‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: Denis Villeneuve’s Spectacular Sequel Goes Heavy On The Mythos
Settling back into Denis Villeneuve’s exotic sci-fi world gets off to a tense start, with a sudden horns-of-Jericho blast from Hans Zimmer’s score, coupled with a stern warning onscreen: “Power over spice is power over all.” It seems a little unnecessary, since the pursuit of spice — a highly sought-after mind-bending drug — is pretty much the only constant in Frank Herbert’s novels. But it does hammer that point home, lest it get lost, since, being the second part of a trilogy, Dune: Part 2 fits the exact same interstitial slot occupied by The Two Towers in the Lord of the Rings franchise — the necessary but dramatically tantalizing middle bit that gets us to the award-sweeping climax.
Villeneuve embraces the breathing space, and everything he didn’t do in the first, he does here, leaning right into the complicated mythos of the planet Arrakis and its surrounding worlds. Two new characters appear from the off; the first is Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), daughter of the Emperor (Christopher Walken). Through Irulan we learn that the House Atreides is believed to be no more, having been massacred by the Harkonnens, the ruthless family that has been entrusted with spice production. “My father has always been guided by the calculus of power,” notes Irulan, who finds out that the Atreides bloodline was effectively set up to be wiped out, on account of their leader Leto’s humane approach to ruling, as opposed to the Harkonnens’ blood-soaked tyranny.
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As we know, however, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalomet) is still on the loose, with his pregnant mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). As per the end of Part One (Part Two follows directly on from the deadly duel with Jamis, whose body is still lying there, neatly wrapped), Paul is now embedded with the sand-dwelling Fremen tribe, led by Javier Bardem’s Stilgar, although it will be a full 45 minutes before Paul gets intimate with Chani (Zendaya), the warrior girl he has been dreaming about from the get-go.
The Fremen seem to be split 50/50 about the outsiders, believing them to be off-world spies, so Lady Jessica starts to play on their superstition, later joining the Fremen ranks as a Reverend Mother. Lady Jessica’s plan is to head south, so she can have her baby in safety. Paul, however, wants to head north, since it’s the only way he can get to the Emperor. “Your father didn’t believe in revenge,” she tells him. “I do,” he replies.
This conflict is the dramatic motor of Part Two, as Lady Jessica manipulates the prophecy of the lisan al gaib (“The Voice from the Outer World”), planting the seed that Paul is the chosen one. Some swallow it, like the wide-eyed Stilgar, who has an almost Python-esque obsession with the coming messiah and marvels, “As written!” every time Paul’s actions check some mysterious messianic box. Others, like the increasingly grumpy Chani, see through this mumbo-jumbo. “You want to control people?” she says. “Tell them a messiah is coming, and they’ll wait for centuries.”
Meanwhile, the Emperor has shifted his attentions to the Harkonnens, who, under the rule of Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista), nephew of the increasingly fat and repulsive Baron Valdimir (Stellan Skarsg?rd), are being run ragged by the Fremen. In conjunction with Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling), newcomer Lady Margot (Léa Seydoux) suggests that a better option is the Baron’s other nephew, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), a cold-blooded psychopath they believe to be “sexually vulnerable” and thus has the potential to be manageable (“Desire and humiliation — those are his levers”).
Intrigue is the key word in Part Two, as some old faces reappear and new ones are teased. But whenever we’re away from Paul, the story starts to drift, and the plotting — so seamless in Part One — now seems episodic, in a serial TV kind of way, even though the production values are obviously much, much higher than that. The world of the Harkonnens is heavily stylized, recalling Ridley Scott’s Alien worlds, and yet there’s also the faint whiff of prog-rock about it, as if this were the subject of a lost 1970s Rick Wakeman concept album, the kind that would usually be performed as a rock opera on ice.
It’s telling that, of the two episodes so far, Part Two is the first to double up on images from David Lynch’s near-disastrous Dune — notably in the portrayal of the ever more grotesque baron, and scenes in which Paul rides the mighty sandworm — and offer an inadvertent reminder that this really is a tough story to crack on screen. The war scenes, initially so compelling, can sometimes be confusing, especially with so many faces in helmets, scarves and masks being enveloped in endless clouds of sand. Luckily, the effects are at all times breathtaking, which is helpful when covering for the sometimes stilted script.
To be fair to Villeneuve, it was never a given that there’d be a thirst for this franchise in the first place, and audiences went into Part One not knowing that they’d want a Part Two just as soon as it finished. Part Two would be an epic achievement from any other director, but it feels that there is something bigger, better and obviously more decisive to come in the third and hopefully final part of the trilogy. “This isn’t over yet!” says Chani, and if anyone can tie up this strange, sprawling story and take it out with a bang, Villeneuve can.
Title: Dune: Part Two
Distributor: Warner Bros
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenwriter: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, Frank Herbert
Cast: Timothée Chalomet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, Austin Butler
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hr 46 min
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