Dune

When I heard that Denis Villeneuve was making a Dune film, my excitement was immediately piqued. I loved his previous movies (I may have picked Blade Runner 2049 as my favorite movie of 2017) and knew he would do a great job with such a difficult adaptation. 

I tried to read the book when I was probably around twelve and it was a bit out of my age range. I was reading tons of Star Wars books and loved reading Carl Sagan, so I thought it would be a good one for me. I did not finish it. Then when I was driving to and from State College everyday from Ebensburg, I burned through a bunch of audiobooks and decided to give it another shot. I really enjoyed it, but thought it would be hard to make a movie. I actually thought it would make a great candidate for the next series on HBO once Game of Thrones was finished. 

I thought the movie looked phenomenal and the cast was incredible. I feel like the movie succinctly explains the reason why the Emperor sent House Atreides to Arrakis to replace House Harkonnen. Villeneuve spends a large chunk of the movie introducing us to the characters and the world. Once the attacks come though, the action ramps up and before you know it, the movie is ending. I will not lie, I felt like the first half was somewhat slow (it could also have been my fault though because I only had one cup of coffee and was feeling a little tired). 

Anyways, I want to talk about the ending. So there are spoilers from here on out.

The movie ends with Paul fighting the Fremen (Jamis) in a ritual battle. He sees the future and knows how it will turn out. He tries to change destiny by asking Jamis to yield. I am sure you could debate this, but to me it felt that when Paul learns the fight is to the death and that he must kill Jamis, he was offering the Fremen a choice (as well as trying to change his own destiny). He knows that if he takes Jamis’ life, then he will stay with the Fremen and eventually lead them to war against the Imperium. The look on Paul’s face is reluctant acceptance. I love that struggle, which is what makes a character who can see the future so interesting. 

I hope we do not have to wait very long for the next part.