So, here’s what happened… In 2021, I saw Dune, and started to contemplate if maybe Denis Villeneuve had taken over Christopher Nolan as Hollywood’s most current premier director. Then Oppenheimer came out, blew me away, and whack – Nolan had put me back in my place. But isn’t it great, to have two big cocks strutting round the hen house – Villeneuve has proven he can excel at beautiful large-scale projects, and actors flock to him, like they do Nolan, just to be part of it. And so, I guess the real question becomes, which of the casts do I like better, out of Dune and Oppenheimer? They’re both tremendous, but I think it’s Dune; and now Dune adds Florence Pugh and Austin Butler for Part Two 🤩 I can’t wait any longer!
Hidden within the caves of the desert planet Arrakis, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) must learn the ways of the native Fremen, to be accepted and survive. Jessica is chosen to become the Fremen’s future Reverend Mother, garnering her new foresight and powers that further muddy her very nature; while Paul exudes characteristics that have half the Fremen believing that he be their prophesized leader who will take them out of the sands. Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is Paul’s loudest devotee, while fellow Fremen Chani (Zendaya) is slow to accept Paul as a magnificent thing.
I think, on a most basic level, I didn’t enjoy Dune: Part Two as much as the first one due to the story’s content being about Paul as the chosen one. I liked the logistics of the handover in the previous movie, the empiric enterprise of mining spice and the complications that came with it – Dune shows so well how treacherous the desert can be, and while this movie is set with the same hardships, it’s mostly now been covered. I was left wondering, for a long while, how these native Fremen seem to hold such strong and similar views of the prophecy, shared by the malevolent Truthsayers off-world, until I realised that the witches put motions in place centuries in the past for future payoffs, which is very cool, and the movie ends up addressing how the Truthsayers were once very productive in the south of Arrakis. Denis Villeneuve is at it again, with a tangible realism for this sci-fi epic, accompanied by a booming score, and furthering his cause as one of the best directors of our era. I found most of Dune: Part Two to be almost dreamlike in its flow, which can be a fine line to walk, and regretful if you don’t allow your audience to catch the same wavelength; but Dune: Part Two is handled masterfully, so there’s no problems there. A few nitpicks, however – I’m still confused upon Paul’s visions, suggesting that following his mother to the South would lead to suffering and starvation 🤷♂️ Is that an eventuality of actions taken in this movie that are still yet to come? Or just a fear that was never realised? Also, as strange as it sounds, I actually preferred the similarly black-and-white scenes more in Thor: Love and Thunder 😬 I just think this movie is striving for a more lived-in realism, and the black-and-white home planet of the Harkonnen was just a stretch too far for me. I think the Harkonnen world could’ve contrast the sands of Dune, and every other visual, just by being predominantly black and white, without the scenes being shaded in black-and-white as well 😕 I’ve since seen it explained somewhere that these scenes are like this due to the strange Harkonnen sun, but I don’t know… it’s not a choice I would’ve made.
And I’ve previously written about seeing Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie interpretations, and feeling an extra sense of satisfaction in gaining illumination on classic whodunits, and I can feel the same way here, where revered sci-fi is involved, gifting me a discourse in its strengths and weaknesses; where they’re similar in respects of defining evil militaries, natives, and whatnots. Here, I just want to address something I came across, that Dune author Frank Herbert always believed George Lucas stole from his novels, and outlined 16 points of identity between Dune and Star Wars, which is fairly interesting. I’ll just focus on three, if that’s okay, and how they pertain to the stories in the movies, since I’m yet to read the books of Dune. One, the moisture farming utilised in Star Wars is merely a background feature, whereas it’s a massive and maturely developed point of survival in Dune. If Star Wars did copy Dune for a detail in functional infrastructure, who cares, and Dune is clearly the source to go to for all your moisture-farming dedications. So, point to Dune ✅ Two, the idea that the hero is actually related to a major villain, is such an epic and famous moment in Star Wars, more than it is in this Dune movie especially, where I’m still wondering if it even matters. Paul’s mother is revealed to the daughter of Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), but this truth wasn’t motivating Jessica, since she didn’t know it herself, and while Paul later decides to embrace his inherited harshness, he could’ve just as easily decided to “be like” the Harkonnen to get his point across, without actually having to be one – don’t you think? Maybe Paul’s links to the Harkonnen could become more prominent if there’s ever a Dune: Part Three, but as so far as it is, if George Lucas did steal this story beat for his cinematic sci-fi adventure, he so surely made it better, so there’s a point to Star Wars ❌ Three, and quite shortly, the Stellan Skarsgård Baron and Star Wars’ Jabba the Hutt are eerily similar in their slobbish design, and so, okay, if I were Mr. Herbert, I might be rightly annoyed with George Lucas there… Another point to Dune ✅
Yes, I was pleased by this movie’s gigantic cast, and yes, I think Zendeya is completely wonderful here too. Timothée Chalamet is also back to his brooding best, so throw Wonka in the bin, as this is his defining role for me. I’m also going to make mention of Dave Bautista’s shouty and scary Rabban – he’s not in so many scenes, and his character is made a chump, but Bautista makes Rabban visceral; and after Bautista has shown how he can be goofy in Guardians’, friendly and soft in Knock at the Cabin, I’m just going to say it, that I think he’s a fantastic actor who is completely versatile for his size 😤 I’d also heard ahead of time that the new Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) sounds exactly like Stella Skarsgård, and is completely menacing, and I thought, “of course. Bill Skarsgård is already a blood-relation, and the bloke has proven himself terrifying in movies like It. So how is this news?” But my gosh, I’m a damn fool, because it’s only as the credits rolled that I realised, it was Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha all along, and how great he is in this movie! A chameleon of the highest order, proving that Elvis wasn’t a fluke – all signs point to a thorough and intriguing career for Butler, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.
Florence Pugh has limited screentime, but a worthy addition to this modern-day juggernaut of a cast – Rebecca Ferguson is righteous again, and Javier Bardem has an expanded role displaying a devout passion we’ve seen before, but a favoured notch in his wide arsenal. The only cast member I might knock here is poor old Christopher Walken – sure, we’d all like to work with a living legend, but the way Walken is dressed only adds to a feeling that he’s minutes away from his next sponge bath. Hardly convincing as the envious and calculating Emperor spoken about by the others, I must say 😕 But further sympathies extend to Villeneuve, just for undertaking this project that deals in so much sand. For sure, it’s “coarse, and rough, and it gets everywhere”, but just think on how it’s just plain messy, and would require so much annoying legwork to reset for a second take. If someone had asked me to make Dune, it would be followed by a gracious “pass”, but thank the skies that Villeneuve has undertaken the dirty work, because the result may speak for itself. Whilst I may prefer the first Dune to this one marginally, Dune: Part Two is still another transcendent experience. I doubt this series could look any more visually spectacular, and it is truly a triumphant cinematic achievement. Seeing it on the big screen was a must.
4.5
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