he lived. This is maybe where I’d direct some critiques at Villeneuve, who somehow both made a film that seemed too short and too long at the same time. In my opinion, House Harkonnen received far more screentime than was worthy. Yes we have to get to know Feyd-Rautha, but we already know the Harkonnen’s are quite terrifying in the first film. If they’d only used the last shot of the Harkonnen sequence, one I felt Villeneuve clearly shot to echo Hitler’s propaganda films i.e. “Triumph of the Will”, then that’d have been enough. However we had to soak in that world for far, far too long.

Alas all of this obfuscated my relationship with this world, and though I still appreciated the myth making, and breaking, Villeneuve was doing with Paul, my detachment from his story increased with my dis-attachment from the world. (To be fair, I think Paul’s supposed to feel the same way, so maybe I got the point?) Zendaya’s character Chani I think still kept me rooted as much as I could be, and her story is why I might watch Part 3 (if it’s greenlit) at all. For though the filmmaking is quite masterful overall, Dune just lost me in the desert, perhaps for good.