Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, time at least to head back to Arrakis. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
After a months-long delay so as to ensure that the cast could be available to promote it after the actors’ strike, Dune: Part Two is finally here. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely.
I really enjoyed the first Dune, brought to screens back in 2021 by director Denis Villeneuve. And if anything, his follow-up has the edge in terms of impressive visuals and powerful leitmotifs. Not to mention a quality cast and typically gigantic production value.
It doesn’t hurt that Villeneuve got the band back together both in front of and behind the camera, with returning cast including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista. They are all still excellent in their roles, with Zendaya and Bardem given more to do this time around after only briefly appearing in the first film.
On the production side, cinematographer Greig Fraser and editor Joe Walker are both back, while Hans Zimmer once more provides the haunting/propulsive score, and Jon Spaihts is still on board as co-writer.
As the story evolves to follow Paul’s conflicted rise to messianic power, the cast also expands to include some new additions. Austin Butler is the standout as Baron Harkonnen’s (Skarsgård) nephew, the bald, black-toothed psychopath Feyd-Rautha. He’s all blade-licking weirdness and throat-slitting evil. Perhaps less well-served are Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh, but only because the Emperor and his daughter, Princess Irulan have relatively small roles in the movie –– Irulan in particular is, as in the book, largely a narrator guiding us through this stage of the story.
A big question to answer is whether you need to have seen the first movie to appreciate this one. Despite an early exposition dump, I would say it definitely helps, though the basic concept of revenge and war underpinning it all is certainly easy to grasp even if you didn’t watch it.
Which is not to say the movie’s themes are in any way basic. This is a smart, thoughtful and dramatic look at how religious fanaticism can be dangerous, even when the crusade is seemingly a noble one. It’s as nuanced as you might hope for from a big blockbuster with more on its mind than just sandworms and battle scenes.
Yet the sandworms and battle scenes are also impressive –– suitably epic, and convincing in a way that shows real craft, just as with Villeneuve’s last trip to Arrakis.
If I have quibbles, they’re minimal; mostly that the movie’s story still doesn’t find much room for real emotion, taking a chilly approach to interactions. Even with the 166-minute running time, you feel the movie rushing through certain moments, trying to cram everything in. And for me, when the local Arrakis forces, known as the Fremen, go up against the Emperor’s elite Sardaukar troops, the clash of beige uniforms in the stirred desert sands makes it tough to figure out which is which.
None of the issues detract from the whole, immersive, epic film, however, and Part Two proves that Villeneuve was the best man for the tough job of bringing Frank Herbert’s complicated novel to screens.
Dune: Part Two is in UK and US cinemas now.