Dune: Part Two questions the entire messiah industrial complex. False messiah always felt like an oxymoron for non-believers like me. Although I subscribe to the great man theory, I never trusted prophecies or the messiahs with their rigid religious doctrines. These theories have bred despots and spread misery. Religion is truly the opium of the masses and Muad'Dib is here to control that opium aka Spice.

I need to watch this again to take in all the spices Denis Villeneuve used to cook this film. For now, I will limit this piece to discussing characters only.

Villeneuve mentioned that this film is a slight deviation from the book as Frank Herbert was not happy with the reception of the first novel that took it as a messiah savior tale when, in fact, he was trying to establish the falsity and politics behind the myths. He wrote a follow-up to clarify his intentions clearly - Dune Messiah. Villeneuve also makes Herbert's intentions clear with Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica character and her conversations with the unborn sister, Anya Taylor-Joy's Alia Atreides. Lady Jessica turns sinister pretty quickly in this film. Compared to the first edition, her character arc took a drastic turn. And with her voiceover feeding us her motivations, there is hardly any doubt about where this is all going to end.

Paul Atreiedes' arc in this film was sort of pre-destined. With visions of an impending universal disaster that could lead to billions of deaths, he feels compelled to stop himself. He tries to channel the power to control minds but fails day after day until finally he does and does that at the moment when he has transformed into the hubristic prophet he feared he would become. What starts off as a way to win over the hearts of the non-believers turns into a way to control the reigns of the empire on the bodies of the revolters. Like a snake shedding its outer skin, Paul sheds his Atreiedes attire to become Muad'Dib.

When Villeneuve mentioned that Dune: Part Two will have more of Zendaya's Chani when questioned about her low screen time in the first part, I honestly thought he was being diplomatic. But Chani truly gets a lot of presence in this film and ultimately ends up as the conflict point for the sequel. Right when Paul is shedding his genuine fears, Chani is picking up the signs of the coming tragedy. She sees him making moves for power. She sees him believing his own myth. She sees him straying away from the path of liberation to the path of conquer. She is the audience's conscience. We see the downfall and the facade of the messiah through her eyes.

If there is one thing Villeneuve couldn't give his best, it is the characters of the villains. Whenever Villeneuve wants to show us that the characters are brutes, he cops out by presenting the repetitive action of bashing the powerless sidekicks. Austin Butler's Feyd-Rautha could've had more presence. I felt his entrance sequence should have happened a lot earlier in the film. Josh Brolin's Gurney Halleck is mostly relegated to a few laughs. I get that it is really difficult to do justice to so many roles in a single film.

And that finally brings me to Florence Pugh's Princess Irulan. For the tech-averse universe of Dune, she gets to have a voice recorder. Are these special privileges for the rulers of the ruling class? Irulan's character is more of a glimpse than a flesh-and-blood person in this film. With that climax duel, her role gains more prominence.

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