Dune: Part Two

DUNE: PART TWO   ***

Denis Villeneuve

2024

IDEA:  Paul grapples with his burgeoning role as the prophesied messiah of the Fremen amid an increasingly chaotic galactic battle for control of Arrakis.

BLURB:  Dune: Part Two largely exhibits the same qualities that made Part One such an unexpectedly vigorous, astute work of large-scale blockbuster filmmaking. These are primarily formal ones: cinematography, sound, and production design, especially, and the ways in which Villeneuve orchestrates these elements to immerse the viewer in a spectacle that has a tactilely epic scope. There’s perhaps no better single example of this in Part Two than Paul’s sandworm initiation, a sequence that combines suspenseful buildup, visual and sonic contrasts, lithe camera movement, and a strategic, culminating POV shot to thrilling sensory effect. To be sure, the film continues to display this audiovisual prowess over the remaining two hours, and with a lucidity and apparent ease that is truly impressive, if not quite as awe-inspiring as it seemed in Part One. If the craft of the film is mostly unimpeachable, however, the same cannot be said for the writing and acting. Part Two tangibly strains as the story builds toward revolutionary ferment and the radicalization of Paul into a power-hungry tyrant, an operatic Lawrence of Arabia-esque arc neither the script nor a sluggish Chalamet are quite able to pull off. The relative blandness of the characters as performed - already a deficiency in Part One - becomes a greater liability in this chapter as they’re tasked with wrangling ever-more dramatic emotional and psychological developments. It’s a testament to the film’s sheer formal virtuosity that, despite the sense that the Spice has lost some of its cinematic potency, Dune: Part Two still proves a grandly exciting time.