Movie Review: Dune Part Two (Second Opinion)
Plot: Set immediately after the events of the preceding film, Dune Part Two chronicles Paul Atreides’ (Timothee Chalamet) quest for revenge against House Harkonnen, who nearly destroyed his entire family. Ensconcing himself among the Fremen, Paul begins to learn the ways of the desert from Stilgar (Javier Bardem) the leader of the Sietch Tabr, while falling in love with Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya). Although Paul tries to distance himself from the messiah legend that swells around him, his Bene Gesserit mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) stokes the Lisan al Gaib (Voice from the Outer World) myth pushing the galaxy towards the precipice of a holy war. Meanwhile, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) plots to restore spice production with the help of his psychotic nephew Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler). With his enemies all around him and multiple futures unraveling, Paul careens toward a path that could spell devastation for himself and the known universe.
Review: If we are lucky, human beings get to experience only a handful of moments of supreme awe in their lives. For me I think of seeing my wife Megan walking down the aisle at our wedding, witnessing my son Quentyn being born, or feeling the wind on my face as I gazed out towards the ocean while I stood on the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland. For those of us who consider cinema the highest form of art, the sensation of witnessing a film that leaves you dumbstruck with awe is equally rare. I can count the handful of times it’s happened to me over the years with movies like Back to the Future, Braveheart, The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, and Mad Max: Fury Road chief among them.
I can now count director Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic masterpiece Dune Part Two among them.
A complex, nuanced, layered visual spectacle that’s superbly acted, impeccably scored, marvelously shot, and flawlessly directed, Dune Part Two is easily the best theater experience I’ve had since The Fellowship of the Ring and takes its place among such titans of the genre as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner. In this venture capitalist age of Hollywood cinema where finance douchebros would rather delete a movie permanently for a tax write-off than allow an honest piece of authentic art to exist, it’s something of a miracle that Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two exists at all. Films this bold in scope both visually and thematically are very much the exception rather than the rule, despite my desire for the opposite to be true. With that in mind, my gratitude knows no bounds. Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve.
In some respects, it’s difficult to give a thorough review of Dune Part Two because there’s so much at play here. Yet despite being a very deep and thought-provoking film, Dune Part Two never comes off as didactic or heavy-handed. Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts’ screenplay adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal work tackles and confronts a range of topics including religious fundamentalism, class structure, the danger of following charismatic leaders, the cult of personality, dehumanization, and the corruption of power. Yet they are all in service to the greater narrative and are an organic extension of the film itself. In an era where too many films and television shows lead with a message, Villeneuve crafts a film that doesn’t tell you what to think but gives you something to think about.
The above would be impressive enough but when you add in the visual dimension that is Dune Part Two, the film takes on an entirely new aspect. Suspension of disbelief is a necessity for any film but doubly so for the science fiction genre. For two hours and forty-five minutes, Villeneuve and company transport you to the dry, hot, sands of Arrakis or the industrial, sterile Harkonnen homeworld of Geidi Prime. As he’s said recently, Villeneuve puts more stock in the visual aspect of movies rather than dialogue and his position resonates throughout Dune Part Two. (That’s not to say that Dune Part Two doesn’t contain some incredible dialogue because believe me, it does.) There’s nothing quite like a perfect symbiosis of director and cinematographer and Villeneuve and Greig Fraser have it with Dune Part Two. Whether it’s the Arthurian moment of Paul riding a sandworm for the first time, the climactic one-on-one battle between Feyd and Paul, or the black-and-white imagery of a gladiatorial arena on Geidi Prime, Fraser makes Dune Part Two look Epic with a capital ‘E’. When the military parades filtered through the poison sunlight of Geidi Prime look like a goddamn Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film, you know you’re in the hands of a master.
Speaking of masters, the mark of a true auteur, a wizard of the cinema world like Villeneuve is that they tend to surround themselves with other masters. Or rather like calls to like and people skilled in whatever craft get pulled into another’s orbit. What makes Villeneuve’s films so phenomenal and resonate so strongly is the air of verisimilitude he creates within his films. Practical and lived-in elements that you just can’t replicate with a blue screen. That’s why costume designer Jacqueline West’s outfits pop in this film. The attention to detail in Princess Irulan’s (Florence Pugh) dresses or the armor of Feyd-Rautha really stands out in the best way possible. Ditto Patrice Vermette’s set design which is nothing short of sensational. If the places featured on Arrakis, Geidi Prime, and Kaitain feel like actual locations you could travel to, you haven’t just done your job, you’ve composed a symphony.
Which brings me to the music in Dune Part Two. With scores like The Lion King, Gladiator, The Dark Knight, 12 Years a Slave, and Interstellar to his name, we already knew Hans Zimmer was in the pantheon of legendary film composers. But with Dune Part Two he establishes himself as this generation’s John Williams. I could listen to the Dune Part Two score on repeat for months. Hell, I’d buy the vinyl and I don’t even own a record player. It’s also not just the themes but where they are strategically placed. When Chani and Paul’s love theme “A Time of Quiet Between the Storms” reappears again at the end of the film and is juxtaposed against the events of a particular moment…I was in awe. It was heartbreaking. It was the most appropriate music/film decision I’ve ever witnessed.
Hard to believe I’m over 1000 words into this review and haven’t even talked about the performances in this movie, but it’s just a testament to how spectacular Dune Part Two actually is. The actors in Dune Part Two aren’t just cooking, they are cooking at Carmy Berzatto levels of greatness. That includes people with minimal screen time. Florence Pugh resonates with a stalwart regal quality and delivers the best line in the entire movie. Dave Bautista plays Glossu “The Beast” Rabban like a coward and it works. I was worried Christopher Walken might go full Walken but instead, he delivers his most subtle performance in years as Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. And Javier Bardem sizzles as Paul’s most staunch and fanatical supporter Stilgar. On first viewing, Stilgar seems like merely the comic relief (and he is funny there’s no doubt), yet the ending of the film recontextualizes Bardem’s entire performance…and suddenly it’s not quite so funny anymore.
Dune Part Two was already spectacular…and THEN Austin Butler showed up over an hour in. Believe the hype, Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is the best onscreen villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. He’s a psychopath made even scarier by the fact that he’s also highly intelligent and cunning. Ruthless, the physical embodiment of liquid quicksilver, and completely unafraid of his uncle, Butler plays Feyd-Rautha like a shark on land. He’s an apex predator who sees people as objects on a gameboard that he can either move to his advantage or consume. Butler offhandedly murders someone at a certain point in the movie and delivers a line of dialogue that is one of the illest, coldest things I’ve ever heard. And don’t get me started on his hand-to-hand fight with Paul which is just perfection.
Speaking of perfection, we need to talk about Rebecca Ferguson’s performance as Lady Jessica. It’s goddamn Machiavellian and borderline villainous. She’s obsessed with protecting Paul and that obsession becomes interminably entangled with the messiah legend the Bene Gesserit have propagated on Arrakis among the Fremen. After consuming the Water of Life and becoming Sietch Tabr’s new Reverend Mother, she’s burdened with the fact that her unborn daughter Alia (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) has become fully sentient and talks to her throughout the movie. It sounds insane but somehow Ferguson’s able to pull it off. The scenes where Lady Jessica tells Paul about “the beauty and the horror” of the Water of Life and where she decides to manipulate the frightened Fremen into following Paul are astonishing. Especially the latter scene which relies completely on the subtle facial and eye changes Ferguson employs.
I know there is a contingent of people out there who believe that Timothee Chalamet is just some jumped-up high school theater kid who got lucky. No one can watch Dune Part Two and come away thinking that anymore. He plays Paul like a truly tragic, almost Shakespearean character. Paul for most of this movie actively tries to distance himself from the Fremen messiah legend. Which makes his ultimate choices all the more devastating. There’s a fully fleshed-out arc for Paul and his chemistry with Chani stands out. In fact, it is their relationship that tethers the audience to Paul’s story. We are invested in Paul because we are invested in them. Chalamet delivers an Oscar-caliber performance. The fact that I know (as does the entire audience) that the Lisan al Gaib myth is utter bullshit and yet I still would have followed Paul into Hell after the speech he gives to the Fremen late in the film, is a testament to Chalamet’s acting ability.
Yet of all the excellent performances in Dune Part Two, the one that wins the day personally is Zendaya’s portrayal of Chani. My experiences with Zendaya’s performances are limited mostly to Spider-Man (I never watched Euphoria sorry) and her screen time was so minimal in the first film I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly did not expect an MVP, Academy Award-level performance. If acting is reacting, then Zendaya is the poster woman. So much of her performance is conveyed through her eyes and facial expressions, especially in the climactic scenes of the movie. We don’t need dialogue because we can read everything on Zendaya’s face. Villeneuve rightly chooses to give Chani much more agency than in Herbert’s book and the movie is better for it. Chani serves as the stand-in for a rational, objective audience member. She’s a secular humanist Fremen who doesn’t believe in the prophecy. Chani doesn’t want to see her people manipulated and she’s horrified to see the love of her life (from her perspective) be corrupted by power. The fact that Dune Part Two ends with a shot of her face is 100% intentional and sublime. Bravo Zendaya! As the kids say, “I was not familiar with your game.”
At this point I’ve run out of adjectives and pithy phrases to describe the genius of Dune Part Two, so I’ll just end this review with a quote from Villeneuve himself that artfully sums up my feelings:
“LONG LIVE CINEMA!”
1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad
2 Straight Garbage
3 Bad
4 Sub Par
5 Average
6 Ok
7 Good
8 Great
9 Excellent
10 A Must See
Dune Part Two: 10/10
