The dangerous power of belief.
The greatest drug on Arrakis is not spice, but power. It’s the drug that corrupts the mind and the soul — the drug that turns women into witches and men into monsters. The last line spoken in the first Dune was “This is only the beginning.” When Dune: Part Two lingered on its last haunting shot, all I could think to myself was “This is the end.”
Picking up immediately where Part One left off, Dune: Part Two shows Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) learning the ways of the Fremen, the sand people of Arrakis. He falls in love with a young woman named Chani (Zendaya), and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is now a trusted Reverend Mother to the Fremen. Paul and Jessica have adjusted quickly to their new lives, but Paul still has thoughts of vengeance in the back of his mind for the deaths of his father and House Atreides.
Meanwhile on Geidi Prime, House Harkonnen is building up its forces to take back spice production on Arrakis. After failing to kill Paul and Lady Jessica, the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard) replaces his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) with Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), a violent and bloodthirsty psychopath and heir to the Baron’s throne. As both of these factions come head to head, Paul must decide what kind of man he wants to become and the lengths he will go to exact vengeance on the ones who betrayed his family.
I was very nervous going in to watch Dune: Part Two. Not because I wasn’t confident in writer-director Denis Villeneuve, who has proven himself over and over again with the likes of Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and of course, the first Dune. I was nervous because I understood the huge expectations that weighed down on this film like a sandworm. Not only was Denis Villeneuve expected to make a film just as great as its predecessor, but somehow, he had to build upon the already big ideas he was exploring and make a film that was satisfying for fans new and old alike. Much bigger franchises than Dune have crumbled under the weight of their own expectations, whether you’re talking about Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I was worried Dune was going to fall into the small trap as many others had before it.
I’m so grateful to tell you that Dune: Part Two is not as great as its predecessor — it’s even better. Like The Dark Knight, Return Of The King, or Empire Strikes Back, Dune: Part Two expands on its universe and builds upon the lore in new and exciting ways that takes it in surprising and unexpected directions. It’s one thing to make an epic sci-fi blockbuster smash hit for moviegoing audiences. It’s another thing entirely to pose it as a moral and philosophical question to the same audience and have it hit just as deeply.
The very first thing that hits you with this movie is its visual prowess. The opening shot is a deeply disturbing image of a pile of corpses set ablaze — the last remains of the fallen House Atreides. At the end of the film, we circle back to that motif with a similar shot, only this time with a different pile of bodies and an even more horrifying context. That’s the skill cinematographer Greg Frasier fully displays here. He isn’t just capturing stunning, spectacular, striking images — he fills them with context that brings weight and meaning to every image.
There are some scenes that are filled with all of the extravagant imagery you’ve witnessed from the first movie — sand worms traversing through the desert, Sardaukar hovering in the air, Fremen and Harkonnen warring in the sands. And then there are other scenes that are so quiet, somber, and contemplative, yet say eons more than any of the action scenes do. My favorite shot in the whole movie isn’t even a particularly exciting one — it’s the final shot of the film, where we linger on the pained, hurt, and grieved face of an innocent who’s left lost and alone at the end of it all. It’s technically the most normal shot in the movie, yet it says the most because you understand what this character went through and what brought them to this very moment.
But capturing the setting is one thing — it’s the characters whose actions and words bring life to this story, and the performances in Dune: Part Two are even more outstanding than the first movie, if you can believe it. In her first appearance as Lady Jessica, Rebecca Ferguson was very good as a grieving mother caught up in a conflict she never wanted herself or her family to get involved in. Here, she demonstrates that she will go to any length to protect her son and unborn child — no matter who she has to hurt in the process. While Zendaya had a smaller role in the first movie, here she’s brought front and center as one of the main characters, and she demonstrates the dramatic chops to prove that she can be just as memorable as her leading co-stars despite having less screen time than them. But the most surprising transformation comes from Austin Butler, who is easily the most sinister, the most scathing, and the most monstrous character out of the entire movie. He was nominated for an Oscar just last year for playing Elvis Presley, but I genuinely believe this is the role he should be most known for going forward. He commits to the insanity of this part with such conviction to the point where you don’t even see him as a heartthrob nor as a movie star — you only see him for his evil and bloodlust.
As phenomenal as this star-studded cast is, none of them compare to the fierceness and ferocity of Timothee Chalamet. At the beginning of the film, Paul is fearful of the Bene Gesserit’s prophecy and resists it like the plague. But by the time we arrive at the third act, Paul has fully embraced his identity as Lisan al Gaib and uses it to strike down his enemies like a crysknife. There is a scene in this movie where he rallies all of Arrakis’ tribes together, and it’s so intense, powerful, and commanding that it made me believe that he just might be the messiah to these people. Whether he actually is remains to be seen, but it almost doesn’t matter whether he is or isn’t. The Fremen believe that he is, and sometimes, belief is all you need to defeat armies, conquer lands, and win wars — or wage them.
Denis Villeneuve masterfully brings all of these elements together to create a mesmerizing, spellbinding, and horrifying portrait of faith, fascism, and fanaticism that consumes and corrupts everything it touches. I think everybody expected this film to be as explosive, captivating, and visually spectacular as the first film was. What’s more surprising is that Dune: Part Two is deeper, darker, and even more profound and thought-provoking. To me, that’s the bigger accomplishment, because movies only last as long as their runtime — but the conversations they create last far beyond the closing credits.
When we first meet Paul in Dune: Part One, we see a bright-eyed and curious royal heir who’s eager to learn more about the tribes and cultures beyond his own. But after losing his father, his family, his home, and his life, he turns into something lethal — something more violent than the Harkonnens and more cruel than the Bene Gesserit. But the scariest part isn’t seeing the millions believing in Paul and rallying behind his crusade. The scariest part is that you want to believe him too.
DAVID DUNN 