Dune II

[Catullus64]

As a fan of The Book (yes, the one and only Book; I'm that kind of fan) and having been thoroughly enamoured by Part 1, Dune: Part II frankly disappointed me.

Spoiler

Show

Lady Jessica: Marginalised as a character even further from the weakness portrayed in Part I. I always read Jessica as strong and in control, even in the face of the uncertain situations she finds herself in (Pauls awakening, being forced into becoming Reverend Mother, being an outsider in an unfamiliar society, Alia's strangeness, etc.). Film Part I put her in a position of being too reactive and uncertain; emotional even. Part II went even further so as to remove any kind of her own agency; being influenced by the Fremen Reverend Mothers and/or Alia, buying into the Progenita Missionara to the exclusion of her own ties to the ideals of the Atreides/Paul, etc.

Chani: Relegated from supportive life partner, mother of Pauls child, priestess, friend to and confidant of Lady Jessica and a generally quite interesting character to "stroppy love interest".

Spoiler

Show

I agree with you on the diminishment of Jessica as a character, but I feel your characterization of Chani, both in the book and in this movie, is pretty off, which matters because it ties in very directly with why Jessica is so different here.

Chani, in the book, is a pretty passive character; her most meaningful contributions to the plot are as mother to Leto and Ghanima, and as a tool that the conspirators try to use to manipulate Paul. That doesn't make her unimportant to the story (story =/= plot, after all) or lacking in characterization, but her choices don't really shape the narrative in any significant way. It works fine in the book, but I don't think that characterization would have worked very well for the themes and ideas the filmmakers have chosen to emphasize.

Chani in the film is very, very different, but characterizing her as just "stroppy love interest" seems to me like a failure to engage with the themes of the film. Chani is persistently framed by the film as the voice of Fremen opposition to Paul's ascendency, someone who realizes, correctly, that Paul's ascendancy as a messiah will not liberate the Fremen, and will instead turn them into the tools of a despotic regime.

I love the novel Dune to pieces, but there are elements of its social and political themes that have not aged all that well. In particular, it is a book that critiques colonial and religious exploitation, but it mostly centers the perspectives and interior monologue of the people doing the exploiting, rather than the exploited. If the films are to seriously carry those themes forward into the modern day, having a Fremen character who actually gives voice to the tragedy and evil of Paul's actions is pretty important. (Especially since Paul's deep inner conflict and ultimate powerlessness are harder to convey in film language.) Since you say you're off to re-read the book, count how many times a the interior monologue of a Fremen character is heard (spoiler: Unless you count Kynes, it's basically none.)

If you assume that such a Fremen character is necessary, Chani is a natural pick; her antipathy towards what Paul represents, contrasted against her love for Paul as an individual, is richly tragic. And if further films go where the books do plot-wise, these tragic themes will really come to a head: her love for Paul results in her giving birth to an even worse despot.

I do feel that Jessica's more simplistic treatment in the film is an unfortunate casualty of this change, but it still makes a certain narrative sense: she is, after all, largely responsible for a lot of what happens. She's a deeply morally ambiguous figure, but the book softens this by focusing so much on her guilt and conflict over the part she plays in the Jihad. Here, we feel the weight of what Jessica does, because she is actually presented as a dangerous and sinister figure.