We're starting Part Two of the film, that is, where Dune Messiah ends and the actual Children of Dune begins. So, unless this new media player fucks up on me, let's begin...
title card blah blah blah narration that implies that Leto and Ghanima are aged up ten-ish years in this adaptation blah
It's not just the grand tradition of all Dune movies—this time, they probably did it because Leto and Ghanima, the main characters, are only nine years old. Pre-born (see rest of liveblog for what that is), but requiring really young actors. It must have been too much trouble.
And sure enough, here's Leto, who looks and sounds like Daniel Radcliffe. WMG: [insert superpowered Dune faction here] are wizards! It explains everything.
Leto is sitting out in the desert, where he opens up a butterfly carrier (No, seriously—he has brought a butterfly with him that comes out of a butterfly-shaped holder. Someone should patent these.) and lets the insect stretch its wings. He then has a sketchily animated vision of his father telling him to pursue some mysterious Golden Path.
He is then distracted by his twin sister Ghanima, who looks at least ten years older than him. They comment that since where they live has been terraformed a bit, the sandworms don't come near there anymore, fearing the water. He tells his sister about the vision and worries that the planet is changing too quickly. First they wanted the planet to be greener, and now it's moving that way too fast—guess you can't please everyone.
They're also worried about turning out like Alia. Since Dune Messiah, she's apparently changed for the worse.
Just then, Irulan, who looks younger than Ghanima, shows up, with some ornithopters. The twins have to go now and greet a visitor—Jessica, their grandmother and Paul's mother.
Midway through the trip back to civilization, they spot something below. Leto steers off course to investigate—three sandworms, which have all appeared at once to show us how many teeth they have. Leto...just wanted to look at them? Well, not that he gets to see them often anymore. He expresses concern about their endangered species status.
The worms do not show the same concern for his life, and one attempts to eat the ornithopter. If the twins are pre-born/have all of their ancestors' memories, shouldn't they remember that worms will do this from the first movie? As in the first movie, they escape narrowly.
So they go to the capital, Arakeen, where Alia resides.
Here, she is constantly troubled by the voices of the spirits the pre-born have living in their head. The danger of being pre-born is that one might take over one's mind; perhaps getting overwhelmed this way is the first step.
D'aww, she is now married to Duncan.
What Alia doesn't have that her niece and nephew had, and that her father had, is prescience, and she appears obsessed with the absence of this power in her.
She also isn't sure about the visit of her mother, who she suspects is up to something.
Meanwhile, just above the atmosphere, Jessica waits in her ship. She is with Halleck—since I'm reading the book, too, as I'm doing this liveblog, I'm not yet sure if they have more of a relationship going on than as employer and servant. They note the political turmoil going on below, wrought with assassination plots, and regret that they didn't wait until things settled down to come. Too bad—this is Dune. Such things don't ever settle down.
And that's all for the update. Back tomorrow!
