Movie Review: Dune: Part Two

Thanks to the glut of seemingly rushed Marvel movies and TV shows offered up over the last several years, we’ve been subjected to more and more expensive but subpar CGI work, which really removes a lot of the spectacle from the finished projects. They are certainly not alone here either, with rival DC Comics equally guilty, along with several other franchise films. Who doesn’t find it kind of a shame that the special effects in the original Jurassic Park hold up better than those in the last few entries. So it’s refreshing to be reminded of just how much VFX work can add to a movie when a director with a clear vision is allowed the time and resources to put it on a screen with seemingly little (if any) studio interference, as is the case with Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning Dune: Part Two.

Picking up right where we left off in Part One, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are trekking through the deserts of Arrakis with a band of Fremen led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem). When they arrive at his clan’s home base some eye Paul with suspicion, but others including Stilgar believe that he and his mother were prophesied to bring the Fremen to salvation. Part of the prophecy requires Lady Jessica to partake of the Water of Life and assume the role of Reverend Mother, which she reluctantly agrees to do, leading to her inheriting the memories of every Reverend Mother before her while also allowing her to begin communicating with her unborn daughter, while also establishing her as a figure worthy of great respect.

Paul is resistant to the idea that he is some sort of Messiah, largely due to visions he experiences that foretell of great tragedy if he accepts it. This apparent humility leads to him quickly earning the respect of the Fremen as he fights alongside them against the Harkonnen forces and leads fellow fighter Chani (Zendaya) to fall in love with him, seemingly against her better judgement.

In the Harkonnen camp, the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård) is growing angry with his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista), who has not only been unable to get the planet of Arrakis under control and producing Spice again but has been suffering tremendous losses at the hands of the supposedly inferior Fremen fighters. As a result, he decides to bring in his younger nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) and hand him control of the planet, despite his known psychotic tendencies. All of this while Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) worries about whether his involvement in the fall of the House of Atreides will ever come to light.

Aside from a few slightly confusing timeline edits in the early portions of the film, everything about Dune: Part Two is incredible. Many of the scenes and sequences captured here will go down as some of cinema’s best, likely turning up in countless montages for years to come. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is beautiful to behold as he captures the rich browns and red of Arrakis and the stark black and white palette of the Harkonnen home planet. Hans Zimmer’s bombastic but haunting score is a perfect accent to the palace intrigue and thrilling action set pieces, while Patrice Vermette’s production design once again offers up some of the most imaginative sci-fi technology I’ve ever seen.

There isn’t a single weak performance from the incredibly stacked cast. Chalamet nails his character’s progression as he begins to accept what he must become and he shares a natural chemisty with Zendaya, making their romance easy to believe without much screen time being devoted to it. It may well be Austin Butler’s villainous turn that truly stands out however. In the limited time he’s on screen he manages to create one of the most chilling and memorable baddies in recent memory.

With themes of imperialism, fanaticism, corruption, and destiny, Dune isn’t exactly breaking new ground for the genre, but it’s doing it so well it hardly matters. This is the sort of bold, stylish, well-made, and well-told epic sci-fi/fantasy that we need more of, and it’s nice to see a major studio allow a filmmaker to take such an ambitious swing. At almost every moment you can tell you are watching something magnificent; an instant classic, not just within the genre but for cinema as a whole. The ending leaves plenty of room for a Part Three, and one can’t help but leave this movie eagerly for its arrival. ★★★★★