The Dune 3 Trailer looks different

[00:00:01][music] >> The first two Dune movies by Denis Villeneuve are very yellow.

[00:00:13]>> [music] >> They're also very orange.

[00:00:18]These colors range from a washed out sepia color to a deep blood orange color throughout the movies, and they very clearly represent the planet Arrakis and the desert. When I think of the color of Dune, I usually think of these colors.

[00:00:32]But there are obviously other colors in Dune, too. There's red to signify blood, prominent in Paul's holy war visions.

[00:00:40]There's also green, prominent in signifying House Atreides' color.

[00:00:45]Although after the first act of the movie, the color becomes very rare. But the rarest, the most sparse color in either of the Dune movies is actually blue.

[00:00:58]>> [music] >> Not the light washed out blue of the sky on Caladan, not the almost non-existent blue sky on Arrakis.

[00:01:07]A more deep and rich blue.

[00:01:12]>> [music] >> It sounds weird to say that blue is the rarest color in Dune >> [music] >> when it's possibly one of the most iconic. The characteristic blue eyes of the spice [music] users, the water of life, each are very prominent and recognizable.

[00:01:26]But other than these two main things, blue is as sparse as the water on Arrakis in Dune.

[00:01:32]The trailer for Dune Part Three looks different.

[00:01:36]It's shot on film, unlike the other two movies, and the cinematographer has also changed for a few reasons. But something that myself and a few others have noticed are the colors.

[00:01:46]Now, obviously the colors in Dune Part Three are different. [music] Denis Villeneuve even said he wanted Dune Three to look different and have a different tone. But how these colors are different is what really sticks out to me.

[00:01:58]It's so blue.

[00:02:03]There's going to be some mild spoilers for Dune Messiah, as well as the rest of the Dune series, but in my opinion, these spoilers don't ruin the experience of reading the books. Proceed at your own caution.

[00:02:14]I want to talk about the significance of Dune Messiah to the overall narrative of Dune. Dune Messiah is the book that Dune part three will adapt in its entirety.

[00:02:23]Though the book has received some criticism over the years, it seems like this criticism overshadows how important the novel's role [music] is, and also how good and interesting its substance is.

[00:02:32]Dune Messiah reads almost like an extension of the original book. In the first book and two movies, the Fremen speak of a green paradise.

[00:02:47]This prophecy, that the Lisan al Gaib will save the Fremen and create Arrakis into a green paradise, is integral to Fremen culture and identity, and hints at an overarching narrative in the former half of the Dune books.

[00:02:59]In Children of Dune, the third installment of the series, Arrakis is slowly transforming into the prophesized green paradise, with water having been and continuing to be imported. The book talks about how this is sort of an ecological disaster, causing harm to the ecosystem of Arrakis, including the invaluable sandworms, which create the spice, which is the most important resource in the entire universe. Even though in the first book, the Fremen were so firmly submitted to Paul and the prophecy of a green paradise with water and vegetation, which as I mentioned earlier was a prophecy that was integral to Fremen culture, something even more integral to Fremen culture and identity existed. The fact that there was no greenery and water in the first place.

[00:03:41]The promise of something that seemed so distant and impossible in such a harsh environment is why the Fremen faith flourished so much. With their religion and culture, the idea of a green paradise was just distant enough that they would keep fighting, but just enough that it seemed true. So, I can hear you asking, "What does this have anything to do with the trailer being blue?"

[00:04:02]It all comes down to Dune Messiah and its role in the story.

[00:04:07]When it comes to the ecological transformation of Arrakis, the corrosion and changing of faith, [music] and the transformation of Paul Atreides, Dune Messiah is a bridge between books. While Dune Messiah has its own independent plot, this plot, as well as other aspects like the characters and the themes, act less like an independent story in an anthology, and more so like a linear connection between the first book, which sets everything up and establishes the desert, and the third book, which expands upon the series and has a changing desert.

[00:04:37]There are very few action scenes in the book, and it leans much more into the political drama aspect of the writing.

[00:04:44]And while Dune part three is supposedly Denis last Dune film, Dune Messiah's purpose still stands. Arrakis is changing, >> [music] >> and after the events of the film, it will continue to change whether or not Denis Villeneuve or another filmmaker will continue the series. It's very clear that Denis Villeneuve is incorporating a lot more action scenes than in the book, which I personally think is welcome, since it's supposed to be a blockbuster film. The trailer is filled with [music] an interesting color usage that is different from the first two films.

[00:05:11]In the scenes of this trailer, we see more blue than any scene in the first two movies. We see these deep, rich blues and a lot of teals. What could blue mean?

[00:05:23]Blue can mean many things, the color of sadness, peace, stability, or really any word that people assign to it. A lot of ways that colors can be defined are relative to a person or piece of media.

[00:05:33]That's why when doing an analysis of color, while having external knowledge of the color and its meaning is important, it's much more important to look at the text itself and what the color represents within the text. In another movie, red could mean love or passion, but in Dune, it resembles the holy war and blood. Similarly, in another movie, blue could resemble trust, compassion, or sadness, but in Dune, it represents water.

[00:05:59]And the spice.

[00:06:01]And possibly something else.

[00:06:04]This scene from the trailer has the darkest and possibly richest blue of any of the shots seen. It shows Princess Irulan, Paul's political wife, and Scytale, a new villain who's a shape-shifter, a member of a more secretive society in Dune called the Tleilaxu. The actual shade of blue may have been arbitrary or for different reasons, but in my opinion, this rich blue could resemble a few things. It is a deep blue, and of all the shots in the trailer, it is the closest to the color of the water of life and the eyes of [music] Ibad. It could be a look into how far gone Paul is with his visions.

[00:06:36]At this point in the book, Paul's vision becomes muddy after the introduction of miniature prophecies in the form of tarot cards. When an individual receives a prophecy in Dune, they are practically invisible within the visions of the future.

[00:06:49]Since these tarot cards are so common in Dune Messiah, perhaps the darker shade symbolizes Paul's failure to see the visions properly. This deep blue could also be a little bit more simple, resembling a stark departure from the otherwise orangey beige aesthetic of Dune, symbolizing the characters who plot to take down Paul, a plot that includes these characters being estranged from the aesthetic of Arrakis, and portrayed as onlookers.

[00:07:12]Seeing this scene in the trailer was so interesting to me.

[00:07:16]The composition was definitely still Dune-esque, but the colors are harshly different that it almost invokes an impending fear of the future for Arrakis.

[00:07:26]This usage of the color blue doesn't seem to represent water, like I mentioned earlier it would, but that is just this scene. I want to talk about the other scenes now.

[00:07:34]In the other scenes that blue appears in, the representation of the color blue seems much more obvious. Plenty of shots, including the background footage used for the text displays, incorporate a lot of teal and yellow. The color uses and saturation, while different from the first two films, isn't overbearing in my opinion, yet at the same time it's so obvious. Dune is yellow for the desert.

[00:07:58]Children of Dune is blue for the water that would come to Arrakis.

[00:08:02]Dune Messiah is in between these books.

[00:08:04][music] These shots basically represent this bridge that I was talking about.

[00:08:08]There are shots that look like the original two Dune movies, but the shots where both colors are present show the color yellow in a different way. A more pronounced, obvious, and maybe misremembered way. Almost like the color of a sun just before it sets. The teal blue is that of an oasis, water that is clean and pure, [music] an almost hopeful look for Arrakis. It doesn't forget its past and looks [music] optimistically to its future. Here is my personal favorite shot in the trailer.

[00:08:38]This scene is a vague depiction of a part in Dune Messiah where Farok, a Fedaykin warrior, explains his traumatizing experience seeing the ocean for the first time on a different planet. He was of Fremen faith, devout like all the others, but upon seeing such a large body of water, it shattered his faith and disillusioned him to the idea of Paul's holy jihad.

[00:09:01]In that explanation, Stilgar was not present while seeing the sea, though here we can see him on the beach, which is a clear change from the original book. But it may offer more interesting character development, since especially in the movies, Stilgar was one of the strongest voices for the Fremen faith [music] and one of the most devout followers. The darker parts of the scene are a deep and very dark orange, so I guess brown. And the sun casts an incandescent yellow, blinding and vibrant. The water is not intensely saturated, instead it's more of a washed-out dark blue color.

[00:09:35]If we go back to this scene, the blue is very light and vibrant, but compared to this color, it's very different. This scene is much more optimistic of the idea of water.

[00:09:45]This scene shows a more grim reality.

[00:09:48]Not of the water itself, but of what it means to the Fremen.

[00:09:52]This darker, less saturated blue could represent the disillusionment of Fremen faith. This ocean scene is one of the most interesting and important parts of the book, though small, and I have a feeling it will be made more impactful and dramatic in the film. The whole film is about the fall of Paul Atreides.

[00:10:09]It's after he kills over 60 billion people, eradicating multiple religions, and sterilizing countless planets. And this bloody war for dominance, triggered and perpetuated by Paul's prophesied leadership, it is almost entirely reliant on the faith of the Fremen. So, when the Fremen's faith changes, bad stuff happens. So, there are my interpretations of the color blue and how it could play into Dune part three.

[00:10:33]A light blue, more like teal, could represent an optimistic and perhaps misguided look of the future of Arrakis.

[00:10:41]The darker, washed-out blue could represent the trueness of water and the disillusionment of the Fremen faith. And the deep, rich blue could represent spice, the water of life, or the plot to take down Paul Atreides. The rich blue is a more obvious representation of the fall of Paul Atreides, but the others are also symbolic of this, too.

[00:11:01]Regardless of anything, Dune part three is going to be a great film and I'm very excited for it. If you enjoyed this video, please consider checking out my other content. If you enjoy it, consider subscribing.

[00:11:11]Thank you all, and I'll see you in the next Peak Stasis video.