Dune: Part Two

5 outta 5

Dune: Part Two is an incredible sequel to an already incredible film. As the (very large) book was split into two (as opposed to the 1984 single film speedrun version) setup was contained in the first part so this is more visceral. The visuals look amazing and there are stirring moments of dramatic payoffs and an epic scope in an already epic series. The worldbuilding is complex and deep but not impenetrable. It feels like a classic historical epic except its set on a distant planet in the far future with spaceships and giant sandworms.

Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is a member of the House of Atreides that was supposed to look after the bountiful spice planet of Arrakis, but his father was killed and the Atreides were run off by the sinister House Harkonnen, led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård) and his nephew the Beast (Dave Bautista). House Atreides were set up to fall by the Galactic Emperor (Christopher Walken). Paul and his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have taken safety with the Arrakis natives, the Fremen. A Fremen leader, Stilgar (Javier Bardem), believes Paul is a long-prophesied messiah that will lead his people to a new age. Paul learns the ways of the Fremen with help from a native woman, Chani (Zendaya), but Paul is troubled by visions of the future while his mother has become a mystic leader. With the Fremen racking up wins against the Harkonnens, a new player is sent in to destroy the resistance, the psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler).

The movie kicks off with a succinct yet poetically told recap of the last film by the Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of the Emperor. There is a subplot involving Irulan working with the master manipulators, the Bene Gesserit led by Mohiam (Charlotte Ramping). This adds palace intrigue as Pugh’s Irulan looks concerned about what is happening on Arrakis as Mohiam tells her things that are going to happen. Both Ramping and Pugh sell the importance of this moment, all while dressed in spectacular looking future outfits. Walken’s Emperor seems like a feeble old man, but he can bring moments of nastiness, especially in the third act when he confronts the Harkonnens for their screw ups and when he gets a tense face to face with Paul.

The Bene Gesserit have been planning for centuries, but Rebecca giving birth to her son Paul upends the carefully manipulated prophecy. This story subverts a few Chosen One tropes. Paul knows the prophecy was a fraud created by the Bene Gesserit and his visions of the future are not a glorious tomorrow, but of death, starvation and despair with him leading a holy war. But the more he tries to get away from his fate, the more he seems inexorably drawn in. There are fun moments when he is training with Chani and the two have a breezy chemistry which makes it more dramatic when things get tense between them later. When Paul is accepted into Fremen society and must learn to ride a Sandworm, the visuals put the viewer right alongside for the hectic ride. Bardem’s Stilgar is convinced that Paul is their saviour and he has a a religious disagreement with other Fremen about faith. Ferguson as Rebecca undergoes a dramatic change, infused with the memories of thousands of years, and she loses her humanity. She becomes an unknowable goddess, constantly in conversation with the fetus in her womb.

Skarsgård makes Baron Harkonnen very scummy and it is satisfying to see him laid low in the finale. Bautista’s Beast gets to smack around incompetent underlings and hollers a lot, which is very nasty and he even gets to show his inner coward in brief flashes. The newest Harkonnen is Butler’s Feyd-Rautha, a lunatic among a family of killer lunatics so that is saying something. His introductory scene is gangbusters when Feyd-Rautha is in a battle to the death. When he takes over for the Harkonnen’s on Arrakis, he does lots of terrible stuff that ups his villainy cred, and Butler’s vocal style sounds like an even nastier version of the Baron.

This movie has a bundle of action that the first film held back on. Things start off with a tense stalk and chase scene through the desert as the Fremen hide from their pursuers in the sand. There’s also a great bit when the Fremen take out the big spice harvesters featuring Paul drawing fire and Chani firing rockets at the precise moment. The finale knife fight between Paul and Feyd-Rautha is brutal, with Feyd-Rautha built up to be unstoppable as Paul is maybe too confident in his abilities to take him out. Director Denis Villeneuve has always had an amazing eye for incredible frame composition, and he delivers here with beautifully lush images. When the colour palette is too sandy, he throws in stark black and white visuals on the Harkonnen planet for Feyd-Rautha’s stadium fight.

Dune: Part Two cements the two Dune films as one of the best sci-fi epics of the 21st century. It has widescreen grandeur, as Paul has a compelling journey from simple prince to god-mode messiah. It’s an amazing world to experience.