Dune: Part 2 Is a Perfect Adaptation Because of One Key Difference

Dune: Part 2 completes the Denis Villeneuve adaptation of the first Dune novel by Frank Herbert. It’s a wildly influential work of science fiction and the follow up to a blockbuster Part 1. But how far did Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts veer from the beloved source material? And is that a bad thing? It’s time to let the spice flow, open our minds and appreciate that a perfect adaptation from page to screen is one that’s different.

Inevitably, adaptations as weighty as this will get held to the scrutiny of decades of fandom. What was left out, what was added, what was different. It was always a nearly impossible task to adapt Dune. David Lynch’s 1984 version was a strange beast, while Jodorowsky's Dune at least made for a great documentary a few decades later, and there was no danger of Part 2 being hyper-faithful thanks to Dune: Part 1 having already veered from the source material.

The bigger philosophical point about adaptations though is that they should be different. Whatever the source material, books, graphic novels, video games, anime going to live action, to not acknowledge the different medium is short-sighted. What a waste of all that Bene Gesserit training to ignore the difference 60 years of changing landscapes can make.

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