Dune Part 2

Une bonne continuation, as the French would have it. But ultimately unsatisfactory – it opens up at the end to a Dune 3, which I probably won’t bother with. It’s all too much action and adventure and not enough of the religion and weirdness of the books. And what did Christopher Walken think about his role as evil emperor type? I guess the cheque was nice.

That all sounded a bit catty. It’s a beautiful film, and the whole Aramis/Dune thing – the plans to convert a desert planet to one with oceans – is beautiful too, and helps me segue beautifully into…

The Martian

More sc-fi, and again with a biological backdrop, as Matt Damon gets stranded on Mars, and works out how to grow potatoes to survive. The agenda is the wonder of science, more specifically of scientific determination: (rough quote) ‘I’m going to think the shit out of the science [of this problem]’. He does this, several times, and then the whole world (symbolised by the Americans and the Chinese, cheered on by a little crowd in Trafalgar Square, think the shit out of how to get him home again. Which they then do; the last minutes are spoiled by Matt telling rookie astronauts about his adventures.

How they are related

Sandy planets, needing life. Potentially thoughtful tales morphed by budgets into adventure narratives.