Dune: Part Two has been universally hailed as a sequel worthy of Terminator: Judgment Day, The Godfather Part II, and The Empire Strikes Back; a bonafide epic yielding additional comparisons to Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia; a picture that solidifies Denis Villeneuve as one of the modern titans of the art form. Even those who weren't so hot on the first film, finding its characters monotonous and its visuals largely dull, seem to have been thoroughly won over.
And although I enjoyed the visuals and thought there was a purpose to their occasional drabness (imposing brutalist structures towering over nature), the new film indeed cranks the art direction up to eleven, exemplifying some of the most potent visuals in sci-fi history. Although I thought the characters worked fine in the original, in the sequel we're treated to powerhouse newcomers and darker depths to the figures we know -- when critics said "I liked Dune: Part One just fine, but I just can't buy Timothée Chalamet as the hero", readers of the Frank Herbert novel snickered (in Part Two, new fans will see why).
If nothing else, they find that the whole thing feels more complete (recall that the first movie bamboozled many who hadn't a clue it was just "Part One"). Frank Herbert's son, Brian, wrote "When the new movie is combined with Dune: Part One it is by far the best film interpretation of Dune that has ever been done".
Other things that are expanded on and/or elevated include the performances of Zendaya (one of the most expressive and loveable actors of her generation, underused in the prior movie) as Chani, the young Fremen warrior who welcomed Paul Atreides into their camps after the fall of his "House", and Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Paul's mother who becomes the "Reverend Mother" of the Fremen, who believe she and Paul are instrumental to a prophecy of a mother and child sent to reclaim Planet Arrakis from oppression -- the Imperial spice-mining colonies that now belong to the vile Harkonnen family. On that note, we also get a better look at the Harkonnen homeworld, whose "black sun" seems to erase all color from it, bar the blackest of black and whitest of white.
This moment is one of many reasons you need to see this in a theater. I cannot stress it enough. These sequences -- from the most thunderous battles and Sandworm rides to the intimate final duel that left my audience at the edge of their seats -- are paralyzing to behold in an auditorium, complete with music and sound design that seem to make the very Earth tremble (then falling dead silent at pivotal moments), all sublimely photographed by "swirly bokeh" extraordinaire Greig Fraser. (It's not often you see a film and just know you're witnessing the creation of "iconic" images.) The action scenes are elevated by impressive choreography and, of course, the performances.
The most intense of the new faces is undoubtedly Austin Butler as Feyd Rautha (that's the Sting character in the 1984 movie, in case you needed the reference), lauded by many as the best villain performance since Anton Chigurh and Ledger's Joker. Additional newcomers include Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Léa Seydoux as Lady Fenring of the "Bene Gesseret" priestesses, and Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV.
Returning actors include Javier Bardem as the Fremen leader Stilgar, whose incorrigible fanaticism gets some big laughs; Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, who is out for Harkonnen blood; Stellan Skarsgård as the revolting Baron Harkonnen; Dave Bautista as The Beast Rabban, who envies the affection the Baron shows toward Feyd; and Charlotte Rampling as the Imperial Reverend Mother, who hatches schemes of her own. Certain characters I've mentioned are given just a few minutes of screen time, yet they all make a considerable impact, from the memorable line reads to the looks that speak even louder, most notably during that final exchange of haunting glances between Paul, Chani, and the Princess.
At the center is Chalamet as Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides -- a performance that will vindicate his stans and make non-believers hopefully realize not only how formidable he can be, but what he was truly going for in Part One. Chalamet is known for his thin frame and his friendly demeanor; yet, we have absolutely no trouble believing that his Paul would be a master of sparring and a conqueror of Sandworms. As I wrote earlier, those who judged the first movie by how well his story works as a garden-variety "Hero's Journey" are bound to have an "oh" moment or two.
If you're still worried that some of these elements seem lifted from other works, recall that Dune is (likely) an older series than whatever you're thinking of. All the same, even the familiar images feel new here -- epic in scale in a way that cinema hasn't been able to achieve until now. This movie is a close-to-perfect marriage of hitherto unthinkable technology and a crystal-clear vision for said tech to realize. In part, the movie plays as if Villeneuve heard the complaints of the previous film and, as if on a dare, went all the way with his movie magic for the sequel, putting the doubters in their place.
Knowing how the books go, I know this franchise is far from done. And despite how long this film was, I never wanted it to end and still crave more, ergo I'm more than stoked to see what Villeneuve does with the rest of Herbert's legendarium and if audiences keep finding resonance in his version of it. The world of Dune is a uniquely well-realized potential future: intimidatingly immense and outlandish on one hand, and dreadfully convincing on the other, showing that Imperialism and colonialism may be alive and well millennia ahead. (Had this film been made with even less studio interference, the parallels between the Fremens' plight and Palestine may have been even more obvious.)
The story of Dune Messiah still needs to be adapted and I'm confident that, once Villeneuve shows it to us, the same media illiterates who started posting Film Twitter Takes about how Poor Things approves of misogyny once that film came out on digital won't be taking Paul's "White Savior" and Jessica's cultural appropriation at face value -- or so we may hope. An interesting theory from Walter Chaw suggests that the reason so many people keep failing to get the point of Dune -- and Paul Atreides specifically -- is that "colonialism is so embedded in our value system as manifest destiny" that it's straight-up impossible for some of us to interpret a figure like this as anything other than a good guy. Lisan al-Gaib, and all that.
And although I enjoyed the visuals and thought there was a purpose to their occasional drabness (imposing brutalist structures towering over nature), the new film indeed cranks the art direction up to eleven, exemplifying some of the most potent visuals in sci-fi history. Although I thought the characters worked fine in the original, in the sequel we're treated to powerhouse newcomers and darker depths to the figures we know -- when critics said "I liked Dune: Part One just fine, but I just can't buy Timothée Chalamet as the hero", readers of the Frank Herbert novel snickered (in Part Two, new fans will see why).
If nothing else, they find that the whole thing feels more complete (recall that the first movie bamboozled many who hadn't a clue it was just "Part One"). Frank Herbert's son, Brian, wrote "When the new movie is combined with Dune: Part One it is by far the best film interpretation of Dune that has ever been done".
Other things that are expanded on and/or elevated include the performances of Zendaya (one of the most expressive and loveable actors of her generation, underused in the prior movie) as Chani, the young Fremen warrior who welcomed Paul Atreides into their camps after the fall of his "House", and Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Paul's mother who becomes the "Reverend Mother" of the Fremen, who believe she and Paul are instrumental to a prophecy of a mother and child sent to reclaim Planet Arrakis from oppression -- the Imperial spice-mining colonies that now belong to the vile Harkonnen family. On that note, we also get a better look at the Harkonnen homeworld, whose "black sun" seems to erase all color from it, bar the blackest of black and whitest of white.
This moment is one of many reasons you need to see this in a theater. I cannot stress it enough. These sequences -- from the most thunderous battles and Sandworm rides to the intimate final duel that left my audience at the edge of their seats -- are paralyzing to behold in an auditorium, complete with music and sound design that seem to make the very Earth tremble (then falling dead silent at pivotal moments), all sublimely photographed by "swirly bokeh" extraordinaire Greig Fraser. (It's not often you see a film and just know you're witnessing the creation of "iconic" images.) The action scenes are elevated by impressive choreography and, of course, the performances.
The most intense of the new faces is undoubtedly Austin Butler as Feyd Rautha (that's the Sting character in the 1984 movie, in case you needed the reference), lauded by many as the best villain performance since Anton Chigurh and Ledger's Joker. Additional newcomers include Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Léa Seydoux as Lady Fenring of the "Bene Gesseret" priestesses, and Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV.
Returning actors include Javier Bardem as the Fremen leader Stilgar, whose incorrigible fanaticism gets some big laughs; Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, who is out for Harkonnen blood; Stellan Skarsgård as the revolting Baron Harkonnen; Dave Bautista as The Beast Rabban, who envies the affection the Baron shows toward Feyd; and Charlotte Rampling as the Imperial Reverend Mother, who hatches schemes of her own. Certain characters I've mentioned are given just a few minutes of screen time, yet they all make a considerable impact, from the memorable line reads to the looks that speak even louder, most notably during that final exchange of haunting glances between Paul, Chani, and the Princess.
At the center is Chalamet as Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides -- a performance that will vindicate his stans and make non-believers hopefully realize not only how formidable he can be, but what he was truly going for in Part One. Chalamet is known for his thin frame and his friendly demeanor; yet, we have absolutely no trouble believing that his Paul would be a master of sparring and a conqueror of Sandworms. As I wrote earlier, those who judged the first movie by how well his story works as a garden-variety "Hero's Journey" are bound to have an "oh" moment or two.
If you're still worried that some of these elements seem lifted from other works, recall that Dune is (likely) an older series than whatever you're thinking of. All the same, even the familiar images feel new here -- epic in scale in a way that cinema hasn't been able to achieve until now. This movie is a close-to-perfect marriage of hitherto unthinkable technology and a crystal-clear vision for said tech to realize. In part, the movie plays as if Villeneuve heard the complaints of the previous film and, as if on a dare, went all the way with his movie magic for the sequel, putting the doubters in their place.
Knowing how the books go, I know this franchise is far from done. And despite how long this film was, I never wanted it to end and still crave more, ergo I'm more than stoked to see what Villeneuve does with the rest of Herbert's legendarium and if audiences keep finding resonance in his version of it. The world of Dune is a uniquely well-realized potential future: intimidatingly immense and outlandish on one hand, and dreadfully convincing on the other, showing that Imperialism and colonialism may be alive and well millennia ahead. (Had this film been made with even less studio interference, the parallels between the Fremens' plight and Palestine may have been even more obvious.)
The story of Dune Messiah still needs to be adapted and I'm confident that, once Villeneuve shows it to us, the same media illiterates who started posting Film Twitter Takes about how Poor Things approves of misogyny once that film came out on digital won't be taking Paul's "White Savior" and Jessica's cultural appropriation at face value -- or so we may hope. An interesting theory from Walter Chaw suggests that the reason so many people keep failing to get the point of Dune -- and Paul Atreides specifically -- is that "colonialism is so embedded in our value system as manifest destiny" that it's straight-up impossible for some of us to interpret a figure like this as anything other than a good guy. Lisan al-Gaib, and all that.