Movie Review: DUNE: PART TWO

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 1st, 2024 / 02:45 AM

DUNE: PART TWO movie poster | ©2024 Warner Bros./Legendary

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin
Writers: Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel by Frank Herbert
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: March 1, 2024

Director/co-screenwriter (with Jon Spaihts) Denis Villeneuve displays first-rate epic chops with DUNE: PART TWO. Frank Herbert’s sprawling 1965 novel has been adapted for film and television before, but it is widely believed that Villeneuve’s 2021 DUNE: PART ONE has been the most successful effort. Part of that success arguably lay in the fact that the source material was separated into two films, allowing enough screen time to tell the story without hacking out crucial bits.

DUNE: PART TWO begins more or less where DUNE: PART ONE left off. The Harkonnen dynasty has wiped out the Atreides dynasty in order to control the desert planet Arrakis. Arrakis is the only place in the universe that produces the “spice” that allows interstellar travel, extreme longevity, and psychic voyaging.

Unbeknownst to the Harkonnens, Atreides heir Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have both escaped and taken shelter with the Arrakis natives the Fremen, whose own name for their planet is Dune.

Paul impresses the Fremen with his fighting skills. Despite her profound suspicion of outsiders, Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) is attracted to Paul, who is also drawn to her. Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) begins to believe that Paul may be the planet’s prophesied messiah. Paul and Chani are both horrified by this, for different reasons. Paul has nightmares about causing intergalactic war; Chani believes that a Fremen leader should be Dune-born and raised and is also afraid that becoming a religious icon will irretrievably change the man she loves.

Jessica, meanwhile, is a member (albeit a rebellious one) of the secret all-female magic-using society the Bene Gesserit. Jessica agrees with Stilgar about the prophecy, and sets about getting the loyalty of the Fremen.

As for Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), he’s got nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) trying to quell the populace on Arrakis. Harkonnen would like to see his other nephew, psychotic but capable Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), take the throne from the current Emperor (Christopher Walken).

That’s just the basic set-up. There is no denying Villeneuve’s skill at creating visual impact. The varied spacecraft are fully-realized, intricately detailed replicas of what is described and suggested by the science-fiction cover art of Herbert’s day. So are the costumes and props, though they are more intricate than anything conjured in the two-dimensional graphics of the ‘60s.The battles are ferocious and move in breathtaking waves. The one-on-one fights are superbly choreographed and fluidly executed.

Furthermore, there are flights of imagination in both color and design. The Harkonnen home planet, under a black sun, is shown wholly in blacks, whites, and grays. Combined with the shapes of its trappings, it truly comes off as another world.

Most of the cast is also right on pitch. First among equals here is Zendaya, who can convey profound heartbreak or fury without a word. Ferguson has both wonder and power as Jessica. Bardem is filled with conviction and joy as Stilgar. Butler gives dimension to the predatory Feyd-Rautha. Other notable performances come from Florence Pugh as the Emperor’s daughter and Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit.

It’s not that Chalamet isn’t a good actor overall – his choices make sense – but he’s simply not on the same pseudo-Shakespearean wavelength as most of his colleagues. This kind of material, with characters who know that their actions are shaping the cosmos, and who sometimes express themselves in dialogue that doesn’t always flow naturally, calls for a particular style. Chalamet is doing something different, which isn’t exactly wrong, but it’s noticeable.

Something that audiences in 2024 are likely to notice more than either Herbert’s readers or viewers of earlier dramatizations were is DUNE’s great white savior plotline. While the characters discuss things in terms of families, outsiders, and Fremen, what we see is the brown and Black people of Dune rallying round the white Paul and Jessica. In this, Chani is the main voice of opposition. Granted, this is not set on our world, but still, we either have to roll with it for the purposes of this film or get off-board.

DUNE: PART TWO is undeniably spectacular. Whether and how much one is moved by that spectacle depends on large part on what else, if anything, the viewer wants from it.

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Movie Review: DUNE: PART TWO

Properly epic, but with a few built-in dents

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