2021 Movie Reviews

[TrueFaith77]

Lol well we not only seemed to have seen different movies, we seem to have read different books.

Brian Herbert’s perspective is a humanist one but his belief is that history nonetheless returns to medieval tribalism and despotism.

Hence Paul’s dilemma in the book between revenge and the “wild jihad” that leads to the massacre of billions across the galaxy. His fault in the book is that he believes he can possibly defeat his enemies and steer the future away from the holy war — a despotic delusion.

But the MOVIE does not visualize or dramatize this dilemma. I would argue that it celebrates his choice. The only hint at this choice in the movie is when he kills Jamis—after his vision suggested an alternative future in which they became friends. However, that’s bogus because Paul had no choice—it was, in fact, Jamis’s choice. I defy anyone to tell me why he makes it based on the movie alone (it’s clear in the book). So where in the movie does Paul make his fateful decision? Why? How is it expressed?

One more point: Denis Villeneuve used to be a master of using motifs to achieve a climactic gestalt—the tattoo in Incendies, Guernica in Polytechnique, the scary designs in Prisoners, the monkey figurines in Sicario.

What has happened to him?

He attempts this with the recurring cris-knife gift-giving, the return to Paul’s grandfather’s bull-fighting death. But they all lead to nothing.

I think if he had defeated Jamis with the cris-knife using bull-fighting technique, it would have tied those elements together and could have dramatized his betrayal of his ancestors. Instead, those motifs are reduced to insignificance. Mere Easter Eggs—as the kids say.

And the movie looked like a video game. Puke.