Dune Part 2

I finally got to see Dune Part 2 in IMAX a while back and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although it may have helped that it has been a number of years since I read the novel. Having read all of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, and also having seen both the first incomprehensible Dune movie as well as the compelling miniseries, I found this to be more impressive and powerful than both.

This movie (according to interviews with the director) seeks to make clear something that even Frank Herbert himself recognized was ambiguous in his first novel. Paul Atreides is being described by some as a villain, and I feel that goes too far. He is far better than a heroic messianic figure or an evil eager despot in the new film. He is a complex human being, shaped and influenced by circumstances, faced with hard choices, who makes some that are questionable. That he does so even after having a glimpse of the horrors of war that will follow doesn’t make him more of a monster than any of us could be. And that is what makes the story of Dune so relevant in our time, almost 60 years after the publication of the novel. I highly recommend reading the novels, which are by no means rendered superfluous by the movies. They go into depth and detail on some characters that no movie ever could, and reading them in conjunction with the movie will help you see how much they are a product of their time and the movie is a product of its time.

The main question I have after watching the movie is whether this scene was crafted with Monty Python explicitly in mind.

Don’t stop reading without at least scrolling to the end to see some more hilarious Dune memes. I could probably teach a course on religion and science fiction every year, cycling between novels, film, television, and short stories on a regular rotation. There is so much interesting material to discuss and reflect on, and out of all sci-fi it must be said that Frank Herbert’s Dune series engages with religion much more directly and much more interestingly than the majority of other works and franchises. Wouldn’t you agree?