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'Transgender and gender diverse individuals'

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Movies &; TV Dune Dune: Part Two Asks Questions That the Original Never Dared Denis Villeneuve’s new Dune film alters the arcs of key characters‚ but not everyone gets such careful treatment. By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on March 4‚ 2024 Image: Warner Bros. Pictures icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Image: Warner Bros. Pictures If you had the ability to reconsider one of the cornerstones of the science fiction genre‚ what would you do with that chance? It is perhaps enough to say that I cannot stop thinking about Dune: Part Two since leaving the theater. That is more than a satisfactory reason to recommend it‚ to my mind. Films don’t need to be perfect in order to provoke us‚ and Dune: Part Two certainly isn’t perfect. What’s exciting to me as a viewer and a critic is knowing that no one is likely to agree on the ways in which it falters or triumphs. What is also exciting to me is knowing that a particular stripe of fan is going to be very displeased about what was altered‚ after an initial salvo that seemed to indicate a careful adherence to the basic narrative. While Dune: Part One looked and felt like its source material perhaps more than any other screen adaptation‚ it drew a number of pointed criticisms‚ particularly where its depiction and casting of the Fremen were concerned. For my part‚ a lack of focus given to Lady Jessica’s narrative was also drew ire. Given the ways in which Part One was successful—namely in the look‚ feel‚ and scope of the film—what would director Denis Villeneuve create to complete this journey? Building on the framework that Part One painstakingly put in place‚ Part Two is more stunning‚ more grotesque‚ and somehow far grander than the first. We are given the diaries of Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) as scaffolding in place of her written histories in the book‚ but the device offers the same anchoring‚ the same helpful exposition by way of a new figure who is learning precisely how dangerous her father’s machinations have become. The design choices of these films continue to be immaculate in every sense of the word‚ from the sand of Arrakis slipping into every crevice to the monochrome oil and iron stylings of the Harkonnen homeworld Geidi Prime. There are moments designed to make you gasp. Paul’s (Timothée Chalamet) first worm ride to become Fremen is perhaps the key point among these‚ a feat that Villeneuve is determined to make the audience feel with every muscle as the prophisized chosen one clings to the hide of a sandworm as big as a skyscraper with two metal hooks his only hope for survival. The introduction of Austin Butler’s Feyd Rautha is similarly arresting‚ Butler’s casting easily being one of the more impressive choices for Part Two—Butler plays the role simultaneously calculating‚ feral‚ and deeply horny‚ and the choice pays out dividends every time he steps on screen. Image: Warner Bros. Pictures The primary changes that Dune: Part Two enacts come from choices made about the Fremen people and their willingness to believe the legends seeded on Arrakis by the Bene Gesserit generations ago‚ all about the outer world prophet sent to deliver them. Rather than making Paul’s ascent a simple question of when he is ready to follow the path‚ a much-needed dose of realism is injected into the story—not every Fremen believes in their religious dogma. There are divisions among their people when questioning who can save Arrakis and its people‚ and who should fight to free them. Importantly‚ Chani is one of the key dissenters against the path that Paul will eventually take. It makes sense of the casting of Zendaya in the role because up until this reveal‚ it had been something of a mystery as to why this would be a part she would want to play. (As an actor‚ she has always been very exacting about the roles she has taken on as an adult‚ and the book’s Chani decidedly does not fit that mold.) In reconsideration of Chani’s story‚ Zendaya is perhaps the brightest piece of this puzzle‚ intent on convincing her people that they are the arbiters of their own destiny‚ that only Fremen can liberate themselves. The awkwardness then comes from the fact that following this arc seems to be in service of taking the sting out of Paul Atreides’ role as a brutal colonizing force‚ to reposition his choices as an evil he is actively aware of and trying to overcome. Paul is willing to openly critique Fremen prophecies as the Bene Gesserit trick that they are‚ to insist that he’s not a savior and merely wants to become Fremen and fight alongside them. His desire to defy that path set down by his mother and the Bene Gesserit is a large part of why Chani falls in love with him. This creates a better story‚ certainly‚ and it further humanizes many characters that don’t feel fleshed out enough within the pages of the novel (Paul‚ Chani‚ Stilgar). The question then becomes how does this change the overall story? Because there are many pieces left barely on the board in Dune: Part Two and it makes for confusing viewing. After having her own arc utterly decimated in Part One‚ Rebecca Ferguson’s Jessica Atreides becomes more perplexing than ever. While it’s initially suggested that she’s following the path laid down by the Bene Gesserit in order to keep them alive‚ Jessica is also doing so against her directives from the order to ends that are never clarified. Furthermore‚ the purpose of creating the kwisatz haderach is completely lost in this story‚ making matters more puzzling. Paul winds up drinking the water of life to… get better visions? Which is important for him‚ sure‚ but makes the Bene Gesserit schemes suddenly nonsensical—why bother working to create the kwisatz haderach if he’s not really that important in helping you achieve your aims? The result makes it seem that Paul’s true difficulty is being caught between his mother (and his unborn but fully conscious sister) and the woman he loves‚ respectively representations of a shadowy order of eugenics-wielding politicking women and the indigenous people he wishes to join and liberate. Without any attention paid to the Mentats or other various power players that Frank Herbert’s tome showcased‚ this genuinely damages the core of the story. It was the right choice to pay more attention to Chani and the Fremen people‚ but an equal amount of attention needed to be paid to other female characters in order for it to plumb make sense… which the film neglects to do. And tellingly‚ it has no problem spending an outrageous amount of time on the stories of men instead. The centering of Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) in this film is a strange mistake that seems to be making a meal out of an overarching revenge theme for several of the film’s central characters. Paul‚ Jessica‚ and Gurney are all driven out of a desire for revenge on specific people—Paul against the Emperor (Christopher Walken) and Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard)‚ Jessica against her own Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling)‚ and Gurney against Rabban (Dave Bautista). While revenge is certainly an underlying motivation throughout Dune‚ the choice to zero in on it does nothing for the story‚ and actually serves to take time away from figures who need and deserve more development. It also reassigns defining narrative moments for characters who will become incredibly important down the line‚ if Villeneuve gets the money to make more movies in this series. (Yes‚ for those wondering‚ I am talking about Alia.) The timeline of the film is greatly compressed as well‚ a choice that is frequently made in film—rules around screenwriting often tout that immediacy is king‚ and it’s just not true—that I will never understand. Rather than taking place over years‚ Dune: Part Two takes place over months‚ robbing the characters of their chances to truly root and grow as groups‚ and turning up momentum on the story like a boulder gaining speed as it rolls down a mountainside. It takes time to become a legend‚ but here you just need one big speech‚ and you’re good to go‚ apparently. And then there are a the bits that manage to be good and bad at once. The last hour of the film is overwhelming‚ undoubtedly an intentional choice meant to heighten tension and saddle the audience with the same increasing dread that the characters are feeling. While the sound design for Dune is incredible fullstop‚ it might prove too much for some viewers by the end‚ not just in terms of auditory stimulation but bodily punishment—the whole room heavily vibrates for a solid 45 minutes. (I am saying this as a person who loves the immersive sound quality of a movie theater more than anything on this earth. If I think you’ve maybe overdone it‚ that’s… probably not the best sign.) Having said all of this‚ I still enjoyed the hell out of Dune: Part Two. As a film experience‚ a spectacle‚ a sideways look at a familiar story‚ it is top tier. As a movie you’ll leave the theater talking about‚ there are none better. I’m content to let it have its moment. But I’ll meet you at the bar later to tease out all the things we can’t stop prodding at‚ our very own misshapen bruise that somehow resembles a desert mouse.[end-mark] The post <;i>;Dune: Part Two<;/i>; Asks Questions That the Original Never Dared appeared first on Reactor.

Rereads and Rewatches Star Trek These Were the Voyages — Looking Back on 13 Years of Star Trek Rewatches Thoughts on rewatching over five decades of Trek‚ from “The Cage” to “Star Trek Beyond” By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on March 4‚ 2024 icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed It all started in 2011‚ which‚ somehow‚ is thirteen years ago. Well‚ strictly speaking‚ it started a couple of years earlier when Eugene Myers and Torie Atkinson commenced their rewatch of the original Star Trek on this here site. They did the first two seasons‚ but then moved on‚ and my fellow Trek scribes (and dear friends) Dayton Ward and David Mack stepped in to do the third season. That finished in 2011‚ and the next logical step was to do The Next Generation. However‚ that was a much greater commitment—seven seasons’ worth of episodes rather than three‚ which would require two entries per week instead of one—and Dave and Dayton didn’t really have the time to devote to that. They recommended me‚ instead. The transition from one to the other involved several different writers taking a look at each of the original-series movies‚ with Dayton‚ Dave‚ myself‚ the late great A.C. Crispin‚ and site staff writers Ryan Britt and Emmet Asher-Perrin all taking a look at each movie before I dove into Picard and the gang. And what a long strange trip it’s been. In 2011‚ I just was grateful for the work. While I was part of the regular stable of Trek fiction writers throughout the first decade of the millennium‚ editorial changes at Simon &; Schuster following the economic crash of late 2008 resulted in me no longer being in that stable. And my other regular gig—scripting the Farscape comic books for BOOM! Studios in collaboration with that show’s creator Rockne S. O’Bannon—was also coming to an end. The opportunity to write two articles a week about one of my favorite subjects appealed greatly from both a professional and personal standpoint. One of the first things I wanted to do was give my rewatches their own format and style distinct from what Eugene‚ Torie‚ Dave‚ and Dayton did. So I stole the format used by Paul Cornell‚ Martin Day‚ and Keith Topping for their various unauthorized guides to genre shows published in the 1990s by having the rewatches divided into various subsections‚ ideally with funny titles. Because I wanted to have fun with this‚ dagnabbit. I really wasn’t thinking ahead when I started in 2011‚ but when 2013 rolled around and I was into the seventh season‚ I had a decision to make. It was‚ mind you‚ a very easy decision. The TNG Rewatch entries had proven to be quite popular and were prompting nifty discussions in the comments. (Let me pause here to once again sing the praises of the folks here at Reactor Magazine for having a comments section that belies the usual Internet truism to never read the comments. The beneath-the-article conversations on this site have been one of the best things about writing for this site the last baker’s dozen of years.) So after we did a second movie marathon (with me and staff writers Emmet‚ Ryan‚ and Chris Lough each doing one of the TNG movies)‚ I launched the Deep Space Nine Rewatch‚ which proved to be just as popular and full of nifty conversation. I also have to confess that some of my favorite pieces for this site were for the DS9 Rewatch‚ particularly the ones I wrote for two of the show’s finest episodes‚ “In the Pale Moonlight” and especially “Far Beyond the Stars.” As I barrelled through the Dominion War that ended DS9 in 2015‚ however‚ I had another decision to make. I didn’t really want to move on to Voyager‚ as I was never a big fan of that particular spinoff. But it had been a few years since the original series rewatch‚ and my own takes on TNG and DS9 had been popular enough that I thought it was worth doing my own look at the original series‚ especially given that we were coming up on the show’s 50th anniversary in 2016. To make it stand out from what Eugene‚ Torie‚ Dave‚ and Dayton did‚ I had two additional features. I didn’t just cover the 80 episodes that were produced between 1964 and 1969 (counting “The Cage” in there). I also looked at the animated series released in 1973 and 1974 and all the movies featuring Kirk and the gang from 1979-1991 as well as the re-cast ones released between 2009 and 2016. Once I finished that off—which included some lengthy discussions of the movies—I figured I was done. In 2017‚ I moved on to do the Superhero Movie Rewatch‚ which kept me going for some time. Plus‚ I still had Trek stuff to write about‚ as Discovery debuted that fall‚ and—having‚ at that point‚ written a ton about Trek for six years—I was excited to review new episodes as they came out‚ which I have done‚ not just for Discovery‚ but also Short Treks‚ Picard‚ Lower Decks‚ and Strange New Worlds‚ plus periodic pieces on the kids’ show Prodigy. (This will continue‚ as I’ll be reviewing the final season of Discovery when it debuts in April.) And then 2019 was coming to a close‚ and my superhero movie rewatch was catching up to real-time. I found myself confronted with two facts: (1) 2020 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Voyager’s debut. (2) A lot of people—mostly women who grew up in the 1990s and for whom Janeway was their captain—thought I wasn’t giving Voyager a fair shake. So in January 2020‚ I started rewatching Voyager. This turned out to be a much more important thing than expected thanks to the apocalypse that started a couple of months later. For myself and for a lot of readers‚ having a new Voyager Rewatch twice a week was a welcome bit of consistency in a world that had gone completely batshit. Best of all‚ it was a very enjoyable experience for me to get to rewatch Voyager with fresh eyes. Once I neared the end of 2021 and Voyager’s final season‚ my next step was inevitable. I’d rewatched all the other older shows and I’d reviewed all of the newer shows—to not do an Enterprise Rewatch would’ve just been silly. I needed to have a complete set‚ after all. (To that end‚ I also needed to cover two more feature films. While I did all the movies with Kirk‚ Spock‚ et al‚ as part of the original series rewatch‚ I’d only covered First Contact of the TNG films. I included Generations as part of the original series rewatch‚ but that still left two unrewatched by self. Luckily‚ Picard’s third-season reunion of the TNG crew gave me the excuse I needed to do rewatches of both Insurrection and Nemesis in 2023.) Now I’ve come to the end of that‚ and I find myself disappointed that it’s over—seriously‚ doing these rewatches has been tremendous fun—but also satisfied with the body of work that I’ve created. I especially love hearing that people are doing rewatches of their own and then reading my entries after each episode. Best of all‚ folks are still commenting on things I wrote over the entirety of the last thirteen years. The most interesting part of the rewatches for me has been the revelations. I’ve been watching Star Trek since birth. I grew up on the reruns of the original series on Channel 11 in New York City‚ and eagerly consumed all the movies as they were released‚ was a devoted viewer of TNG and DS9‚ a somewhat less devoted viewer of Voyager and Enterprise‚ and now am an equally devoted viewer of the various new shows. On top of that‚ I’ve been a professional Trek fiction writer since 1999‚ having written sixteen novels‚ thirteen novellas‚ ten short stories (with two more on the way)‚ six comic books‚ one reference book‚ one RPG module‚ and a bunch of material for an RPG sourcebook. I mention all that‚ not to show off‚ but to say that I know a lot about Trek. Despite this‚ each rewatch gave me new insights into the shows in question that I did not expect. Credit: CBS The original series. After decades of watching the show‚ I’d kind of settled into the notion that the first season was uneven but very good‚ the second season was the show at its best‚ and the third season was crap. Rewatching it from 2015-2017 revealed two big things: one was that I was at once unfair to season one and too kind to season two. Both are uneven‚ both are very good—and in particular‚ I found that the second season moved away from one of the things that makes Trek unique and important. The first season wasn’t about scary monsters that had to be destroyed‚ but rather about people‚ even if they were alien: the salt vampire was the last of its kind trying to survive‚ the creature killing miners was a mother protecting her eggs‚ the Gorn invasion turned out to be the Gorn responding to an invasion‚ and so on. But in season two‚ it was all kill-the-monsters: the giant amoeba‚ the doomsday machine‚ the cloud creature‚ etc. Also‚ while the third season was‚ indeed‚ terrible‚ it did have one thing going for it. Where most of the female characters in seasons one and two succumbed to the stereotypes of the era about the so-called fairer sex‚ the final year gave us some fantastic women: Elaan‚ Dr. Miranda Jones‚ Gem‚ Mara‚ Natira‚ Deela‚ Losira‚ Zarabeth. Credit: CBS The Next Generation. I went into my TNG Rewatch with the notion that Jonathan Frakes was a fairly limited actor and that Riker went from being conceived as the big action man while Picard was the cerebral captain to being Picard’s second banana in more ways than one. I also went into it with the notion that Geordi La Forge as a character was mostly harmless‚ the dorky engineer‚ created as a nice tribute to a fan. (George La Forge was a quadriplegic Trek fan who died in 1975; at David Gerrold’s instigation‚ the differently abled member of the Enterprise-D crew was named after him.) I came out of my TNG Rewatch with a much greater appreciation of Frakes as an actor. He was superb in many of his spotlight episodes‚ most notably “Frame of Mind” and “The Pegasus‚” plus he just had a general relaxed charisma that worked beautifully. The first season had way too much strutting and lookit-me-I’m-manly writing of the character‚ plus Frakes himself was wooden as hell in that first year—but so was most of the cast. Growing the beard for season two obviously relaxed him some‚ and he settled into a good character played by a much better actor. As for La Forge‚ the character’s actions in “Booby Trap‚” “Aquiel‚” and most especially the morally repugnant “Galaxy’s Child” have aged very very badly. His treatment of Leah Brahms in the latter episode especially makes it hard to sympathize with the character in any way. I hasten to add that none of this is the fault of Burton‚ who is a national treasure. Credit: CBS Deep Space Nine. Of all the shows‚ DS9 is the one that had the least difference between how I felt about it when I started the rewatch in 2013 and when I finished it in 2015. I love DS9‚ it’s both my favorite of the Trek shows and‚ in my opinion‚ the strongest of them (though SNW is challenging it in the former category). Most of my feelings on the show—lots of good‚ some bad—didn’t change on rewatching. However‚ there was one negative that came out of writing about the show for this site‚ and that’s this: the all-male writing staff really blew it by totally missing that they made Benjamin Sisko the product of a rape‚ then compounding the error by having all the characters being totally okay with it. Credit: CBS Voyager. The primary benefit of rewatching Voyager in 2020 and 2021 was to give the show a fair shake. As I just said two paragraphs ago‚ DS9 was Trek at its finest‚ and Voyager’s first five seasons had the misfortune of airing alongside DS9’s final five seasons‚ and it was bound to suffer from the comparison. Plus‚ I found it overwhelmingly frustrating that the show kept running away from its premise. Knowing that going in‚ I was able to focus more this time on what the show was as opposed to what it wasn’t‚ and they did some damn fine individual episodes. Voyager was often brilliant at the execution of the high concept‚ and telling a cracking story in 42 minutes (or 84 for the two-parters). I also came away from the rewatch with a much greater appreciation of Roxann Dawson as an actor. She created a wonderfully complex character in B’Elanna Torres‚ one who struggles with depression and anger issues‚ and is that rare half-human‚ half-alien character in Trek who doesn’t really embrace either side of her heritage‚ and finds herself lost because of it. Credit: CBS Enterprise. Alas‚ where my negative impressions of Voyager were ameliorated by my rewatch‚ the same cannot be said for the first Trek spinoff to fail in the marketplace. My lack of interest in Enterprise’s weekly portrayal of Mediocre White People Failing Upward in the early days of the millennium felt completely justified in the early 2020s. But I did come away this time with one happier thought regarding the show‚ and that’s the work done by Jolene Blalock as T’Pol. Rick Berman-era Trek had a tropism for hiring women for their looks to then play complex characters who were nonetheless male-gazed like whoa‚ starting with Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax‚ continuing to Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine. Blalock was the worst example‚ because at least Dax and Seven were written well‚ mostly‚ but Blalock was constantly being written in ways that pandered to the heterosexual-teenage-boy-who-wants-to-see-boobies demographic. But Blalock did superb work to rise above that‚ and also to take advantage of the other way she was written‚ which was as the only grownup on the NX-01. T’Pol’s logic and experience saved the crew’s asses more than once. 50th anniversary. One other item I want to mention: In addition to the original series‚ I also rewatched another TV show that celebrated its golden anniversary in 2016: the Adam West Batman. To close out the 2016 calendar‚ I celebrated the double anniversary with four extras: The Green Hornet (produced by the same folks that did Batman)‚ Incubus (a movie starring William Shatner that was entirely in the constructed language of Esperanto)‚ preview shorts featuring Batgirl and Wonder Woman (again‚ produced by the same folks who did Batman)‚ and finally a joint endeavor‚ the failed 1964 pilot for an Alexander the Great TV series starring Shatner and West. Had it gone to series‚ the pop-culture landscape would’ve been so different… It has been a joy and a privilege to do these rewatches of the first five decades’ worth of Trek on the screen‚ from “The Cage” to Star Trek Beyond. And who knows? Maybe in a decade or so‚ I’ll think about doing a rewatch of Discovery… In the meantime‚ on the 18th of March‚ I’ll be debuting my next big project for Reactor Magazine: a Babylon 5 Rewatch! 2024 marks the thirtieth anniversary of B5’s debut as a TV series (following the pilot that aired in 1993)‚ and with creator J. Michael Straczynski planning a reboot‚ now seems the perfect time to look back at the original.[end-mark] The post These Were the Voyages — Looking Back on 13 Years of <;i>;Star Trek<;/i>; Rewatches appeared first on Reactor.