Having survived the annihilation of their House by the evil Harkonnen’s, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) head further into the desert to live with the indigenous Fremen. As Paul becomes accepted into their ways some believe him to be a prophet sent to free them from their plight.
Just over two years since the masterful Dune brought Arrakis to life, Denis Villeneuve returns with another epic film to complete Frank Herbert’s Sci-Fi Epic released in 1965. With a run time that is 11 minutes longer than Part One at a whopping 166 minutes some plotlines have been removed or altered but the tone, theme and overarching story is second to none.
With the story foundations set in Part One and the majority of characters introduced, Part Two sets about doing the heavy lifting of explaining Paul Atreides troubled rise from heir to House Atreides to Prophet and Messiah capable of inspiring a Holy War. The Bene Gesserit religion, of which his mother Jessica is a part of have spent centuries sowing the seeds of a messiah like figure arriving from another planet to lead them to salvation and Paul fits their stories. Initially there is a divide in the Fremen’s belief represented by Stilgar’s (Javier Bardem) absolute faith and Chani’s (Zendaya) scepticism that the Fremen are just moving to a different oppressor. But no matter how much Paul fights this dark path, through circumstance and the machinations of his mother he becomes the story that has been told for centuries. Elsewhere the Emperor and his daughter played by new additions to the cast, Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh are trying to work with the Bene Gesserit to manipulate political happenings in order to stay in power. Then there are the evil Harkonnen’s led by their Baron (Stellan Skarsgard) who are becoming increasingly frustrated by the Fremen’s guerrilla warfare tactics disrupting spice production. The result is that the Baron replaces the psychotic Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) with the even more insane Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) with the command that he must return Arrakis to full spice production.
Across a total runtime of 5 hours 21 minutes Denis Villeneuve and co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts have managed to make a complex narrative easy to swallow for the mainstream and the fan alike.
As with Part One the epic nature of this film is one of its biggest selling points. The scale and grandeur of everything is epic. Hans Zimmer’s score is phenomenal and in an IMAX cinema the sound system will rattle your chair like you were on a rollercoaster. So much so that I wondered at the half way point if I should have brought some ear plugs to protect what is left of my hearing. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is again superlative. This time he gets to move away from the desert for some sequences and nothing is more impressive than the gladiatorial battle on the Harkonnen home world that introduces Feyd-Rautha that was shot using infrared cameras so that everything is only black or white. It is a stark contrast to the orange and yellow of the desert and looks fantastic. The scope and scale extends to the sets and costumes as well with my highlights being Princess Irulan’s outfits and the Harkonnen desert suits that allow them to float. And of course this time the digital effects and sound teams get to have a lot of fun realising the giant sand worms of Arrakis that match the vastness of the scope of the film.
The performances are again fantastic with an almost endless list to rave about. All of the newcomers to the cast are wonderful. Lea Seydoux, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler are the stand outs of this group. Seydoux and Pugh make big impacts with small roles, whilst Butler almost steals the film with another interesting voice to go with his other acting credits and a sadistic monster of a character for everyone to fear. Of the returning cast the stand outs are Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Rebecca Ferguson. Zendaya having appeared mostly in dreams in the first film becomes the film’s second lead and whilst convincing as Paul’s lover she also becomes an antagonist in her opposition of the Fremen following an outlander. Bardem’s Stilgar plays the opposite role and adds a lot of humour to the film with his character’s blind faith. And Ferguson gets to present a truly terrifying transformation as her character loses her humanity to her faith. In amongst all of this there is Timothee Chalamet who is more than capable of standing out as the lead of the film convincing in every aspect of his growth from timid boy to fighter to leader.
As grandiose and epic as the first film and a wonderful completion to the story of the first Dune novel. But, will it be the end of Villeneuve’s Dune story? The director has talked about an interest to adapt the second novel, Dune Messiah as well. And if this one is a success will there be any reason that we should not let him transport us back to Arrakis?
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