The Sleeper Must Awaken: All Things Dune

Note: this piece was written back in February 2024 & has been rejigged slightly.

Back at the start of 2024, and with the impending release of the highly anticipated Dune Part 2, I entered another obsessive phase in the lead-up to the release of the new film. I hungrily devoured all the Dune I could: rewatched David Lynch’s 1984 version / caught the re-release of Dune Part 1 in IMAX / re-watched Jodorowsky’s Dune / watched the 3 hour fan edit of Lynch’s Dune / read Frank Herbert’s OG book for the first time / spun my vinyl of Hans Zimmer's epic score to Dune Part 1 and picked up the new book (at the time) A Masterpiece In Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune - An Oral History by Max Evry.

As I began this binge, I realised that Dune is probably my favourite sci-fi property, despite growing up a Star Wars kid and having never read the novel (until now). This means that most of that love came from the Lynch film, which I watched countless times on a taped-off-TV VHS tape as a kid, and then Denis Villeneuve’s Part 1 from 2021.

The Lynch film cops a lot of shit, which I get - it’s long, unwieldy and weird - but I legit believe it is a pretty great film, even in it’s truncated form (it was cut down from it’s original 3-hour length against Lynch’s wishes). Even the 3-hour TV cut was done without Lynch’s approval, hence the ‘Directed By Alan Smithee’ credit.

The Fan Edit - which can be found on YouTube HERE - takes the extra footage from the TV cut and reintegrates it according to the book as best it can, and makes for a fascinating watch. There are some wonderful scenes in this version, including Paul’s knife fight with Jamis (as seen at the end of Dune Part 1), and a great heartfelt reunion scene between Paul and the brainwashed Thufir Hawat at the end of the film. We also see the creation of the Water of Life with a baby sandworm (also seen in Dune Part 2). I highly recommend it if you are a fan of the Lynch film, or are even mixed on it. The same problems still mostly exist, namely a rushed second half - although to be fair, the book does the same thing - and Chani still not being given much to do.

Seeing Dune Part 1 in IMAX was kind of revelatory to me. I really quite liked Denis Villeneuve’s first swing at the book, even though I have some issues, namely with some characters being minimised (Thufir Hawat, Doctor Yueh) and some scenes not measuring up to Lynch’s interpretation (the Gom Jabbar hand scene for one). But on the huge IMAX screen, the film came to life even more, with a good third of the film going the full 1.90:1 aspect ratio.

Suffice it to say I was pumped for Part 2. And in all honesty, I came away feeling similar to how I did after my first viewing of Part 1 - I really liked it, was blown away by the filmmaking craft on display, but still left a little cold by the whole thing. The characters and their stories just fall a bit flat, which I feel is a script problem. One improvement is with Chani (Zendaya), who is a much more active participant in the story than she was in the novel and the Lynch film. But even so, she isn't given much to do in the second half of the film, apart from glaring at Paul and making her dissatisfaction with his choices apparent.

Part 2 sorely needs a Duncan Idaho, as Jason Momoa brought a lot of heart and humour to the first film. Josh Brolin's Gurney Halleck is the obvious stand-in, but even he isn't given enough to do, and his battle against Rabban is over much too quickly. I also have a problem with the editing, with less essential scenes going on for too long and later more important scenes (like the sandworm assault on Arrakeen) being rushed through to get to the end and a setup for Part 3.

I’m not a fan of being left hanging at the end of a film (as Part 1 also did), I think each film, regardless of its part in a series, should feel like (and satisfy as) a complete story. The otherwise amazing Harkkonen Coliseum fight with Feyd would have made an excellent opener to the film instead of showing up nearly halfway through the film. But again, the good outweighs the less-than-great, with Villeneuve crafting an astonishingly tactile world. You can almost smell the spice blowing across the sands of Arrakis. There are some incredible moments, like Paul’s first sandworm ride, the floating Harkkonen soldier battle and the final assault on the Harkkonens, all conjuring huge spectacle. I will be watching this again in IMAX as soon as I can to get the full vision.

Updated June 2025: Spoiler alert - I did not get to watch Dune Part 2 in IMAX. But I now own the 4K set of both films and have rewatched them both again, and my thoughts remain pretty much the same.

Since then, I have also read Herbert's sequel, Dune Messiah and, well yeah, it's an odd one. Here are my thoughts from earlier this year:

Denis Villeneuve has his work cut out for him on this one. The original Dune novel was renowned for being unfilmable, but whoever said that clearly hadn’t read Dune Messiah.

The first Dune book has a classic narrative structure, whereas Messiah has no real structure to speak of and arguably even less narrative. It’s not bad as such, but doesn’t read like a sequel or Part 2 to the original, more like an epilogue to the greater Paul Atreides story.

Herbert oddly decided to skip the Holy War set up at the end of Dune and jump forward 12 years to deal with the aftermath and hammer home his point that Paul is no heroic messiah, more a doomed ruler who struggles to escape his preordained fate. My beef with Herbert here is that if you are going to skip a potentially epic and interesting part of the story, then where you land should be just as interesting, and sadly, it’s not. It’s still a good read - there is a lot of intrigue and ideas going on, but for a short book (220 pages), most of it is characters talking and plotting in palace rooms with barely a visit to the desert or even a glimpse of a sandworm.

The brief mention of the holy war says billions died and thousands of planets were involved, but none of them are visited or even mentioned. Duncan Idaho returns as the reanimated Ghola Hayt, and his storyline is the most interesting as he fights against his programming to potentially assassinate Paul.

Things pick up towards the end of the book & come together for a fitting end to Paul’s story (although apparently it’s not quite over). But where the hell is Guerney Halleck in all this? He gets one mention at the end & that’s about it.

I imagine Villeneuve & co will have to invent / include some of the Holy War to bridge the two books for Part 3, as if filmed as is, it would be a very dull & dry film. I guess they could crib from Paul of Dune, but having not read it, I have no idea if that would be a good move or not). And I know it’s an obvious casting pick, but Peter Dinklage for Bijax - he would eat that role up.

3 non-existent sandstorms out of 5