It’s almost too obvious. The film opens with a big, action-packed battle scene where lots of people die. Of course, you’re thinking of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan. This is spot on. It’s so easy to understand. And so there is no way directed by Denis Villeneuve did not take this into account when preparing opening Dune: Part Threewas announced at CinemaCon this week.
Villeneuve screened the first seven minutes his new film at the eventand here’s how it played out. Unless you want to wait until December, of course.
There are drums over the opening logos for Warner Bros., Legendary and more. They beat louder. Faster. A siren sounds and a bunch of rectangular shaped ships are launched into space. They’re going through the atmosphere of an unknown planet, and it’s brutal. Lightning strikes the environment as it enters the atmosphere and sinks toward the surface. A few are actually destroyed by the air as they continue to fall and get closer to the planet’s surface.
Those who pass it lower the level and fly along the surface. A lot Star Wars they note that they have never seen water fall from the sky as the rectangular shaped vehicles travel across the land to the coast. We cut inside and saw dozens of soldiers on board. They are waiting with all kinds of nervous energy. One mentions the name of water falling from the sky. Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is among the deployed soldiers and watches as another leader tries to rally the troops by playing some songs.
Encouraged, the Fremen soldiers leave their ships for this rainy planet. They are a little confused and confused by the weather, but they move forward nonetheless. They disembark from the ships onto the quiet planet and wait. And listen. They hear the rain falling, and as cool as that sounds, they interrupt the barrage of laser blasts. The explosions detonate several ships and burn people. A look through the scope reveals that only one weapon does this.
The ground rises for miles. A huge structure almost like an atomic bomb emerges from the ground. And more laser fire appears on several levels of this structure. The Fremen rain down fire on them as they take cover. People die; ships explode. Finally, they think they’ve figured it out as a huge explosion comes from the sky and they try to fight back and destroy the weapons.
It doesn’t matter. Lasers still fire, turning ships and people into swiss cheese. The Fremen move a shield-piercing weapon to the front and aim. But all the explosions backfire and kill more people. We watch as one of the Fremans flees in terror, defeated, only to be cut down anyway. A large enemy ship is advancing. Laser fire continues. None of this looks good.
From there, we cut to a trailer with similar footage to the first teaser, but with some new stuff as well. “What do you know about me?” Paul Duncan asks Idaho clone Haight. “You’ve conquered the galaxy,” he says. “You have destroyed thousands of worlds.” Thoughts on that? Paul asks. “You have a way of getting paid back,” says Duncan.
Things cut faster from there. We watch as Paul’s sister is covered in blood. A group of people dressed almost like sci-fi samurai line up to fight; Chani (Zendaya) challenges Paul. Paul fights Duncan. Finally, Paul admits that he needs Duncan. And in Arakis, a giant sandworm emerges.
Call us crazy, but we think so Dune: Part Three it will be great. It opens on December 18.
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