Film Review — Dune: Part Two
It’s time to commit heresy
Movie fans can be forgiven for suspecting that there is nothing new under the big HOLLYWOOD sign, but there is hope to be found in filmmakers trying, against the dumbing of everyone, the shortening of attention spans, the creative talent that has neither creativity nor talent, to do better. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is such a visionary, but can even he, the director of such cerebral science fiction fare as Arrival, succeed when adapting the unwieldy beast that is Frank Herbert’s series of books Dune?
Dune: Part Two opens with Princess Irulan summarizing the events of the previous film: House Harkonnen has retaken Arrakis, the source of the spice that is the universe’s most precious substance, from House Atreides. The action picks up with Paul Atreides and the idigenous Fremen waging desert warfare against the planet’s new masters. The Fremen are at odds over whether Paul is the messianic figure who will end their colonization by offworld powers and turn the planet’s waves of sand into verdant paradise. Paul’s mother Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit for whom scheming comes as naturally as breathing, is intent on seeing her son accrue superpowers even as she carries Paul’s sister, a fetus who already has unsettling powers. The events of Dune: Part Two are, from the first moments, a seamless continuation of the past and a promise of what is to come.
Director Denis Villeneuve’s first installment was successful but not without significant problems. As with the director’s films from Sicario through Blade Runner: 2049, it stumbled in the final half hour, all tension and flow dissipating, and fans of David Lynch’s Dune (1984) may have found themselves missing the Blue Velvet director’s gritty, claustrophic and quirky imagination when viewing Villeneuve’s panoramic, streamlined and more mainstream-friendly film. In casting, Rebecca Ferguson tops her predecessor Francesca Annis as Jessica and Oscar Isaac is every bit Jurgen Prochnow’s equal as Duke Leto, but most of the main cast was merely serviceable, lacking the character of Lynch favorites Kyle MacLachlan, Everett McGill, Jack Nance and Dean Stockwell. After a second viewing, I found I had little desire to return to Villeneuve’s Dune.
I did return, however, and I realized early in Dune: Part Two that I was watching one of those rare 5/5 films. Incredibly, Villeneuve has made a 165-minute movie out of material that was the weakest part of the first Dune book (chapter after chapter of political maneuvering) and the weakest part of Lynch’s Dune (guerillas worm-riding to the music of Toto) and it’s gripping. Liberties with the letter have made it possible to get the spirit right, impressing narratively and visually. It’s as if the film speaks a new cinematic dialectic of light and dark, positive and negative space, focus and clarity, digital effects and real locations, line and wave, stasis and movement, action and lyricism, spectacle and depth, beauty and nightmare. I’m glad I saw it in IMAX.
Dune: Part Two also succeeds with its casting. In the role of Princess Irulan is Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Lady Macbeth), whose praises I can never sing enough, and Daniel Craig-era Bond Woman Léa Seydoux (also known for Blue Is the Warmest Colour) brings her smouldering gaze to the Bene Genesserit Margot Fenring. The genius-level casting since Part One, however, is Zendaya (Tell me you’ve seen Malcolm & Marie!) in the role of Chani. If you had told me back before Part One that Villeneuve would cast someone with Sean Young’s allure, I would have taken offense, but he did just that. As Paul’s romantic interest and conscience, Chani is the heart of the film and it ends not with Paul’s but her image.
If there’s a flaw to Part Two, it’s the Harkonnens. As antagonists, they’re generally uninflected: power-hungry sadists whose motives are wealth, power, violence and probably weird sexual jollies. Princess Irulan describes Feyd-Rautha as “psychotic,” and at one point he actually licks a dagger, a hackneyed portrayal of villainy that would be a deal-breaker in a work of lesser overall caliber. Villeneuve distracts from this stereotype with striking visuals (filming in infrared!) and grotesquerie, and he introduces a note of sympathy for Rabban. This is aided by Dave Battista’s portrayal of him, equal parts unhinged aggressor and man-baby crying on the inside. Flat, the Harkonnens may be, but it hardly hampers the film’s effectiveness.
Villeneuve’s sequel is stunning, and this is the part where I nail my thesis to the church door, for this is the year when I have no choice but to declare that a sci-fi franchise eclipsed Star Wars. One can, of course, belong to many fandoms, but I couldn’t help but wonder upon leaving the theater, Why could not Disney, with all its resources, continue George Lucas’s vision with depth, sophistication and innovation the way Villenueve has Dune? Looking back, only Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Andor (2022) bear comparison. Fans of Arrakis over Tatooine have reason to gloat, for their God-Emperor’s vision has finally found expression in the best light, and it is complex, nuanced and mature.
I’m glad to learn, via Variety, that Villeneuve has “words on paper” for Dune: Part Three. The film would bring to the big screen the events of Herbert’s second book, Dune: Messiah, and stop there. That book is actually my favorite of all the Dune novels, including those by Frank’s son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. By concluding with Dune: Part Three, Villeneuve will have delivered a trilogy for the ages, the new trilogy to beat.
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