March 4, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
For all the opportunities wasted on movies with big spectacle and little to show for it, it’s when Hollywood puts their trust and money behind some of the most creative, artistic craftsmen in their field that cinephiles are able to revel in the possibilities of what cinema can be.
There’s unlikely to be a film for the rest of the year, if not longer, quite like director Denis Villeneuve’s second adaptation of the classic Frank Herbert novel “Dune” with part two arriving in theaters this past weekend to critical and commercial acclaim.
Even at a massive nearly three-hour running time, “Dune: Part Two” makes the most of every second with a grandiose singular vision taking everything that was great about the 2021 Academy Award winning original and expanding the universe to a wider net of endless possibilities.
The film essentially begins almost immediately after the previous ends as Paul Atreides and his mother, Lady Jessica, are taken in by a nomadic tribe called the Fremen after Paul’s family was betrayed and slaughtered. Villeneuve’s tale of survival and revenge is a work of science-fiction art on a level that hasn’t been seen since George Miller’s 2015 epic odyssey “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
The centerpiece of the entire film is a conflicted, charismatic Timothée Chalamet as Paul, who blends an outer angst with inner turmoil to ground “Dune: Part Two” in character work.
This is especially true in the way Paul develops and changes with the women in his life, most notably Zendaya’s Chani, a love interest who doesn’t simply bow down to Paul’s desires, and Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica, who claims to be on Paul’s side but as the two find themselves at odds, their motivations seem clouded behind their faraway eyes.
“Dune: Part Two” is a film where the acting heartbeats allow Villeneuve to rest in the quieter moments and focus on the terrific performances.
It’s incredibly rare for a genre film to have such a depth of acting talent where performers like Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling portray characters largely on the fringes of Villeneuve’s world that could easily each be explored through their own individual films. This helps make the entire feature feel more momentous.
“Dune: Part Two” becomes larger than life on the big screen thanks to Villeneuve’s intense and dynamic visuals in collaboration with cinematographer Greig Fraser.
The wide landscapes of Abu Dhabi reflecting the heat of the Arrakis desert propel audiences into the urgency of each moment and the quality of special effects practically done on set evokes the same level of brilliance and care put into “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Even though this iteration is connected with the 2021 original, there’s a distinctly unique feel to this second half as the new settings and worlds of “Part Two” never become a repetition and help reinforce Villeneuve’s feature as a standalone film unto itself.
This is especially true in arresting black-and-white cinematography shot on infrared cameras meant to showcase the villainous home world of House Harkonnen and introduce Austin Butler’s psychotic Feyd-Rautha on an almost demonic level that helps accelerate the intensity during the film’s second act.
Technically masterful from start to finish, “Dune: Part Two” is likely to remain unrivaled throughout the course of 2024 from cinematography to production design, sound, and score and would have unquestionably been among last year’s top movies if it had remained at its original October release date.
Even though it’s only March and the Oscars celebrating 2023 haven’t happened yet, “Dune: Part Two” feels assured to be a major contender at this time next year in almost every category, especially Best Picture, Best Director, and a wide array of technical noms, though it is more difficult to project any of the strong acting performances to hold up in the minds of voters nine months later.
Without question, Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic is something that must be seen on the biggest screen possible and well worth the extra cost for cinephiles to envelope themselves into another world on an IMAX screen.
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