Movie review: ᑐᑌᑎᑕ

[dorchadas]

Gurney Halleck never once plays the baliset, 0/10 stars, worst movie ever.

A couple weeks ago I got a Facebook invite from cillic informing me that he had rented out a movie theatre with a ᑐᑌᑎᑕ showing last Sunday. I hadn't seen him or heather.eisele in almost two years, since New Year's Eve 2019, so sashagee asked her parents if they could watch Laila, we drove over to Rosemont where the theatre is, ordered food when we got there, and arrived just in time to watch the trailer for the new Batman movie they're coming out with and then ᑐᑌᑎᑕ began.


To start with the heavy stuff, when we left sashagee--a non-book-reader, non-previous-movie-watcher--mentioned that it was a pretty bold choice to come out with a white savior narrative in the Current Year. I explained that the books have the opposite message, but really she's right about the movie--since it only shows the first part of Dune, it's just all the parts about the Fremen waiting for the lisan al-gaib and the Bene Gesserit's missionaria protectiva bearing fruit. Even the second part won't have all the parts about how a messiah will destroy your culture and kill millions, since that's mostly in Dune Messiah and after.

I loved the set design. Everything was enormous, as befits an interstellar feudal aristocracy with the wealth of multiple worlds to draw on. The palace at Arrakeen was a gigantic brutalist pile, with huge mostly-empty rooms to essentially create an artificial cave and keep things cool. I found this article about the set design, about the medieval castle look of Caladan and the bunkers of Arrakis. It was not lost on me that on Caladan it was literally always either cloudy or raining, and the symbolism of the giant starship rising out of the ocean while Paul watched was also very evident.

The ornithopters were beautiful--buzzing dragonflies over the desert sands. Especially when they'd pull in their wings for a dive. And the sandworms! Mostly hidden except for that one scene that was already used in promotional photos, just an ominous depression in the sand getting nearer and nearer.

I was a bit less happy about the characters and the biggest disappointment was Jessica. It was very notable to me that in a movie where most people don't show a lot of happiness or sadness, Jessica cries frequently, and it especially stands out because even though Paul's duel against Jamis happens during the run-time, the funeral where Paul cries does not. Everyone else is kind of determined or satisfied or mysterious and so on, which does match the tone of the book (though I don't think Paul was quite whiney enough), but Jessica does not. And it stands out more because she's the only female character with significant screen time other than Liet-Kynes (who is a woman in this version). The best character was definitely Duncan Idaho--Jason Momoa kind of plays the same character in every movie but it turns out that character is actually Duncan Idaho so he finally found his niche. I've seen multiple people say that for non-book-readers, he singlehandedly redeemed a character named "Duncan Idaho," which is important because Duncan Idaho is the real main character of the Dune novels. The rest of the acting was good, but I think it'll be in ᑐᑌᑎᑕ II where the real test is, since Chani will get more screen time, Thufir Hawat and Gurney Halleck will come back, and Paul has to go from boy to...well, white savior. Like I said, the "messiahs are bad" message isn't really in the first book.

Unlike the 1984 Dune, ᑐᑌᑎᑕ doesn't have a lot of exposition other than Paul watching a couple holovids about Arrakis at the very beginning. As a book enjoyer I was easily able to follow the plot, but I was a bit worried about sashagee's impressions. Fortunately she was able to follow everything without much trouble--she asked me why the handover scene on Caladan was so tense (because the Atreides know they're walking into a trap) and why the Emperor committed Saurdukar to attacking Arrakis (because of Duke Leto's popularity), and that was it. She figured out that Paul's visions were possible futures--she said "alternate timelines"--and so wasn't confused by him and Jamis being friends or Chani stabbing him. I thought those visions were great, since Dune only has an external perspective on Paul's vision of the Jihad and his trying to navigate a path through the possibilities, but in ᑐᑌᑎᑕ we can see it.

The best part of the soundtrack is House MacTreides. Fight me.

I'm very excited for ᑐᑌᑎᑕ II, especially if I can see it on the big screen. Watching the family atomics breach the shield wall and the Fremen riding in on a sandworm army, or the confrontation with Shaddam IV...it'll be amazing. It'll be a visual and aural spectacle, regardless of what else it is.

I definitely recommend ᑐᑌᑎᑕ, especially for book-enjoyers, but sashagee has a more moderate take--she says that the story is a rental but the cinematics are worth a movie screen. See it, then, while you can.