A second success for Max? To make its place in the ultra-competitive SVOD sector, the Warner Bros subsidiary has a well-established strategy. In addition to making iconic HBO titles available, Game of Thrones has The Last of Us moving on to the next series Harry Potterthe company hopes to attract many eyes with its most popular universes in cinema. The Penguin was born from this desire to deepen this cinematographic mythology, to bridge the gap between two opuses of The Batman. In November, it’s the adaptation of Dune by Denis Villeneuve who benefits from such preferential treatment. This time, it’s a leap of 10,000 years in the past which is on the program of celebrations. To not interfere with Jon Spaihts and Villeneuve’s plans for Messiahthe narrative of this series will focus on the birth of the Bene Gesserit and its meteoric rise to become a primordial entity for the Imperium.
After a merciless war between humans and thinking machines, the Imperium reforms in fear of seeing technologies once again take control. Valya Harkonnenwhose name fell into disgrace following these events, joins the Community of Sisters in order to develop her extraordinary abilities. But when a certain Desmond Hart appears, the community sees its influence fade. A fierce fight then begins against this mysterious soldier who pledges allegiance to the Emperor. We have seen the first four episodes, should we succumb to the call?
Spicy conflicts
From the first moments, Dune : Prophecy denies any connection with the story of Paul Atreides and his arrival on Arrakis. If Denis Villeneuve made the planet the epicenter of these films, it is far from these arid landscapes that the project formerly called The Sisterhood. She will attach herself to explore the mysterious Bene Gesserit in detail and its mechanics of power. Alongside Valya Harkonnen, it is the learning of those who are readily described as witches which will be dissected, as much as the personalities who evolve within the confines of the austere academy. More political than Villeneuve’s proposal, and thus more talkative, Prophecy is both a welcome return to Frank Herbert’s imagination and a reappropriation of Denis Villeneuve’s ambition.
It appears very clearly that the series owes more to Game of Thrones that the duology Dune. The story navigates between several places and points of view, to tell how the Community of Sisters will become a central actor in political power. The thousands of years which separate this new proposal from the story of Paul Atreides offer the screenwriters freedom of movement, allows them to escape from the motifs inherent in the first book. This is particularly true for the figure of the messiah (even if she still hovers) and the prophecy that will lead to her taking power. Carried by a talented cast, in particular Emily Watson et Jessica Barden in the shoes of Valya Harkonnen, Dune : Prophecy proves to be an interesting appendix to the history of a fictional world about which there is still so much to discover.
If all the ramifications of this table do not benefit from a convincing treatment, when the series focuses on the Harkonnen familyshe finds her light. Despised by everyone and locked up on a hostile planet, the dynasty called to occupy an essential place in the original cycle turns out to be the beating heart of this derivative series. In addition to the century-old conflict with the Atreides – which is obviously still relevant in the time of Paul and Feyd – it is the sacrifices of the sisters Valya and Tula which are addressed through rather scholarly flashbacks.
Still, the series must do cram a lot of ideas into six short episodesnot always giving spectators time to take in the measure of the most striking scenes. The four episodes that we have seen leave little respite for the viewer, who must familiarize themselves with a dense and apparently quite new universe. The mechanics are worn outnothing is really surprising, but we get into the game enough to want to continue alongside heroes quite admirably embodied.
Dissonance cognitive
Harkonnen, Atreides, Épice and Imperium, no doubt, it’s part of the cycle Dune which it is about. From the first moments, the series focuses on attach your universe to the main saga by summoning visual and sound elements taken to become emblems of a license that matters to Warner Bros. We can see the whirring shields presented in Denis Villeneuve’s first film, and recognize the characteristic outfits of the Sisters of the Bene Gesserit such as the Reverend Mother played by Charlotte Rampling.
However, for all that the series is familiar, it offers a significant part of novelty. The most striking thing remains the way in which the story for the moment refrains from involving Arrakis. She focuses her attention on other planets. This change of scenery results in an obvious aesthetic upheaval, closer to science fiction standards. The appearance of a bar lit with red neon lights, the presence of techno music or even chrome flying vehicles, cultivates the viewer’s cognitive dissonance. He finds himself torn between what he knows of Dune through the eyes of Villeneuve and whathe introduces him to the creator of Prophecy Diane Ademu-John and Allison Shapker. Sensory experience, a real argument in favor of Dune in the cinema, no longer really holds up.
We will end with the original music, which again frees itself from the shadow of Hans Zimmer to draw more widely on the standards of the HBO catalog. Squeaky violins, some more metallic accents, but a less organic approach, the scores of Volker Bertelmann are not particularly memorableand probably too present to allow any theme to stand out.
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
