(I wrote a lengthy Letterboxd review of Dune: Part Two when I first saw it, and since I figured I would make many of the same points here as there I could reuse that review—with some revisions. Needless to say I’ll be spoiling both parts of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, as well as Frank Herbert’s Dune and Dune Messiah.)

You can’t seriously discuss Dune without spoiling it, but then Dune is kinda hard to spoil. If you’ve read the book or seen the ill-fated David Lynch adaptation then you already know the plot beats—up to a point. Even if you weren’t already familiar with the source material, the broad strokes of the plot aren’t hard to predict. Dune has been a sacred cow among genre fans for over half a century, and I’m pretty sure its success lies less in the story it tells (although I’m informed the series gets increasingly unhinged) and more in the manner of the telling. I’d argue Frank Herbert was not a great line-for-line writer, but he had a knack for worldbuilding, such that any adaptation of Dune has the unenviable task of making all this lore digestible. Dune: Part One (I’m calling it that now) was reasonably faithful to the book, albeit with some streamlining; but while, broadly speaking, Part Two does the same, there are some major deviations that have a ripple effect, resulting in an ending that feels profoundly different from the book’s, not to mention leads much more smoothly into Dune Messiah. Of course, there are changes that necessitate the inevitable Dune Messiah movie being quite different from its source material right out the gate.

Denis Villeneuve and his co-writer Jon Spaihts turn what was, on a casual reading, a very happy ending in Herbert’s book into something much more sinister. Paul Atreides transforms into a villain the likes of which even Baron Harkonnen could only dream of being. This has always been true, really, because the jihad Paul inspires kills billions through war and famine, and this has always been the case. The implications are very different, though. In the books the jihad grows into something far beyond Paul’s control, picking up an inertia that he’s blind to until it’s too late. Dune Messiah is Paul realizing he has inadvertently become Space Hitler™. (Have we mentioned this is basically a retelling of Oedipus Rex, minus the mother-fucking?) In Villeneuve’s Dune, Paul not only becomes Space Hitler™ by the point at which the first book ends (in the book he retains his heroism), but becomes Space Hitler™ knowing in advance that his actions will lead to mass death on an interplanetary scale. And he doesn’t seem to care anymore. He has given in completely to the “prophecy” which he and his mother Jessica actively played into, has given up Chani, and willingly becomes ruler of the known universe because, at the end, he is a bastard.

Dune: Part Two might be the most fatalistic blockbuster ever made. With Hollywood filmmaking there’s always a sense of the outcome being preordained, of the good guys winning and whatnot, but this movie turns such an expectation on its head by making it clear to the audience partway through that Paul, the hero of the story, will turn evil. Paul learning the ways of the Fremen takes about five years in the book; enough time passes that he and Chani have a son. But in the movie the timespan is crunched from five years to maybe five months. This time crunch is controversial among fans of the book, and I can see the argument, but ultimately I think it works in favor of the film’s sense of fatalism. The results of the time crunch are profound: Paul and Chani never have Leto (the first time), Paul’s sister Alia isn’t even born by the movie’s end, and the Fremen becoming violently militant becomes less something that happens without Paul even noticing at first and more a train coming right towards him at full speed. The jihad becomes a rocket that has not quite reached its target but is getting there, second by second, guaranteed to hit its mark.

This is not a perfect movie, but it is very interesting, especially for someone who has read the first two Dune books. I know Villeneuve wants to adapt Messiah but then stop there, and I suspect how he’s gonna wrap things up neatly there so as to make a trilogy out of this adaptation. It’s funny because by making Chani a denier of the prophecy, by not having her be all but married to Paul, indeed by having them break up at the end (she looks so dejected; it really is one of the most vivid depictions of heartbreak I’ve seen in a major Hollywood production), she seems to be set up as the real hero of Messiah. Which hey, might be good for her in the long run! If you’ve read Messiah then you know things do not turn out well for Chani, so her getting cucked here might be for the best. I will say, having Chani only show up at the end of Part One and having their relationship start from there means the romance in Part Two is a bit rushed. It’s a quibble, but I understand if people get bent out of shape over it.

Speaking of which, it boggles my mind that this is only about ten minutes longer than Part One, since way more happens. If people thought Part One was slow (I didn’t) then Part Two should be understood as course correction. This is a packed 166 minutes. This is still like 25 minutes shorter than Avatar: The Way of Water but feels about the same length (because nothing happens in that movie, for all its length). Incidentally, this is an anti-Avatar, thematically. You could like both movies, but understand that Avatar and its sequel play the white savior narrative completely straight while Dune very much subverts said narrative. Paul is the foreigner who will save the Fremen, fulfill their prophecy, and help them take back their home planet. Oh, he’ll save them alright—at the expense of much of life in the known universe. I know people have memed about it, but this is the most sinister character arc in a Hollywood Blockbuster since the Star Wars prequels; but ya know, with writing that doesn’t suck and without the audience already knowing the hero-turning-villain will ultimately redeem himself. I’m honestly unsure if Paul will reckon with the damage he’s done in the Dune Messiah movie.

What’s funny is that looking back on both parts, the most decent members of House Atreides are Duke Leto and Duncan Idaho, both of whom die in Part One (although I assume the latter will return in Dune Messiah). Leto dies about halfway through Part One, having been ambushed by the Harkonnens in the middle of the night. What’s interesting about Leto is that despite his position of authority he does seem like a genuinely good man: he loves Jessica as if she were his legal wife, he cares for his son deeply despite Paul technically being a bastard, he doesn’t seem to have any beef with the Fremen, and he really does wanna make the best of a bad situation by setting up a colony on Arrakis. He wants to colonize the planet “the right way,” and dies for it, his efforts getting wiped out literally overnight. The films posit there is no “right way” to colonize; if you fail then so much the worse for you, but if you succeed then mass death is virtually guaranteed. Westerners have been trying to colonize parts of the world since the 16th century, resulting in the eradication of indigenous peoples (we see one such example in progress with the Palestinian genocide), yet despite centuries of evidence to the contrary we still think there’s a “right” way.

Do I like Part Two more than Part One? Hmmmm. I still think my favorite stretch out of all of Villeneuve’s Dune is the first hour of Part One. Ya know, the stretch of that movie that has no fucking action to speak of and which people complain is too slow. I know, weird, but the best moments in these movies show Villeneuve as someone who keenly understands visual storytelling, worldbuilding, and also just science fiction as an ethos. He’s a genuine fan of the genre and you can feel it in each of his SF movies. I still think Arrival is his best (it’s arguably the best SF movie of the 2010s), but I’m also curious how he will try to make Rendezvous with Rama compelling for modern movie audiences. (I like the novel a lot, but modernizing it and giving it a sense of actual stakes will be a challenge.) He will get at least a Best Director nomination at the Oscars next year and I will eat a fucking shoe Werner Herzog-style if he doesn’t.