Every decade or so a movie comes out that sets a new standard and invokes a description vocabulary that, if it were not true, would sound like a pod of marketing gurus on caffeine overdrive.
Dune: Part Two is one of those.
The word “blockbuster” seems pale. “Stunning” seems tepid. Dune: Part Two raises the bar for visual effects, photography, music and true-to-the-novel basis that movie-goers will put this film in the same category as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Denis Villeneuve has crafted an experience that is a grand spectacle. The director wisely chose not to condense the intricate and powerful story into one movie. Spreading it over two films and five hours allowed him to dive into the cultures and lore that have made the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert so beloved by audiences around the world.
The acting is absolutely top notch, with the returning characters developing as rich as fans of the cult favorite novel may have imagined turning the pages of the book long ago. Under director Villeneuve’s guidance, the movie creates images that are intense, massive, and gloriously filmed. The landscapes of the arid dessert world of Arrakis and the Harkonnen world under a black sun contrast sharply, and are flawlessly aligned with the characters. The music by Hans Zimmer, no stranger to blockbusters or soundtrack enthusiasts, continues his earlier Dune score, embellishing it with dimensions of the cultures and shades of oppression and victory.
For those who do not know the story, Dune is more than a “chosen one” tale, it is allegory, warning, fervor, fear and hope made spectacle. Following immediately on the heels of the first Dune creation from 2021, we now see virtually all of the members of the noble House of Atreides slaughtered in the intergalactic war that is stealthily manipulated over tens of thousands of years by the Bene Gesserit – and this film brings together the Twelve Houses, the mysterious and machiavellian Bene Gesserit and their millennia of plotting to a head as the great Holy War begins. The language of the Fremen is brilliantly crafted and used to great effect, adding yet another layer of depth. The fight scenes are superlatively executed, the best I have yet seen in any film.
Timothée Chalamet expands his character ark, morphing from the uncertain young Paul Atreides that we saw in the first film into a confident, if unwilling, leader as he takes the Fremen name Muad’Dib and the private name of Usul. His character is conflicted, bold and utterly believable.
Rebecca Ferguson portrays Lady Jessica who is pregnant with her murdered husband’s second child. When she drinks the Water of Life and becomes a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit order, the unborn Alia’s mind awakens with the memories and the foresight of the Sisterhood. Zendaya gives a marvelously understated performance as the warrior Chani who falls in love with Paul. Josh Brolin makes a welcome return as Paul’s old arms master, Gurney Halleck and Javier Bardem pours equal shares of zealousness and wisdom as the Fremen leader Stilgar.
The Harkonnens are played to a delicious, disgusting viciousness. Austin Butler imbues Fayed Rautha with such psychotic venom that he commands the screen when he appears. Stellan Skarsgård is the sadistic Barron Harkonnen, loathsome to the core. Dave Bautista is “Beast” Rabban, the hulking enforcer and nephew of the Baron who is tasked with securing the Baron’s empire by any means necessary. He earns his sobriquet.
For fans of the Frank Herbert books, this is a glorious retelling, made perhaps even richer by the photography, choreography and attention to detail of the film. It completes and honors the first Dune book. For those unfamiliar with the layered lore of the worlds of Dune and the many Houses and Fremen peoples, it might feel a bit esoteric. It definitely leaves you feeling there is much more to come. If Dune: Part Two performs as well as I believe it will, then Dune Messiah, it’s script already under way, will close the circle in a way that is sure to put the Dune series in the intergalactic realms of those rare films that define the industry for decades.