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aleksa-milojevic
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Dune: Part Two (2024)
Cinematically well done, but missing the crucial essence of Dune.
Dune: Part Two, much like Part One, sounds and looks absolutely amazing. The movies, especially Part One, created what the books do not: visuals and sounds, and they did so magnificently. The cinematography and the score are fascinating, with the Bene Gesserit score in particular standing out. It created and presented the atmosphere of the Dune universe perfectly, if not even enhancing it. The set it creates is full of mysticism, set in an era far ahead of today's, filled with otherworldly technologies and capabilities, which is what the Dune books are all about. Part One feels like a love letter to the book with great respect towards it. Hence, I believe Part One offers a much better experience if you have read the books.
I had high expectations for Part Two because of this. Part One left off exactly before things escalate in the books. Alia is a significant character who effectively conveys the impact of the ritual Jessica and Paul went through. A conscious embryo, a toddler not only capable of speaking but also one of the wisest people in the galaxy, with rare powers and unimaginable fantasy-like capabilities. She is an abomination to an average person, something out of a dream that could not exist. Yet in the film, all Alia does is "talk" to her mother.
The significance of Paul completing the ritual and the powers he gains as a result were not well presented in the movie either. There was only one line where Paul says that he can see a lot of possible futures in which they fail to succeed, but also a narrow way through to success. The line sounds more like he can anticipate events and plan accordingly, rather than depicting his perception of reality changing, him no longer experiencing time as we normally do, and becoming a new, very powerful being.
Given their complex backgrounds and unique abilities, it is understandable that Paul and Alia present significant challenges for portrayal on screen. Hence, it can be suspected that Denis and the team did not have the confidence to do so and deliberately avoided portraying a toddler Alia and Paul's vision-like consciousness.
Jessica was very well done, though. Well-written, incredibly acted. After the ritual, Jessica's consciousness is imbued more with the presence of previous Reverend Mothers than with herself as a mother. Rebecca beautifully portrayed this with subtle emotional shifts in her manner of speaking, both in her interactions with Paul and others.
Although some deviations from the original script are to be expected, it is important to acknowledge the constraints of condensing a novel into a three-hour film. However, failing to capture the crucial essence of Dune is a significant oversight.