After David Lynch tried to adapt Frank Herbert’s “unadaptable” Dune with little success in 1984, Denis Villeneuve had a crack in 2021 by splitting the book in two and he set a new bar for the sci-fi genre with Dune: Part One. Part Two has a lot to prove but fans of Herbert’s magnum opus can rest easy because it’s every bit as groundbreaking as its predecessor and then some.
The title card at the end of Dune boldly declared itself as “Part One” and left many apprehensive about the future of the story. Would it even happen? After all, Villeneuve’s epic wasn’t exactly a mainstream sell and it came with a sizeable $ 165 million price tag. But after grossing $ 402 million (during COVID times, no less), a sequel was quickly fast-tracked with the promise of really getting into the book’s political heft and Herbert’s strangeness and that’s exactly what it does. Picking up immediately where we left off, Paul Atriedes (Timothée Chalamet) has united fronts with the Fremen insurgency – learning their ways, earning their trust – all while the Harkonnen plot to infiltrate Arrakis and strip it of its spice supply. But with war looming and the Fremen looking to Paul to be their messiah and fulfil the prophecy of the Lisan Al Gaib, a power struggle hangs in the balance that threatens to shake the entire empire to its core.
Part One did well to establish Herbert’s deep-rooted mythology and the various factions populating this world so now Part Two goes all in on delivering a bombastic spectacle that pays off on all the setup. It’s an assault on the senses from the pulse-pounding audio (every step, every breath so pronounced) to the eye-melting cinematography. Each set piece feels so incomprehensibly large and tangible that by the time you’ve wrapped your head around what you’ve just seen, there’s another sequence that’s even bigger and more overwhelming to comprehend. It’s all helmed with such visceral, immersive energy that you feel right in the fight and it still manages to seamlessly weave methodical storytelling into all the grandeur.
There’s a much darker tone prevalent through Part Two as well, as it delves deeper into the horrors of the prophecy and the Bene Genneserit occult as well as the introduction of Harkonnen assassin Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler on chilling form). The politics of the world also weigh heavy on the characters and it offers much more nuanced and interesting characterisation than the first film. This feels like an apt summation of Dune: Part Two as a whole; whether it’s the performances being much more honed in, the action feeling even more thrilling or the themes piercing deeper, it’s Villeneuve and Dune dialled to eleven, elaborating on everything the first film built so successfully and then some. It’s also more intricate and more narratively satisfying here and culminates in the most bone-shaking, heart-stopping finales in some time. Each film is a masterpiece in its own right and Part Two is a blistering sci-fi epic but, as a whole, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will go down as one of the all-time greats.
Dune: Part Two is released in cinemas on 1st March.
Dune: Part Two
Summary
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will go down as one of the all-time greats. Dune: Part Two is every bit as groundbreaking as its predecessor and then some.
