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Dune: Part Two Movie Review

Dune: Part Two is a 2024 epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson among others. It’s a flawed spectacle.

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“The Madhi is too humble to say He is the Madhi.

Even more reason to know He is! As written!“

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This flick serves more as a continuation than a sequel to the original film. It follows from the ending of the first movie seamlessly as we follow Paul assume the messianic role as he is on quest to avenge his father’s death and help the Fremen against the Harkonnen in the process. The 2021 original ranked among the best movies released that year for me and I ended up giving it five Simbasible awards. The sequel paled in comparison to the original as the second half of this story has always been inferior for me personally, but at least its strengths significantly outweigh those narrative flaws carried over from the source material itself.

This second movie is admittedly less faithful to the novel than the first one, but the changes that Villeneuve made were either for the better or they didn’t bother me much as they did not overly affect the bigger narrative at hand. Most of those alterations happened in the last act, but I never liked the ending of the book, so I did not mind him changing some of it.

With that being said, I still quite disliked the final thirty or so minutes of Dune: Part Two. It for me effectively tarnished the impact of the rest of the film, which was truly terrific. Paul’s shift into the darker side was not handled best. His arc felt rushed toward the end. Chani’s changed arc was wonderfully modernized, but otherwise that ending resorted to that typical problem of epic fantastical works where a primitive knife fight in the middle of future solves everything. But the biggest issue was the somewhat open-ended final sequence that obviously was a hook for the eventual sequel that will adapt the even more problematic second novel in the series. I would have much preferred for this entry to feel like its own thing instead of functioning as the second part of a trilogy that we all know will end with a whimper.

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But there is no denying the greatness of everything that came before that frustrating conclusion. The thematic core of the novel itself was the exploration of religion and politics and how both influence each other. The reversion of the white savior narrative, the anti-colonialism messaging and the exploration of the messianic myth that ends ambiguously are the most important themes of the source material and they were actually surprisingly well explored in this movie as Villeneuve had enough time throughout its very long runtime to properly deal with these themes. Whenever the movie focused on character development and rich dialogue it was very engaging to watch.

That is not to say that the action is not interesting too. In fact, this is one of the rare franchises where action sequences are executed in such a thrilling, detailed and genuinely riveting way that it is almost impossible not to be entertained. The opening action set piece is among the highlights as it was so artistically shot. Another highlight was the second big action set piece that involved a lot of machinery. This battle was genuinely thrilling as it was executed in such a kinetic way that it felt like watching someone play a fun action video game.

Dune: Part Two is an audio-visual spectacle the same way its immediate predecessor was. Villeneuve here operated on such a vast scale that the end result is grandiose filmmaking at its finest. Very few filmmakers can direct epic films as well as he does, showcasing his talent for both more indie and big-budget filmmaking. Although I preferred the first film, I still find his directing to be terrific in the sequel too.

Hans Zimmer’s score is superb as well, though he repeated a lot of the same beats from the original. Sound is another highlight as it was so immersive throughout, making seeing this movie in theaters almost seem like an obligation. Greg Fraser’s cinematography is phenomenal and the movie genuinely felt like a timeless epic blockbuster in how it was shot, framed and captured in every single scene and moment. For instance, there is a moment where Paul is on top of a dune overlooking a war brewing in the distance and that scene felt like an instant classic movie moment. Him riding the sandworm was also thrilling.

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The costume design is particularly memorable and unique with the princess character sporting especially interesting fashion choices. The movie is also superbly edited and paced as I never felt its staggering length. The VFX work is again superb with the tech looking impressive while still being rooted in realism.

Timothee Chalamet is still miscast as Paul Atreides. I do find his performance to be quite strong as he is a great actor after all, but I simply did not buy him in the role of a badass leader due to his small stature and warm face. Zendaya fared better as Chani, by far the most relatable character of the bunch. She won’t follow Paul as some messianic figure and is firmly against fundamentalism in religious thinking. She was, thus, immensely modernized but for the better. Their relationship was solidly realized, but on her own I really liked Zendaya and her character who finally got a purpose in the franchise.

Rebecca Ferguson is fantastic as Lady Jessica – an enigmatic figure. She was consistently mysterious and cool. Josh Brolin was a bit sidelined, but he was still quite good. Florence Pugh was very memorable, but her role was quite small. Dave Bautista wasn’t entirely believable and his character was too pathetic here. Austin Butler surprised me here as I really disliked his ‘Elvis’ performance, but his Feyd-Rautha was a scene-stealing villain in his blood-thirsty, deranged, psychosexual behavior. It’s a shame, then, that all of these villains, including the Baron himself were disposed of so easily at the end.

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One of the standouts in Dune: Part Two was Javier Bardem. This is the only time when he got to be funny and he was hilarious at times. His devout faith was both very amusing and also endearing. It’s a shame, then, that the rest of the movie lacked the emotion or humor that defined those smaller scenes as Villeneuve is, similarly to Nolan, a rather cold filmmaker.