DUNE Part 2: A (Relatively) Spoiler Free Review

By Chris M. Barkley:

DUNE, Part Two (**** out of 4 stars, 165 minutes) with Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Fergeson, Stellan Skarsgård, Javiar Bardem, Dave Bautista, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling, Josh Brolin and Chris topher Walken. Screenplay adaptation by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve from the novel by Frank Herbert, directed by Villeneuve. 

Bechtel Test: PASS.

When film reviewers and critics refer to the most successful (English language) movie sequels, they usually cite the two that easily come to mind, The Godfather Part II (1974) and Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Both films have a lot in common; its predecessors, The Godfather and Star Wars: A New Hope were a smashing opening act, critically and at the box office, both were a visual feast for the eyes and had compelling characters and story arcs that had audiences all over the world thirsting for more.

And, most importantly, once they were announced by their respective studios, they were hotly anticipated by everyone. And if they had fallen flat at the box office, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas would have been practically unhireable and the cinematic landscape you and I know today probably would have been vastly different. Because even in this day and age, there are no sure bets at the box office (as the makers of last December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom can readily attest to).

But soon, Dune Part 2 may well enter this rarified cinemanic pantheon, as well.

Writer/Director Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune Part One had a bit of a stumble coming out of the gate; his distributing studio, Warner Brothers, decided to release his film simultaneously in theaters and on its streaming platform (then called HBO Max) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Villeneuve, who had dreamed of adapting Frank Herbert’s classic book for decades, was fearful that a poor box office performance would diminish the chances of finishing the second half of the novel. But, even though Part One grossed an anemic $110 million dollars in North America, it took in almost $325 million in overseas revenue, won six Academy Awards in technical categories and became an instant cultural phenomenon. 

Warner Brothers and its producing partner, Legendary Films, rolled the dice and officially greenlit Part 2 in October 2022, a month and a half after its debut at the Venice Film Festival and one day after it premiered in the United States.

Dune Part 2 picks up almost immediately after the end of Part One, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his pregnant mother, Jessica (Rebecca Fergeson) on the run from the forces of their sworn enemies, the House of Harkonnen. 

Among the indigenous Fremen of Arrakis, Paul forges a political relationship with Stilgar (Javiar Bardem), an influential chief, and a romantic one with Chani (Zendaya), a freedom fighter who teaches him the ways of her people and of the desert.

Meanwhile, forces are coalescing against the survivors; the Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) and his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) know that their precarious position as the head of the galactic empire depends on the flow of spice used in space navigation and that their treacherous deal with Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) to destroy House Atreides must never see the light of day.

As the Baron and his brutal nephews, Rabban (Dave Bautista) and Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) try to bring the Fremen to heel with escalating attacks on their homesteads, Paul tries to grapple with his troubling and fragmented visions of his possible futures and contend with the machinations of his mother, who is using her religious training of the Bene Gesserit to make him their leader.

As with Dune Part 1, Part 2 is a virtual master class in production design, editing, special effects, stunt coordination, acting and execution.

And I can well imagine that there are a lot of people who may not read Frank Herbert’s novel, may view both films as a sweeping, epic story of personal resilience and revenge. And they would be only half right.

Because if they had, they might have realized that Herbert never meant Paul Atreides to be heroic in the traditional sense of more recent well known cultural icons like Luke Skywalker, Katniss Everdeen, Clark Kent or Ellen Ripley, but as a tragic anti-hero in every sense of the word.

Paul starts out as a staunch defender of his adopted Fremen clan and vehemently resists becoming their messianic leader. But, as you will see, he makes a series of choices that will ensure his revenge on the Harkonnens and plunge the galaxy into chaos. Once again, Timothée Chalamet more than proves he‘s up to the task, showing Paul’s descent into a calculated and murderous rage that is quite comparable to Al Pacino’s performance in The Godfather films.

The major change screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve made to the narrative was to make Chani the person who sees through Paul’s bullshit instead of his willing concubine. As the climax of the movie unfolds, you can see the shock, anger and betrayal in Chani’s eyes and Zendaya delivers these emotions with devastating effect.

Dune, as Frank Herbert envisioned it, is a huge salad bowl of concerns; a speculative exploration of a made up ecology, war, power mongering, colonialism and, in particular, against religious fundamentalism and toxic mythologies. Written as America was beginning a disastrous military entanglement in Vietnam, Dune endures as a stark warning against all of those things. 

Dune Part 2 is well on its way to becoming the first blockbuster film of the year and it is inevitable that Denis Villeneuve will be making the next book in the series, Dune Messiah. 

That novel was not well received in 1969 because it highlights the consequences of Paul’s actions. 

But, with the emotional rift between Chani and Paul coupled with the ongoing conflict between the remaining Houses, the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit, there will be plenty of material for Villeneuve and his merry band magic makers to adapt. 

And I can’t wait to see what they do with it.