Now we’re getting somewhere! While the first Dune was a spectacle to behold, the world building was so vast that the movie was basically a glorified 2 and a half hour table setter. But now that the table is set, Part Two is ready to eat, really taking this epic tale to new heights. It also helps that these films are also going to be a who’s who of Hollywood’s future, with the stars of today in the franchise of the moment directed by one of the best directors working. That’s a lot of expectations…that also lead to a LOT of great results thank goodness!
Here’s your table setter for Dune: Part Two. Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is the sole survivor of House Atreides, one of the great space lineages in the future. After a betrayal by Harkonnen House head Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgard), Paul is left stranded on the Planet Arrakis with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), in league with the Fremen, the free natives on Arrakis fighting against any foreign invaders. The Fremen are basically two groups aligned to fight the foreigners: Chani (Zendaya) is from the north of Arrakis, more secular and unbelieving of any prophecies about Paul and Lady Jessica, but Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is a Southerner, which is more fundamentalist and believes in this prophecy about an interloping mother and son coming to save their people. Off Arrakis, political machinations are afoot, as Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) is learning of her father the Emperor’s (Christopher Walken) involvement in this whole affair, and the Baron sees his chance at the throne thorough wrangling Arrakis into order, sending his bloodthirsty nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to the planet to essentially torture the planet into submission.
Denis Villeneuve continues to grow as a director. I’m pretty sure he knew the first Dune would be a tough ask, since there’s a zillion characters and weird names with even weirder political and belief systems to sell a mass audience. He made probably the best move, focusing on Chalamet’s Paul and his family, bringing in other houses and planets when the story needed it, but the movie never quite cohered probably the way he wanted. So, Villeneuve moves all the pieces to an ending in Part One to tell a much more streamlined story in Part Two. We’re mostly on Arrakis here, as Paul and Jessica goes deep into the Fremen’s ways and cultural makeup. We can see the master at work here: the director uses the Arrakis storylines as the foundational story, with occasional trips off planet to remind everyone there’s bigger things at play than just Arrakis. We deepen our understanding of the main cast on Arrakis, lose some good friends and enemies along the way, and gain some new intriguing characters we get little snippets of. All of this is happening amidst truly incredible desert landscapes, at sunset, sunrise, light, dark: we see it all. Plus, Villeneuve builds the story around a rebel population guerrilla warfareing with a more technologically advanced civilization, leading to some gigantic machines fighting hidden sand fighters using what they have on hand to take down Rabban (Dave Bautista) and the Harkonnens. Villeneuve has a much better handle on this Dune’s tone, pacing, and storytelling, careening the audience to where he needs the movie to be for the inevitable part 3, taking our breath away with the sheer scale and rich backdrop he builds for the audience to awe and gawk at.
Most importantly, Villeneuve’s storytelling jumps up a notch in Part Two. With most of our main players introduced, this Dune is really focused on the complications that arise from becoming a leader, and merging power with religion. While Paul Atreides is happy enough to learn the ways of the Fremen and become one of them, the people around him have other “plans” for him. The Fremen are pretty split about Paul, some seeing him as their prophesied Messiah and others believing him to be an external false prophet, with Zendaya playing the skeptic wonderfully and Bardem giving the movie a nice bit of humor with his unwavering beliefs. Mom Jessica is seeped in the mystical parts of Dune lore, with Rebecca Ferguson sinking her teeth into this juicy role of having feet in the secular and religious worlds at the same time. Timothee Chalamet really steps up in Part Two, rising from a meek naive boy into a bonafide electrifying speechifying leader. The story is rich in complexity, going into real details about the actions and consequences of mobilizing and manipulating/rousing people into action, and how hubris, belief and thirst for power can cloud any pure innocence of anyone seeking to become a leader of people. Villeneuve presents these questions asked on all sides, as the political maneuvering of the various houses and Paul and the Fremen really make it easy to understand the points of view of everyone here…therefore making it harder to decide who is doing the “right” thing, if that even exists.
It’s nice to see a franchise gaining momentum. With a bunch of movie franchises either losing steam or sputtering to a halt, Dune if anything has grown in esteem by committing to the bit. That’s thanks to Denis Villeneuve and his visions for Dune, wrangling the giant story into some semblance of precision and focus. I can’t wait to see what other surprises Villeneuve has in store for the inevitable part 3, including which other famous hot young actors are coming on board. I’m rooting for a Jacob Elordi/Sydney Sweeney Euphoria blue eyed reunion with Zendaya personally.