just watched dune part two, and i gotta tell ya, after being blown away by the scope and promise of dune part one, part two seemed a rushed and jumbled mess to me.
i know i'm in the vast minority on this, but part two of course, could have, and should have been expanded into at least two or three separate movies to do the story justice. the majesty of the first movie was mashed into a frenetic eye rolling dash to the finish with nothing happening that should have hit me, with the same tingles up my spine, as when i read it all those decades ago. not one scene or event made me feel anything.
but wait a second did them just defeat the entire galactic empire in the span of 90 seconds. boy that was convenient huh. blech,
i did not like it at all. imma rewatch at 2160 when i can, and maybe come back to edit, but i kept waiting for the cool shyt to start, and they blew on past all the cool shyt for 2 hrs and 45 minutes.
the whole thing was nothin but a dust storm.
I felt the Geidi Prime stadium scene was an infra-red footage showoff first and foremost. I wondered why so much runtime went toward setting up
spoiler
the na-Baron, only for him to die in the last 10 minutes.The point better explained in the book and kind of glossed over in the movie is that Fayd and Paul both about equally fit the characteristics of the Kwisatz Haderach that the Bene Gesserit were trying to breed. They were sort of shadow images of each other, and it was a real coin toss which one would win that fight and show himself to the the real KH.
A bit more concise, Jessica was supposed to have a daughter with Leeto to be with Fayd to be the Kwisatz Haderach. However she has Paul instead and pretty much kicked off 3500 years of Atredies rule for the known empire. Fayd is shown to be a worthy adversary for most people (cunning and physical) but Paul is on a different level at that point.
Coin toss? One of them could see the future, was taking loads of spice, and was already declared as TBD Kwisatz Haderach by the Fremen. How could anyone place bets on Fayd at the point of the fight?
Only a handful of people on Arrakis really knew Paul's full capabilities at that point. Remember this is the first time even the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother who trained Jessica really knew what Paul could do.
By their genetic calculations, Fayd was a contender. This fight proved he wasn't.
Others have answered partially his purpose, but the Baron's plan was for Raban to exploit and crush Arrakis as much as possible to recover the funds spent on the invasion, then the na-Baron comes in as a benevolent saviour for the people. The Harkonnens get a bunch of money, control of the spice, and a cushy job for the Baron's favourite
How would a complete psychopath who has been waging war against a people come in as its savior? That doesn't make sense to me.
It's different in the books shrug
I think the first time Feud-Rautha comes to Arrakis in the book is with the emperor and Baron and those guys right at the end. No-one on the planet knows of him yet
Interesting, I feel that didn't come through in the movie at all. Also, didn't the Harkonnens already have control of the spice after the betrayal in Part One?
No, I don't think it was in the film at all either. The Harkonnens do have control one again by the end of part one but they are feared and hated. The plan was to play on this reputation with "The Beast" Raban whilst making as much money as possible. After a few years, the population are "liberated" by Feud-Rautha who will be a much kinder ruler and so the people will love him. Of course, they will still be under Harkonnen rule and still giving them spice and money, but probably too stupid or relieved to notice this. (part of the motif of the media is that Harkonnens rule through fear and don't really understand people very well, in the way that the Atredies do)
Ah cool, that makes a lot of sense now. Without going into all that detail however, I agree with the original comment that they shouldn't have spent so much time introducing Feyd-Rautha, or should have introduced him in the first movie. As is, it was a lot of screentime that never pays off, except for being cool looking I guess.
I mean he impregnated a witch. I think thats going to be significant later.
While a serviceable film, part two was a much looser interpretation of the book. If you're interested I'd highly recommend reading it.