REVIEW: ‘Dune: Part Two’ is a beautiful sci-fi sequel with a complicated future
Timothée Chalamet and Josh Brolin in Dune: Part Two, directed by Denis Villeneuve.
When we go to the movies, we’re used to cheering on a protagonist across multiple installments of a franchise. Decades of cinematic universes have conditioned us that no matter what the lead character does, it’s usually in pursuit of a nobler goal, even if they must use violence to get there. But how often is that pattern subverted? Movies have had plenty of antiheroes, or even straight-up villains in the lead, but how many protagonists will go on to have the blood of tens of billions of people on their hands? In that respect, Dune may be in fairly exclusive club.
When the first half of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune came out in 2021, it left us with a promise for the next half. As readers of the original novel know, the story builds to a gigantic clash between the desert-dwelling Fremen, led by Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and the cruel forces of House Harkonnen and Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken). Paul, newly christened with the Fremen name Muad’Dib, has to confront the political machinations that have placed him at the head of a massive insurgency, and the disturbing visions he experiences of his own future.
That future involves something news junkies might have heard of: a jihad, or holy war. Except unlike the terrestrial ones we’ve heard about, the jihad in the Dune series spans millions of planets and costs 61 billion lives. With Paul eventually being responsible for such destruction, a movie like Dune: Part Two faces a big challenge. How do you frame your protagonist so he seems relatable in the moment, while still sowing the seeds for his reprehensible actions to come? For writer-director Villeneuve, who’s indicated that he’s interested in eventually capturing this part of Frank Herbert’s mythology in another film, it must be one of the tougher aspects in an already daunting project.
A group of sandworms attack the Imperial forces in the final battle.
So what about the film we have in front of us? As it begins, like an extraterrestrial Lawrence of Arabia, Paul is slowly accepted by the native Fremen. Paul is acutely aware of the forces at play. Many of the Fremen from the northern part of the planet of Arrakis are suspicious of Paul as a foreign interloper. Meanwhile, in the inhospitable southern part of the planet, religious fundamentalist Fremen are more easily swayed, due to centuries of propaganda spread by the religious sect that Paul’s mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) belongs to. Paul feels pulled in many directions: he wants revenge for Baron Harkonnen’s murder of his family, he wants to liberate the Fremen and let Arrakis flourish, and yet he knows he’s merely a chess piece in the interstellar schemes of the Bene Gesserit witches.
Nevertheless, Villeneuve’s script makes it obvious that no matter how much free will Paul attempts to display, his fate is preordained. He will rise up to lead the Fremen, even if that means setting off a chain reaction of events that begets ever more bloodshed. It’s proof of Villeneuve’s skill and the abilities of the cast that we’re hardly ever in the dark about the characters’ feelings – they don’t get lost amid the larger, bombastic action setpieces happening around them. If anything, Lady Jessica’s actions seem the most obscure at times, as she falls into a pattern of engineering Paul’s ascent to lead the Fremen. But if Jessica’s goals seem opaque, that may simply be more proof of the deeply disturbing influence of the Bene Gesserit on the world of Dune.
And what a world it is. Villeneuve anchors this fundamentally weird mythology in tactile visuals. The sets and environments feel just familiar enough – in that lived-in, original Star Wars trilogy way – that it’s not hard to get our bearings. And upon that, the filmmaking team gives us visuals you won’t find anywhere else. Director of photography Greig Fraser builds on the previous film and explores new techniques, like shooting a gladiator scene with specially built infrared cameras to better evoke the brutal, emotionless planet of the Harkonnens. The sandworm-riding on Arrakis, meanwhile, seems so thrilling that I almost want to give it a try.
Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
The returning cast are all exceptional, as before, but the standout for me this time was Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Butler has played a maniac before (Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood) but here as the sadistic nephew of Baron Harkonnen and the dark reflection of Paul, Butler makes Feyd-Rautha not only frightening but slightly pitiful. We can appreciate how life as a Harkonnen has warped him, and how he’s barely aware of just how manufactured his path in life is by political forces beyond his understanding.
Even if Villeneuve and his team opt not to produce another Dune sequel, the ending of Dune: Part Two works to contain the events of the original novel as one satisfactory story. We see Paul’s transformation entering a new phase, and the impact it’s had on the people around him. The most important of these is the Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya), whose furious face is the final shot of the film. In a way, Chani’s sense of betrayal might one day be shared by the audience, when we see what Paul and his descendants are compelled to do. But no one ever said that Dune was an uplifting story – just an overwhelming, intoxicating work of science fiction. An exclusive club, indeed.
Dune: Part Two gets four stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
I *almost* felt bad for Rabban Harkonnen when he’s cast aside so easily by Feyd-Rautha and then Gurney Halleck. Dave Bautista is one of our best.
I know the Sardaukar are supposed to be a terrifying fighting force, but the freaky mutant creatures and slaves that the Harkonnens breed are scarier by far.
I wouldn’t have expected Stilgar (Javier Bardem) to be the comic relief in this movie, but it was a great choice.