The next book is not so good

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in ‘Dune: Part Two’.

Warner Bros. Photos

Frank Herbert fans Dune The saga agrees: the first book is extraordinary: a planet-hopping hero’s journey with compelling characters, compelling action scenes, and clear story and character arcs. For all the talk that Dune It was impossible to adapt it, the central elements to make great cinema have always been in the 1965 book.

But the other one from Herbert Dune books? Good…

The remaining books have their admirers and detractors, but the general consensus is that the saga never comes close to reaching the dramatic heights of the first novel. Dune Director Denis Villeneuve himself has said that the books are becoming more and more “esoteric” and that is why he only wants to adapt the next one. Messiah of the dunesand is said to be almost finished with a script for a potential Dune: part three. But Messiah This also has many challenges.

That’s not 1969 Messiah of the dunes It’s bad per se. Many Herbert devotees love it, especially those who enjoy politics and philosophical discussion (Amazon’s review average is slightly behind the first book). It’s just not as overtly dramatic and doesn’t directly connect to the previous story as much as one would like. As one reviewer complained, Messiah It is “a lot of sitting and talking.” This isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just not what the first two films were.

Without giving away any real spoilers, Messiah continues after a 12-year time jump and focuses on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) ruling as Emperor, his relationship with his wife Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) and his concubine Chani (Zendaya). The violent jihad that Paul imagined and feared he would inspire throughout the first two films has come and gone. Now Paul is struggling to deal with a conspiracy to overthrow him while he hopes to produce an heir. The book focuses mainly on palace intrigues and seems more the size of a television set. Dune than the size of a movie Dune. Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is not in Messiah (something it’s hard to imagine Villeneuve not changing), and the story lacks obvious villains like the Harkonnens to drive the narrative. While Dune It’s an underdog epic, Messiah Does Paul struggle to keep his house in order and struggle with his status and legacy as a divine being?

Until now, Villeneuve has been extremely faithful to his source material (his approach to DuneThe adaptation consisted of finding essential elements of the characters and story and eliminating the rest rather than making significant changes). But Messiah presents an interesting creative dilemma: the more faithful the adaptation, the less likely the result will be convincing on the screen and the less comparable the film will be with the first two parts.

This is not to predict Dune 3 it will definitely be weaker or radically different. There’s so much cinematic and narrative skill on display in the first two films, and plenty of chess pieces left on the table, so Villeneuve will probably make a film that works (and will certainly be worth watching anyway). But you could say that Villeneuve and his co-writers need to show a level of adaptive flexibility and creativity beyond what they have done so far to elevate Messiah to a place where it feels like a The return of the king preferable to Godfather Part III (a comparison that is actually quite apt given the third Godfather the film’s time jump and its heavy plot). The very end of The second part hints at a potentially promising departure from the books, showing a betrayed-looking Chani abandoning Paul’s army, establishing a potentially more antagonistic relationship between the lovers in Part three.

In any case, Villeneuve has said Messiah it would be the end Dune movie. “If I manage to make a trilogy, that would be my dream,” Villeneuve has said. “Messiah of the dunes was written as a reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero. Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation is closer to his idea that it is actually a warning.”