Dune: Part Two
warner bros
When Dune first screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, during an ongoing pandemic and a terrible time for theatrical releases, it was quite the gamble from Warner Bros and director Denis Villeneuve: a 155-minute sci-fi epic that is all about world-building, escalating into a restrained climax that teases the potential of a follow-up. Surprisingly, the gamble paid off, as the film managed to be successful both worldwide and on streaming, with Dune: Part Two being greenlit almost instantly.
Three years and multiple delays later, the film is finally here, and it starts off where the previous one ended: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have joined a group of Fremen, the native population of the desert planet Arrakis, led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem), who believes that Paul is the long-awaited savior who will liberate the Fremen and lead them to Paradise. Meanwhile, the evil House Harkonnen is plotting with Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) to overtake the entirety of Arrakis.
At a time in which the term “epic” has seemingly lost its meaning, what Villeneuve and his immensely talented team in front and behind the camera have achieved is epic in the classic Hollywood way: Dune: Part Two is a staggering cinematic achievement, telling an intimate story that has grand repercussions for the universe originally created by Frank Herbert. It is refreshing to see a blend of real locations and sets augmented with CGI like Peter Jackson did with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, grounding the growth of Paul into the Messiah in a world that feels believable and lived in. The action is also jaw-dropping, a spectacle in the purest sense of the word: cinema seats shake as Paul rides a giant sandworm for the first time, and chests thump heavily as Hans Zimmer’s score and the booming sound design accompany the brutal introduction to Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the main villain of the film played by a nearly unrecognizable Austin Butler.
That sequence, set on the planet Giedi Prime and gorgeously shot by Greig Fraser in black and white with infrared lenses, perfectly encapsulates what makes the film shy of greatness. Villeneuve is a visual director first and foremost, and the look of the gladiatorial arena, the ink-shaped fireworks, and the horned creatures that guard the edges of the battleground there are incredibly effective at painting the fascist, totalitarian regime of House Harkonnen. The sequence also introduces Léa Seydoux’s character, Lady Margot Fenring, who leaves a lasting impact in a scene where she seduces Feyd-Rautha. It is a 15-minute stretch of the film that gives some respite after spending the majority of the runtime inside caverns and in orange deserts, and it works great as the introduction to a new villain. However, it feels slightly disjointed from the rest of the film, which is noticeably fragmented.
Dune: Part Two has a very uneven structure, trading the previous film’s more languid pacing and Shakespearean undertones for a more action-packed adventure that feels rushed in its character development. The only thing the Harkonnens have going for them in term of menace is their iconography, because otherwise they are surprisingly one-dimensional in both films. The romantic relationship between Paul and the talented Chani (Zendaya) is held together almost exclusively by the singular performances because their chemistry feels forced, more of a narrative necessity than something genuine. Lady Jessica’s manipulation of the Fremen is alluded to, while it would have been far more interesting to see unfold in a scene or two. At least Javier Bardem injects some much-needed comic relief that keeps the film from stagnating into self-seriousness, while Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, and Christopher Walken add that classic movie star gravitas.
Despite being nearly 3 hours long, it does feel like Dune: Part Two had many scenes cut, a few of which have been confirmed (the interrogation of Thufir Hawat, played by Stephen McKinley Henderson, is an unfortunate casualty), with the final film feeling like a highlight reel of a potentially greater, more complete film. Thankfully, the biggest strength of Herbert’s book has been maintained: its subversion of the “chosen one” myth. Chalamet shines as his Paul embraces his role as Messiah and savior, the religious fervor of the Fremen turning into blind faith: it is a disturbing transformation, and not a very subtle one. That is for the better, as in today’s socio-political climate it feels more important than ever to explore just how easily people are manipulated into committing criminal actions thanks to dangerously charismatic leaders.
As abrupt as it is, the ending of Dune: Part Two holds hope that the third and final chapter (an adaptation of the second book in the series, Dune: Messiah) will go deeper into the dark character turn of Paul, with Chani as an audience surrogate and moral compass who might save him. Even with all of its structural issues, Dune: Part Two is the type of blockbuster that is needed in Hollywood: together with Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, it shows how audiences are hungry for complex characters in simple stories that complement the artistry put into the visuals. With its earth-shattering sound design and impressive art direction, the Dune series may indeed become the most consistently good epic trilogy since The Lord of the Rings.