Dune 2 - Movie Review

Critics Score - 10 of 10

General Audience Score - 10 of 10

Perfect cinema exists. When Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dickson developed the first kinetograph back in the late 1800’s, they couldn’t have possibly imagined what the medium would unlock for humanity. But sometimes, just sometimes, the human race is given a glimpse of something that we’ve never seen before via this cellulose nitrate vehicle. From the bow of the Titanic to the trenches of World War One, from the surface of the moon to the realm of Middle-Earth, we can now add the desert planet of Arrakis to the places we’ve been transported to thanks to the new film from Denis Villeneuve, Dune 2. The sequel to his prior film which primarily used its runtime to provide exposition to an enormous world and characters, this second part surpasses the first in its splendor and tenacity by getting to the meat of the Frank Herbert novel. And when I say “getting to the meat”, I mean, we feast. This film doesn’t suffer hardly any of the pacing or world building issues that held me back ever so slightly from embracing the first. Instead it quickly dives headlong into the development of the Paul Atreides character played brilliantly by Timothée Chalamet. It builds momentum continuously from the midway point of the first act through to the epic finale. I’ve watched and reviewed hundreds of films in my relatively short history as a film critic, I do not give out 10 of 10 perfect scores lightly, in fact I have done it only one other time for The Power Of The Dog. But I stand fairly confident in my stance of Dune Part 2 being a masterpiece of filmmaking and it is pretty much as near to “a perfect cinematic experience” as is possible to reach.

SYNOPSIS - As the film opens with some voiceover from Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), she explains, “Imperial Diary. The year 10,191.” Some quick editing takes us through some shots of men in full dark armor space suits with flamethrowers setting fire to massive piles of bodies, these are also wearing dark infantry style armor and helmets as she continues speaking. “The battle for Arrakis took everyone by surprise.” She speaks of war and that the Atreides family is no more. As the scene cuts, we’re taken to a courtyard filled with trees and some kind of chess like game with tiny black and white pyramids. We see Princess Irulan and her father, the Emperor (Christopher Walken) in the background as she says, “And the Emperor said . . . nothing”. The Princess goes on to reference some of the things from the first installment of this saga. How the giant floating Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his henchmen including Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) overthrew the house of Atreides and killed Paul Atreides father, forcing Paul (Timothée Chalamet) to flee into exile. Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the Bene Gesserit, a coven of women with some sort witch like powers, escaped with him and is pregnant with child. As we see the Dune Part 2 title appear onscreen in a lens flare type of flash, we begin to see ultrasonic views of a baby inside a womb, Paul is having visions of his sister, growing inside his mother.

Needless to say, this world and everything going on inside it, is massive. The characters, groups of individuals, the power struggle and political chess piece maneuvering is a complicated one that was virtually impossible to explain in five or so hours of video, let alone the few paragraphs that I type here. Suffice it to say that Paul and his mother, after escaping the coup, are taken in by the local inhabitants of the Arrakis planet, the Fremen. The Fremen are a desert dwelling group with a northern and southern tribe, that each have ancient religious traditions and mysterious prophecies. Paul joins the Fremen in a  fight against Baron Harkonnen’s forces that are gathering a blue dust called “spice”, an incredibly valuable element which makes interstellar travel possible. As Paul and his Fremen girlfriend Chani (Zendaya) begin to get the upper hand in their war against the evil Baron, the Baron is forced to recruit the gladiator fighting warrior of sorts Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), who’s copy paper white skin, bald head, chiseled body and ruthless determination to annihilate all in his path make him a formidable adversary to the Fremen. As Paul continues training to become Fremen, his skills grow and some begin to believe he’s their prophesied Messiah that will bring the sand dwelling people to a green paradise. But much stands in the way as many of the groups and entities previously mentioned that are struggling for power are looking to upend the rule and claim the Emperor’s power for themselves.

Dune 2 is a technical marvel, and not exactly in the same way that other movies, like say, Oppenheimer, are technical marvels. Oppenheimer was a recreation of actual existing events and characters. Chris Nolan utilized, editing, sound, cinematography, visual effects, score, the production and a host of other elements to create, or you could say recreate, the moments that blew audiences away last summer. But with Dune, Denis Villeneuve must create much of this alien planet world from scratch, with all these same elements that have no previous frame of reference, yet they must come together in unison. Which is the reason I use the term masterpiece earlierZ The film’s visuals, working in conjunction with the sound, cinematograph and other aspects, it all blends together seamlessly as if the work of thousands of people is all filtered, processed and refined through the Villeneuve lens. Hans Zimmer’s original score stands out with its powerful drumming and vocal harmonies, reverberating into our souls and taking us along on this otherworldly ride. The cinematography too was jaw dropping. It reminded me of George Miller’s Mad Max Fury Road with it’s countless desert shots of stunning and breathtaking visuals. Speaking of the visuals, the special effects used in the film blend seamlessly into the shot compositions, other than some scenes involving the sand worms. I’m guessing many of the effects used were made as practical as possible, but there’s very little blatantly noticeable effects work, most of it is hidden extremely well. Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler are both putting on a show for us, as we get a bit of Butler’s characters back story and the two characters spiral towards each other in an epic showdown for the ages. I personally preferred Chalamet in this second part, he’s given more leeway to show his acting range and his character arc is much more pronounced. Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and the whole ensemble cast really, are bringing their A game as well. I will finish this assessment with the screenplay and direction from Villeneuve. Being counted among the “impossible to adapt” books, Villeneuve streamlined the original book down to make sure the highlights were emphasized while not getting bogged down with the unnecessary details, like the 1984 David Lynch film succumbs to. His direction is even more astounding than his script, as he maneuvers all the elements of this world into a fully realized and immersive desert reality that we enter for the duration of the runtime. Despite a few slowdowns we experience in the two hour and forty-five minute run, as well as some questionable character motivations at times, there’s really no earthly reason, or Arrakisly reason for that matter, why you shouldn’t run to the theatre to watch this movie that will stun critics, cinephiles and general audiences alike with its pure and utter grandeur.

SUMMARY - The first installment of Dune was a great film for the 2021 year. This Part 2 is great film for this decade, possibly even this century, so go take a ride down this Dune as soon as you can, preferably in IMAX or Dolby. In the same way that Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings as well as other science fiction and fantasy films have recontextualized the way we look at those film genres, Dune Part 2 will forever be a touchstone of the power of cinema and what is possible.