A New Breed of Franchise Epic: A Review of Dune Part 2 (Spoilers for Dune Part 1)

 directed by Denis Villeneuve

written by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts

I had thought about reviewing these films as one big film at first, but decided against it given that I only just saw Dune Part I on Netflix, arguably compromising the viewing experience I was meant to have. Also, it would do a disservice to both films to weigh them together, given that each of them has its merits and flaws. Needless to say, there will be mild spoilers for Dune Part 1.

Dune Part 2, as the title suggests, tells the second part of Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel, which takes place thousands of years into the future, when humankind has traveled to other planets. The film itself, like Part 1 takes place mostly on the planet Arrakis, a world rich in the highly-coveted resource known only as the Spice, which is coveted enough to inspire mass murder.  On that note, Dune Part 1 has ended in utter tragedy for our story's main character, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).  Their family, the House of Atreides, was destroyed by the rapacious Harkonnens led by Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) and his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) as revenge for having been deprived of stewardship of Arrakis and its riches by  Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) who had then entrusted the planet to the Atreides clan led by Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). Leto, knowing the Harkonnen's nature, had recognized the stewardship of Arrakis for the death sentence that it was, but even then could not prevent what was to come. Fortunately, however, his son Paul and his concubine Jessica have survived the massacre, only to flee into the deadly desert populated by gigantic predatory sandworms, and by the indigenous population the Fremen, led by Stiglar (Javier Bardem) who, on their worst day, could be every bit as fierce as the monstrous creatures under the sand.  The Fremen, like the Atreides clan, despise the Harkonnen for what they have been doing to their planet for years.  

Paul and his mother, however, are safe from the initial hostility of the Fremen because Stiglar and the others see in him the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy of salvation. They believe him to be the Lisan Al Ghaib, or their long-awaited savior, or come to do so with every challenge that Paul overcomes. Having been well-trained by his father's military adviser, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Paul is a skilled fighter who makes himself extremely valuable in the Fremen's fight against the Harkonnens. His skill and integrity also endear him to Chani (Zendaya) a young Fremen fighter who rejects the old superstitions about the Lisan Al Ghaib.  It is the skills passed down to Paul by his mother, however, that make him far more than just another fighter. As a member of the society of shamanic women known as the Bene Gesseret, Jessica has essentially imbued Paul with considerable powers, which include mind control and clairvoyance.  Through the latter, Paul has had terrible visions of a future in which billions die because of holy war started in his name.  As a result, he dreads going down to the south of Arrakis, where legions of zealots await who would happily wage war in his name. 

The resistance Paul is leading, however, prompts a more brutal response from the Harkonnens, with Vladimir recruiting his murderous nephew Feyd Rautha (Austin Butler) in order to crush the Fremen rebellion. Feyd Rautha has no compunctions about raining fire down on every square inch of Northern Arrakis to flush out the Fremen, thus confronting Paul with an awful decision; does he stay in the North with his ragtag army fighting against a far larger force, or does he head south and realize all of his worst fears?  The decision is not an easy one at all.

There has been no shortage of praise for this film since it was released a few weeks ago, and to my mind the praise is, for the most part, richly deserved. It's been awhile since I've seen a movie like this, one that is truly sumptuous in its scale and scope. Shot on location in Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Hungary among other places, with the best cameras available for the job, this is one of those rare experiences where the viewer can see every last dollar of the film's $190 million budget on the screen. There is a seamless marriage of live-action and computer-generated imagery, and absolutely topnotch performances by the entire cast seal the deal as they sell the verisimilitude. I could not help but be transported to this world thousands of years into the future and light years away. Everyone involved in this is firing on all cylinders, from director Denis Villeneuve, whose work I've admired since 2013's Prisoners  to actors Chalamet, Zendaya, Ferguson, Skarsgaard, Butler and the legendary Christopher Walken.  Florence Pugh makes a brief but pivotal appearance as Princess Irulan, the Emperor's daughter. All these sterling performances are framed against some truly brilliant cinematography, and set to a mesmerizing score by pop-culture god Hans Zimmer, who, even as he innovates, presents a score evocative of some of his very best work, like Gladiator.  

As odd as this may sound, though, my issues with this film are not at all with the stage craft behind it but rather with the writing that underpins the entire narrative.

For one thing, there is a specific course of action which Paul is loath to do, one which could actually kill him, and yet towards the end of the film, he changes his mind without apparent catalyst or significant reason. This is completely distinct from his decision to head south, incidentally. It just feels like one of those things that happens because the plot needs it to, and quite frankly it feels out of place in a movie this meticulously put together.

Second, and this is more intimately tied into the story, I had a problem with how the Fremen leadership, and in particular Stiglar, went from being wise in the ways of the world and Arrakis in general to babbling zealots in the second film. It's yet another example of Hollywood taking a shot at religion (a whole other post in and of itself) and does a disservice to the character.  But more on that elsewhere.

All told, however, this film is truly excellent and should really serve as a blueprint for how to make blockbusters moving forward. 

9/10 

The Master Returns: A Review of The Boy and the Heron

written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki

It feels strange to say this considering my family and I own on DVD nearly every film ever directed by legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, but The Boy and the Heron was the very first Miyazaki movie any of us had ever seen in movie theaters.  Better late than never, though.  The guy is an anime legend, and I am grateful to have seen at least one of his wonderful films where it was meant to be seen: on the big screen.   Coming into this film, I was actually a little worried; Miyazaki's most recent film prior to this, 2013 The Wind Rises, had lost a lot of his charm, but even though The Boy and the Heron isn't quite on the level of Miyazaki's very best, it is at least a very welcome return to form for him.

The story actually starts out on a grim note, with the protagonist, teenage boy Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) losing his mother to a fire as the Allied Forces bomb Japan in the middle of World War II.  Following the chaos, Mahito and his dad Shoichi (Takuya Kimura) move out to the countryside, Mahito meets his father's new wife Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura) who also happens to be his mother's younger sister. As Mahito grapples with his grief and loss out in the countryside, he receives a most unexpected visitor: a talking gray heron (Masaki Suda), who leads Mahito into a magical, mysterious world where he learns a lot of things he didn't know about life and death, including certain truths about his mother.

This film is reportedly rather personal to Miyazaki; he grew up in post-World-War II Japan and like Mahito, he, too, lost his mother, though much later in life, and to disease and not a fire.  This tinges the whimsy with a gentle melancholy. As a result, even though Miyazaki's usual commentaries about greed or the military-industrial complex are absent from this film, there's still a weight to it that makes it feel compelling in its own right.  By anchoring its narrative on the kind of pain that only the death of a loved one can induce, the film introduces audiences to a Miyazaki protagonist unlike any we've ever seen before. Miyazaki's last protagonist, airplane designer Jiro Hirokoshi, was notably unsympathetic as a character because of how he put his love for aviation over everything, even his own humanity. Fortunately, Miyazaki goes in completely the opposite direction with the youthful Mahito, who bears a very human emotional burden all throughout the story.   

I'll admit the film sometimes feels unwieldy because of the wildly different tones it must juggle, but Mahito's heartache lends the story real gravitas, and imbues the striking images with a weight and soul they wouldn't otherwise have. The whimsical world Mahito visits, after all, is the Land of the Dead.

Miyazaki's visual signature permeates the film, which is what makes the fantastical elements pop all the more. It was a striking choice to start the film with the violence of the blaze that killed Mahito's mother, but as the fire recurs throughout the film in flashbacks, it helps lend the film its distinct visual identity, as do Miyazaki's flourishes like a multitude of cute characters, namely the Warawara, who evoke the Soot Sprites from My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. Miyazaki's longtime composer Joe Hisaishi contributes a suitably emotional score, if not a particularly striking one.

It really was gratifying to finally see a Miyazaki movie in theaters. Given that the man is 80 years old I don't imagine I'll get to see a whole lot more, which makes this even more of a privilege. Though I may not consider this his best work, if I only ever watched one Miyazaki movie in theaters, I could have done a lot worse than this one.

8.5/10