I really liked the first movie, but I’m conflicted about this one. I really liked the first half, how Paul was defiant of the whole Messiah thing and seemed to genuinely want to help the Fremen in their struggle against the empire for freedom. I was genuinely surprised because I didn’t expect that from the story.
Then he takes the baby worm juice, and now he’s fully embracing the whole religious figure thing, is taking center stage in the Fremen struggle and is even using his family/house colonialist crest as a flag.
I thought it was gonna deconstruct the whole white savior trope, but then it ends reinforcing it? That’s weird.
To be fair tho, he’s being pragmatic since he can now see whole timelines of possible futures and is doing what he needs to assure it reaches the timeline where they are successful.
Well, at least I’m interested to see where it goes. Showing them resisting against the Harkonnen colonizer fucks was great tho lol.
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I thought it was gonna deconstruct the whole white savior trope, but then it ends reinforcing it? That’s weird.
The opposite. Paul is explicitly not a saviour. He is on the path to bring about a galactic calamity.
This will be more fully covered in Dune Messiah. I’m guessing that Villeneuve knew that Dune 3 was going to get greenlit, and so he made the decision to make Paul likeable as a hero in this movie, while also very explicitly presenting all of the evidence that this is going to end up as a galactic calamity. That way he can rub the audience’s face in Space Hitler for the next movie.
I see, I didn’t think that was what the story was setting up too.
The only other experience I have with Dune is watching the old ass movie which I remember hating lol.
Wait what? I thought the whole thing was to bring about galactic stagnation, and consolidation in advance of the BBEAI coming.
Man that’s a pretty big spoiler just to casually drop
It’s one of the main parts of this movie? The entire first half of the movie was Paul rejecting leading the Fremen because the prophecy says if he does do it there will be a galactic genocide. His decision to lead them was also his acceptance that he is causing a galactic genocide by doing so.
This is only a spoiler if you haven’t watched this movie. I am discussing content that was in the movie.
the books have been published for decades now, don’t read discussions about the films if you don’t want to know what’s in the books
I’m currently reading the first book. I opened this thread talking about the second movie, which I’ve seen. I was not anticipating reading about what happens in Dune Messiah
I don’t think it’s the white saviour trope, Frank Herbert was very clear about it. Paul is to be seen as a villain who exploited the Fremen’s religious beliefs for personal gain. It will make more sense in Part 3 but in general, Paul himself is not fond of the religious fervor he awoke in the Fremen and led them into the Jihad. The next 3 books are amazing because they emphasize on how Paul and his son were a curse on the Fremen rather than Messiahs.
Plus Paul taking the Worm Juice makes him millions of people at once. He can see the future as well. The loss of empathy is understandable.
Also just remembered that according to Paul, the Jihad was inevitable from the moment he and Jessica met the Fremen after escaping from Arrakeen. Also in the book, the Saudukar were committing genocide against the Fremen which gave them no choice but to fight back.
I don’t think the movie emphasized on a lot of these details.
yeah theres just way too many forces making the jihad happen, maybe, Paul could avoid the conflict if he was the kwisatz earlier and could see more of the future, but by the time everything happens its just going to result in the deaths of billions.
I loved DUNC
Ah, my favourite slop - the DUNC TANK.
they made a lot of changes, including Paul’s badass speech where he dresses down in order the Emperor, The Spacers Guild, and the Bene Gesserit. Chani doesn’t ride off into the sunset either, but apparently Zendaya couldn’t stand working with Chalamet any longer. Paul doesn’t accept being the Messiah until midway through the duel with Feyd he has a vision where even if he dies the Fremen Jihad will still happen and Feyd will become Kwitsatz Haderach, so I thought he was just accepting, if it’s gonna happen anyway, he might as well tie his personal ambition to avenge his house to them along the way.
but apparently Zendaya couldn’t stand working with Chalamet
Lol
Oh that makes sense. It makes me want to read the books to see how it goes.
you really should, they’re awesome!
While there’s still tons to criticize because it was the 60s/70s the depictions of women in (most) of Herbert’s original books is so much better than in other science fiction at the time.
Which makes the books much easier to read because you’re not choking constantly on a bunch of casual sexism.
The books are a lot different from the movies. Way more about the space politics.
I always assumed it was a pull between his Kwisatz Haderach self and his humanity. His humanity makes him want to avenge his father, and all his family and friends, which unfortunately is the same path that leads to the jihad. He wants to avoid the killing of course, but it’s also basically the only path that allows the survival of the Fremen and his vengeance. He is aware of this weakness within himself, but can’t really avoid it because of the combination of his psychic abilities and who he is as a person. At least, that was my interpretation.
i’m on the 4th dune book… it goes in so many directions… it’s a really good series
The two leads are some of the worst casting I’ve ever seen in a major production. Zendaya should’ve been nominated for a razzie. I can’t take either of them seriously.
I remember a friend told me how she thought it was so interesting how Paul used his Messiah status to accomplish his goals without believing it, which confused me because I fully assumed that Paul ended up believing that he was the Messiah.
I think overall I liked Dune 2 a lot, but the new Harkonnen villain who’s name I forget ended up just aura farming, bombing one place and then got killed by Paul. Also the worms were a lot less intimidating
The sci fi channel miniseries is easily the best adaptation of Dune. Villineuve doesn’t seem to understand the source material
