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movie review dune

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2021, Sci-fi/Adventure, 2h 35m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Dune occasionally struggles with its unwieldy source material, but those issues are largely overshadowed by the scope and ambition of this visually thrilling adaptation. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

Denis Villeneuve's Dune looks and sounds amazing -- and once the (admittedly slow-building) story gets you hooked, you'll be on the edge of your seat for the sequel. Read audience reviews

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Dune videos, dune   photos.

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their own fear will survive.

Rating: PG-13 (Some Disturbing Images|Sequences of Strong Violence|Suggestive Material)

Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Producer: Denis Villeneuve , Mary Parent , Cale Boyter , Joseph Caracciolo Jr.

Writer: Jon Spaihts , Denis Villeneuve , Eric Roth

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 22, 2021  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Oct 22, 2021

Box Office (Gross USA): $108.3M

Runtime: 2h 35m

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Production Co: Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Villeneuve Films

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

Cast & Crew

Timothée Chalamet

Paul Atreides

Rebecca Ferguson

Lady Jessica

Oscar Isaac

Duke Leto Atreides

Josh Brolin

Gurney Halleck

Stellan Skarsgård

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Jason Momoa

Duncan Idaho

Charlotte Rampling

Gaius Helen Mohiam

Dave Bautista

Glossu "Beast" Rabban

Javier Bardem

Sharon Duncan-Brewster

Stephen Henderson

Thufir Hawat

Dr. Wellington Yueh

David Dastmalchian

Piter De Vries

Denis Villeneuve

Jon Spaihts

Screenwriter

Mary Parent

Cale Boyter

Joseph Caracciolo Jr.

Tanya Lapointe

Executive Producer

Joshua Grode

Thomas Tull

Brian Herbert

Byron Merritt

Kim Herbert

Greig Fraser

Cinematographer

Film Editing

Hans Zimmer

Original Music

Patrice Vermette

Production Design

News & Interviews for Dune

Dune: Part Two : Release Date, Trailers, Cast & More

Chernobyl Emmy Winner Johan Renck To Direct on Dune Prequel Series

Awards Leaderboard: Top Movies of 2021

Critic Reviews for Dune

Audience reviews for dune.

It's been said a lot and I'll say it again, Game of Thrones sci-fi. Dueling families, grand scale, dropping you into a massive world. And much like GoT, I sometimes felt like I needed cliff notes, and while I was intrigued as hell by this opening I can't help but feel the next chapter will be that much grander. It's a massive story told massively, and I am intrigued by it, but it is a first chapter. However, in terms of first chapters, it's pretty damn good. The sheer scope is enthralling, and the visuals are stunning. Not just that, the way the visuals tell the story. And the acting, every actor knocks it out of the park. It's great, but there is this lingering feeling that the next one will be better.

movie review dune

I didn't read the books but was very much into the 2000-2003 miniseries on SciFi Channel (that I still recommend, stuff like this just isn't being made anymore with the closest modern thing maybe being "The Expanse") and also had the recent displeasure of watching the original 1984 film. (Wtf was that?) Dune 2021 is still exactly the slow-burn, atmospheric space opera it was intended to be but now with modern art direction and cinematography that really pushes those elements. Granted this first installment doesn't work much as a standalone film and is very setup heavy for a sequel. However I liked the liberties it took with storytelling and my memory is foggy but it also made the narrative easier to follow than previous iterations. I feel the color tones used really did a disservice in convincing me how incredibly hot, uninhabitable and valuable water is on Arrakis. The film insists on informing me of these things but the super muted and cool tones and lack of heat waves on camera were unconvincing. Villeneuve was so focused on creating this ambience of a grounded, bleak political landscape that it feels like he neglected the immersion of a super heated desert. I appreciated that the film focused on setting the stage on Arrakis, but not seeing even a glimpse of the Emperor and/or the Spacing Guild felt like omitting huge players in the political narrative and world building. Anyway, a very good movie otherwise if you like slow burn dramatic space operas with heavy lore. I hope it does well and isn't forgotten like Bladerunner 2042. Would be a great shame if the unconfirmed sequel(s) not made!

I attempted to read Frank Herbert's novel Dune when I was in the seventh grade. I had begun to read more fantasy literature and was looking at older, heralded novels. I can still recall my frustration of reading those first five pages and having to repeatedly flip back and forth to a twenty-five-page glossary of terms so that I could even start to comprehend what was happening on the page. After those five excruciating pages, I gave up. Maybe I was too rash, and maybe my older present self would be more accommodating to the struggle, or maybe it just wasn't worth the effort. I never watched the 1984 David Lynch adaptation that was met with great derision from critics and fans alike, although it does have its vocal defenders (Hindsight alert: Lynch turned down directing Return of the Jedi to helm Dune). So when acclaimed filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) became attached to direct a big-budget, large-scale adaptation of Herbert's novel, I was finally interested for the first time in my life. It was originally slated to be released in 2020, and after the studio planned to release Dune onto its HBO Max streaming service, Villeneuve and the production company negotiated to make sure a theatrical release would still be an important part of the plan. Alas, I watched the 2021 Dune at home, and I found myself enjoying the experience and development of the world building. However, it's unlikely to watch this version of Dune and feel like you got a full movie for your money. In the distant future, like 10,000 A.D., mankind has colonized worlds and the most important planet of them all is Arrakis. It's a desert world inhabited by poor natives, Freeman, who live a moisture-preserving life mining the natural "spice," a special substance that makes space travel capable as well as prolonging human life. The top family houses are vying for dominance and House Atreides has been assigned by the unseen Emperor to rule over Arrakis and bring it and its spice production back in line. Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) sees great opportunity but also great danger. The other houses will scheme to engineer the failure and desolation of House Atreides, especially House Harkonnen, led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard), who is like a mixture between Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now and Marlon Brando from The Island of Doctor Moreau (plus with levitation powers?). Paul Atriedes (Timothee Chalamet) is his family's heir and much is expected of him, especially from his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who believes he may be long-prophesied messiah. On Arrakis, Paul and his father must tackle this very delicate new mission while keeping the many adversaries at bay. As anticipated, Dune is yet another visually stunning and gorgeously immersive visual experience from one of the greatest visual filmmakers working today. If you can watch the movie on a big screen, or at least a bigger screen, then you owe it to yourself to do so. The sweeping vistas and startling science fiction imagery have so much power and grandeur to them. If Lynch's movie inspired a generation of devotees and impressionable children, I imagine that this superior modern version will do likewise. The production design and costumes are terrific and perfectly in keeping with the larger scope of the expansive visuals. You really feel the size of this world and its imposing weight. Villeneuve has such a natural keen eye for pleasing visual compositions, but he also has the patience many famous big screen stylists lack. He allows the moments to linger and to let scenes breathe in a way that feels more transporting and immersive. If you were simply looking for a visually resplendent movie-going experience, then Dune is the ticket. The sound design is also very smartly aligned and makes use of unconventional and alien sounds to make the movie feel even more like its own thing. When Dune came out in 1965, this was before much of the modern building blocks of our sci-fi pop-culture, so in a way while Dune was the influence it feels partially like an odd after-effect rather than a predecessor. The same thing happened with 2012's John Carter, based upon a novel a hundred years old that influenced many sci-fi adventure serials and now seems derivative even though it came before the many imitations. I was happy with the first 90 minutes of Dune and felt like the slow pace of the first hour, and its heft of needed but spaced-out exposition, was paying off with a thrilling assault. The concept of the protective shields is a smart way to communicate the casualties of battle, where "kill shots" are illuminated in red, informing the audience or a mortal wound. It makes for an easy to read visual to keep up with the development of battle and stay in a safer PG-13 realm. The whole rescue sequence on the mining station is thrilling at every step. The cast is another major credit to the success of Dune. Chalament (Little Women) has a soulful yearning to him, to learn, to be his own man, to prove his father wrong and then prove worthy of his father's faith. Surprisingly, the next biggest role isn't Zendaya (Malcolm and Marie), the woman that Paul dreams about (prophetically?); it's Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep) as Paul's mother. She's a woman with deep secrets belonging to a powerful religious sect that might be the real power behind the throne. Lady Jessica is more Paul's mentor than any man. She teaches him to hone and focus his mind, to use the "Voice" to impart his will, and to prepare for the hardships to come. With every new exposition dump, and she has many, we learn about her growing concern for the fate of her son and her possible culpability for that fate. There's a genuine warmth between them that serves as the film's emotional core. I enjoyed watching Jason Momoa (Aquaman) and Dave Bautista (Army of the Dead) as opposite ends of Super Good Fighter Guy, though Momoa looked unsettling without a beard. Needless to say, the 2021 movie is far more diverse than the 1984 movie. It makes space feel more lived in when it's reflective of a diversity of people that we already have at this point in our history. And then, after the hallway mark, Dune became a protracted sequence of chases and then I started to worry that things were just going to end in an unsatisfying manner, relegating the 150 minutes as setup for the as-yet-unplanned sequel, and that's exactly what happened. My mood began to deflate somewhat during the last hour of Dune. I was still interested and the visuals were still mighty captivating, but the events had the unmistakable feeling of being stretched out to meet a frustrating stopping point, a pause that didn't produce a satisfying endpoint. I just kept thinking, "Oh, they're not going to resolve this," and, "Oh, Zendaya is barely going to be in this movie," and the movie proved my predictions correct. It's hard to judge the movie as its own entity since it's so dependent on a Part Two that has yet to be greenlighted (though its strong opening box-office returns are hopeful). This is an expensive movie, possibly pushing $200 million, so it's quite a gamble to declare you would only be adapting roughly half of the story. Villeneuve's Blade Runner sequel, a movie I loved, had a budget of $150 million and a worldwide gross that didn't make the producers comfortable going forward with a Blade Runner 2050. To be fair, that was an original story, a sequel, and rather well contained. Still, it's an expensive sci-fi movie that has as much in common with dry art house fare as it does blockbuster adventures, like Villeneuve's Dune. The promise of a second movie is not secured. If Dune doesn't do well enough, we'll forever be left with a movie that feels designed to only be a teaser. It reminds me of the hubris of 2007's The Golden Compass where the filmmakers had a whole 20-minute finale that they carved out with the intention of having it be the opening for the assumed sequel (welp). Even when designing a multi-movie arc, it's necessary to plan each entry so that it can exist as its own beginning-middle-end and with a suitable intermediary climax. The Lord of the Rings movies each had their own climax, each moving the larger picture forward, and each had storylines and subplots that came to a head by film's conclusion. Dune doesn't. There are more dead characters by the end and certain characters are displaced, but it feels less like the end of the big-budget Dune movie and more like the conclusion of episode two of the Dune mini-series. My resonance with the source material is minimal, but the world of Dune feels stuffed with stuff and not as deep in the realm of commentary. Fans of the book series will likely thrill at the level of minutia the 2021 movie luxuriates in, allowing fans to lap up the lore. For those of us uninitiated into the fandom, it feels like there could be more going on behind the scenes. The book was released in 1965 and has clear parallels to Middle East occupations and quagmires, a subject even more relevant in the first quarter of this new century. There's the occupying force coming in to manage the supposedly primitive natives on a desert planet, replacing the last occupier who made bold promises that were unable to be met by the reality on the ground. The parallels of colonialism are there and obvious, but that's because everything in Dune seems obvious to me. The bad guys are corpse-white and dressed in all black. They look like the alien zombies from 1998's Dark City (itself referencing the silent sci-fi classic, Metropolis). The leader of House Harkonnen is this noxious man who bathes in black goo and sucks the life force from others. I don't need my sci-fi to be ambiguous about its heroes and villains. We clearly recognize the bad guys because they're grotesque. However, the lessons learned by the heroes seem a bit stilted. Its attacks on capitalism are a little more nuanced but not much. The planet of Arrakis could produce water but that's not in the interest of the power brokers of the galaxy. They need the spice for the economy and thus keep the exploitative status quo. The parallels are there but there's not much more to be had other than direct summations. The movie has more to say with religion and messiah figures but at this point we're grading on a curve, and the more complex commentary attached to messiah figures seems reserved for a Part Two. Another aspect I want to highlight that seems trivial but no less intriguing to me is how Herbert chooses his character names. We're eight thousand years into the future, spanning multiple planets with names like Arrakis and Giedi Prime and Salusa Secondus, and then we have such anodyne twentieth-century names like… Paul and Jessica? It's funny to me that Herbert goes to the trouble of coming up with so much jargon and terminology and alien-sounding names and then he says, "Hey, this guy's name is… Duncan Idaho," like he's a supporting character in Point Break. I realize this is a very dubious criticism, and there are other character names to conflict with this assertion, but it made me laugh at the different levels of effort Herbert put into his world-building and universe than selecting character names for that same far away land. After watching the new Dune, I went and watched the 1984 David Lynch version for the first time and was, quite simply, dumbfounded. I'll credit Lynch for many of the weird choices in style and how it never stoops to even be accessible for a mass audience, despite having characters explicitly narrate their schemes and motivations out in the open (by scene one, the power play that took up 90 minutes of Dune 2021 is awkwardly explained in full). By the end of Lynch's movie, it is an incomprehensible campy mess. I only have more appreciation for the 2021 Dune after watching the goofy (those eyebrows!) 1980s version that Lynch has disowned entirely, although that stirring guitar riff from the score still rocks thirty years later. The new Dune is only intended as Part One as its presumptive title promises, and because of this key artistic decision, there's a feeling of padding and wear by the end. I found myself reflecting back on the first 90 minutes more fondly. It's not that the last hour is absent great moments or audacious style, but it's hard to fully judge this Dune when its last line is its own conditioning of expectations: "This is only the beginning." The 2021 Dune is a visually remarkable movie experience with fantastic artists executing at some of the highest points of their talent. I'm eager to see if a Part Two can provide the satisfaction lacking in this beginning half. It's a hell of a start but it feels too incomplete and in need of an ending. Nate's Grade: B

Yes it could have been more psychedelic and I continue to be slightly annoyed by Villeneuve's obsession with imagery that is too clean, orderly, and monocolor for my taste (even the dirt and grime in his films are spotless) but the book's wonderful weirdness is still there and I was pleasantly surprised to see the heavy word building and exposition was neither too watered down nor so tedious the movie came to a screeching halt even time they had to explain what was going on.

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movie review dune

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Back in the day, the two big counterculture sci-fi novels were the libertarian-division Stranger in a Strange Land  by Robert Heinlein, which made the word “grok” a thing for many years (not so much anymore; hardly even pops up in crossword puzzles today) and Frank Herbert ’s 1965 Dune , a futuristic geopolitical allegory that was anti-corporate, pro-eco-radicalism, and Islamophilic. Why mega-producers and mega-corporations have been pursuing the ideal film adaptation of this piece of intellectual property for so many decades is a question beyond the purview of this review, but it’s an interesting one.

As a pretentious teenager in the 1970s, I didn’t read much sci-fi, even countercultural sci-fi, so Dune  missed me. When David Lynch ’s 1984 film of the novel, backed by then mega-producer Dino De Laurentiis , came out I didn’t read it either. As a pretentious twentysomething film buff, not yet professional grade, the only thing that mattered to me was that it was a Lynch picture. But for some reason—due diligence, or curiosity about how my life might have been different had I gone with Herbert and Heinlein rather than Nabokov and Genet back in the day—I read Herbert’s book recently. Yeah, the prose is clunky and the dialogue often clunkier, but I liked much of it, particularly the way it threaded its social commentary with enough scenes of action and cliff-hanging suspense to fill an old-time serial.

The new film adaptation of the book, directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script he wrote with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts , visualizes those scenes magnificently. As many of you are aware, “Dune” is set in the very distant future, in which humanity has evolved in many scientific respects and mutated in a lot of spiritual ones. Wherever Earth was, the people in this scenario aren’t on it, and the imperial family of Atreides is, in a power play we don’t become entirely conversant with for a while, tasked with ruling the desert planet of Arrakis. Which yields something called “the spice”—that’s crude oil for you eco-allegorists in the audience—and presents multivalent perils for off-worlders (that’s Westerners for you geo-political allegorists in the audience).

To say I have not admired Villeneuve’s prior films is something of an understatement. But I can’t deny that he’s made a more-than-satisfactory movie of the book. Or, I should say, two-thirds of the book. (The filmmaker says it’s half but I believe my estimate is correct.) The opening title calls it “Dune Part 1” and while this two-and-a-half hour movie provides a bonafide epic experience, it's not coy about connoting that there’s more to the story. Herbert’s own vision corresponds to Villeneuve’s own storytelling affinities to the extent that he apparently did not feel compelled to graft his own ideas to this work. And while Villeneuve has been and likely remains one of the most humorless filmmakers alive, the novel wasn’t a barrel of laughs either, and it’s salutary that Villeneuve honored the scant light notes in the script, which I suspect came from Roth.

Throughout, the filmmaker, working with amazing technicians including cinematographer Greig Fraser , editor Joe Walker , and production designer Patrice Vermette , manages to walk the thin line between grandeur and pomposity in between such unabashed thrill-generating sequences as the Gom Jabbar test, the spice herder rescue, the thopter-in-a-storm nail-biter, and various sandworm encounters and attacks. If you’re not a “Dune” person these listings sound like gibberish, and you will read other reviews complaining about how hard to follow this is. It’s not, if you pay attention, and the script does a good job with exposition without making it seem like EXPOSITION. Most of the time, anyway. But, by the same token, there may not be any reason for you to be interested in “Dune” if you’re not a science-fiction-movie person anyway. The novel’s influence is huge, particularly with respect to George Lucas . DESERT PLANET, people. The higher mystics in the “Dune” universe have this little thing they call “The Voice” that eventually became “Jedi Mind Tricks.” And so on.

Villeneuve’s massive cast embodies Herbert’s characters, who are generally speaking more archetypes than individuals, very well. Timothée Chalamet leans heavily on callowness in his early portrayal of Paul Atreides, and shakes it off compellingly as his character realizes his power and understands how to Follow His Destiny. Oscar Isaac is noble as Paul’s dad the Duke; Rebecca Ferguson both enigmatic and fierce as Jessica, Paul’s mother. Zendaya is an apt, a better than apt, Chani. In a deviation from Herbert’s novel, the ecologist Kynes is gender-switched, and played with intimidating force by Sharon Duncan-Brewster . And so on.

A little while back, complaining about the Warner Media deal that’s going to put “Dune” on streaming at the same time as it plays theaters, Villeneuve said the movie had been made “as a tribute to the big-screen experience.” At the time, that struck me as a pretty dumb reason to make a movie. Having seen “Dune,” I understand better what he meant, and I kind of approve. The movie is rife with cinematic allusions, mostly to pictures in the tradition of High Cinematic Spectacle. There’s “ Lawrence of Arabia ,” of course, because desert. But there’s also “ Apocalypse Now ” in the scene introducing Stellan Skarsgård ’s bald-as-an-egg Baron Harkonnen. There’s “ 2001: A Space Odyssey .” There are even arguable outliers but undeniable classics such as Hitchcock’s 1957 version of “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and Antonioni’s “Red Desert.” Hans Zimmer ’s let’s-test-those-subwoofers score evokes Christopher Nolan . (His music also nods to Maurice Jarre ’s “Lawrence” score and György Ligeti’s “Atmospheres” from “2001.”) But there are visual echoes of Nolan and of Ridley Scott as well.

These will tickle or infuriate certain cinephiles dependent on their immediate mood or general inclination. I thought them diverting. And they didn’t detract from the movie’s main brief. I’ll always love Lynch’s “Dune,” a severely compromised dream-work that (not surprising given Lynch’s own inclination) had little use for Herbert’s messaging. But Villeneuve’s movie is “Dune.”  

Opens in theaters on October 22nd, available on HBO Max the same day. This review was filed on September 3rd in conjunction with the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Dune movie poster

Dune (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing images and suggestive material.

155 minutes

Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides

Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica

Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides

Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck

Zendaya as Chani

Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Dave Bautista as Beast Rabban

Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Liet Kynes

Stephen Henderson as Thufir Hawat

Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh

David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries

Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho

Javier Bardem as Stilgar

Golda Rosheuvel as Shadout Mapes

  • Denis Villeneuve

Writer (based on the novel written by)

  • Frank Herbert
  • Jon Spaihts

Cinematographer

  • Greig Fraser
  • Hans Zimmer

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‘Dune’ Review: A Hero in the Making, on Shifting Sands

Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation is an equally sweeping and intimate take on Frank Herbert’s future-shock epic.

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‘Dune’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director denis villeneuve narrates a combat training sequence from his film, featuring timothée chalamet and josh brolin..

My name is Denis Villeneuve and I’m the director of Dune. “Don’t stand with your back to the door!” This scene needed to serve four purposes. First, to establish the nature of the relationship between Paul Atreides and Gurney Halleck. Two, to give more insight about the context in which the Atreides will move to a new planet named Arrakis. Three, to induce the idea that Paul Atreides has been training for combat, but has never really experienced real violence. And four, to introduce the concept of the Holtzman Shields, and how they change the essence of combat. An Holtzman Shield is a technology that protects individuals or vehicles from any fast objects. Therefore, bullets or rockets are obsolete. So it means that man to man combat came back to sword fighting. The choreography between Timothée Chalamet, who plays Paul, and Josh Brolin, who plays Gurney Halleck, illustrate that each opponent is trying to distract his adversary by doing very fast moves in order to create an opportunity to insert slowly a blade inside the opponent’s shield. “Guess I’m not in the mood today.” “Mood?” “Mm.” “What’s mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises, no matter the mood. Now fight!” That choreography was designed by Roger Yuan. He developed the Atreides fighting style borrowing from a martial art technique developed in the ‘50s. This technique was called balintawak eskrima. It’s a style that involves blocking the opponent’s attack with both a weapon and the free hand. “I have you.” “Aye. But look down, my Lord. You’d have joined me in death. I see you found the mood.” Cinematographer Greig Fraser and I shot the fight like we will shoot a dance performance. The goal was to embrace the complexity of the movements with objective camera angles. We tried to make sure that the audience will understand the nature of this new way of fighting. “You don’t really understand the grave nature of what’s happening to us.” But more importantly, I wanted to feel that Josh Brolin’s character was caring about Paul like if he was his own son. “Can you imagine the wealth? In your eyes— I need to see it in your eyes. You never met Harkonnens before. I have. They’re not human. They’re brutal! You have to be ready.”

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By Manohla Dargis

In a galaxy far, far away, a young man in a sea of sand faces a foreboding destiny. The threat of war hangs in the air. At the brink of a crisis, he navigates a feudalistic world with an evil emperor, noble houses and subjugated peoples, a tale right out of mythology and right at home in George Lucas’s brainpan. But this is “ Dune ,” baby, Frank Herbert’s science-fiction opus, which is making another run at global box-office domination even as it heads toward controversy about what it and its messianic protagonist signify.

The movie is a herculean endeavor from the director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”), a starry, sumptuous take on the novel’s first half. Published in 1965, Herbert’s book is a beautiful behemoth (my copy runs almost 900 pages) crowded with rulers and rebels, witches and warriors. Herbert had a lot to say — about religion, ecology, the fate of humanity — and drew from an astonishment of sources, from Greek mythology to Indigenous cultures. Inspired by government efforts to keep sand dunes at bay, he dreamed up a desert planet where water was the new petroleum. The result is a future-shock epic that reads like a cautionary tale for our environmentally ravaged world.

Villeneuve likes to work on a large scale, but has a miniaturist’s attention to fine-grained detail, which fits for a story as equally sweeping and intricate as “ Dune .” Like the novel, the movie is set thousands of years in the future and centers on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the scion of a noble family. With his father, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul is about to depart for his new home on a desert planet called Arrakis, a.k.a. Dune . The Duke, on orders from the Emperor, is to take charge of the planet, which is home to monstrous sandworms, enigmatic Bedouin-like inhabitants and an addictive, highly valuable resource called spice.

movie review dune

Much ensues. There are complicated intrigues along with sword fights, heroic deaths and many inserts of a mystery woman (Zendaya) throwing come-hither glances at the camera, a Malickian vision in flowing robes and liquid slow motion. She’s one piece of the multifaceted puzzle of Paul’s destiny, as is a mystical sisterhood (led by Charlotte Rampling in severe mistress mode) of psychic power brokers who share a collective consciousness. They’re playing the long game while the story’s most flamboyant villain, the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard), schemes and slays, floating above terrified minions and enemies like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon devised by Clive Barker.

The movie leans on a lot of exposition, partly to help guide viewers through the story’s denser thickets, but Villeneuve also uses his visuals to advance and clarify the narrative. The designs and textures of the movie’s various worlds and their inhabitants are arresting, filigreed and meaningful, with characters and their environments in sync. At times, though, Villeneuve lingers too long over his creations, as if he wanted you to check out his cool new line of dragonfly-style choppers and bleeding corpses. (This isn’t a funny movie but there are mordantly humorous flourishes, notably with the Baron, whose bald head and oily bath indicate that Villeneuve is a fan of “Apocalypse Now.”)

That impulse to linger is understandable given the monumentality of Villeneuve’s world building (and its price tag). But the movie’s spectacular scale combined with Herbert’s complex mythmaking also creates a not entirely productive tension between stasis and movement. Not long after he lands on Dune, Paul is ushered into the new world of its tribal people, the Fremen, a transitional passage leading from dark rooms to bright desert, from heavy machinery and vaulted spaces with friezes to gauzy robes and the meringue peaks of the dunes. Paul is on a journey filled with heavy deeds and thoughts, but en route he can seem caught in all this beauty, like a fly in fast-hardening sap.

Chalamet looks young enough for the role (Paul is 15 when the novel opens) and can certainly strike a Byronic pose, complete with black coat and anguished hair. The actor has his moments in “Dune,” including in an early scene with Rampling’s Reverend Mother, who puts Paul through a painful test; Chalamet excels at imparting a sense of confused woundedness, psychic and physical. But he doesn’t move with the coiled grace of the warrior that Paul is meant to be, which undermines both his training sessions with the family “warmaster” (Josh Brolin) and in his later role as a messianic figure, one who is considerably less complicated and conflicted onscreen than he is on the page.

Written by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, the screenplay has taken predictable liberties. The movie retains the overall arc of the book despite having jettisoned characters and swaths of plot. There have been felicitous changes, as with the character Dr. Liet Kynes, an ecologist who’s a man in the book but is now a woman. Played by a formidably striking Sharon Duncan-Brewster, the character doesn’t receive nearly enough screen time, particularly given Kynes’s weighty patrimony and narrative function. But Duncan-Brewster — like so many of the other well-cast supporting performers — makes enough of an impression that she helps fill in the script’s ellipses.

Throughout “Dune,” you can feel Villeneuve caught and sometimes struggling between his fidelity to the source material and the demands of big-ticket mainstream moviemaking and selling. It’s easy to imagine that he owns several copies of the novel, each copiously dog-eared and heavily outlined. (The movie is relatively free of holiday-ready merch opportunities, outside of a cute desert mouse with saucer-sized ears.) At the same time, Villeneuve is making a movie in a Marvel-dominated industry that foregrounds obviousness and blunt action sequences over ambiguity and introspection. There’s talk and stillness here, true, but also plenty of fights, explosions and hardware.

The trickiest challenge is presented by the movie’s commercial imperatives and, by extension, the entire historical thrust of Hollywood with its demand for heroes and happy endings. This presents a problem that Villeneuve can’t or won’t solve. Paul is burdened by prophetic visions he doesn’t yet fully understand, and while he’s an appealing figure in the novel, he is also menacing. Herbert was interested in problematizing the figure of the classic champion, including the superhero, and he weaves his critique into the very fabric of his multilayered tale. “No more terrible disaster could befall your people,” a character warns, “than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.”

There’s little overt menace to this Paul, who mostly registers as a sincere, sensitive, if callow hero-in-the-making. Mostly, the danger he telegraphs exists on a representational level and the dubiously romanticized image presented by a pale, white noble who’s hailed as a messiah by the planet’s darker-complexioned native population. Whether Paul is white in the novel is, I think, open to debate. Herbert’s focus is on the human race, which, as the writer Jordan S. Carroll notes in a fascinating essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books , hasn’t prevented white supremacists from embracing the book. “Fascists love ‘Dune,’” Carroll writes, though he sees this love as a self-serving misreading.

One of Herbert’s talents was his ability to blend his promiscuous borrowings — from Navajo, Aztec, Turkish, Persian and myriad other sources — into a smoothly unified future world that, as befits science fiction, is at once familiar and strange. The shadow of Lawrence of Arabia and colonialist fantasies does loom large, particularly because the Fremen and their language are drawn from Arabic origins. Still, the book gives you room to cast Paul in your head in whatever image you choose. But movies tend to visually lock in meaning, and, like David Lynch’s much-maligned 1984 adaptation with Kyle MacLachlan as Paul, this “Dune” is also about a white man leading a fateful charge.

That doesn’t make Villeneuve’s “Dune” a white-savior story or not exactly or maybe just not yet. The movie ends before everything wraps up too neatly or uncomfortably, which injects it with some welcome uncertainty. Herbert wrote five sequels, and Duneworld continued to expand after his death; if the movie hits the box-office sweet spot, the story can presumably continue, which would be a gift for a franchise-hungry industry. Whether it will become the kind of gift that keeps on giving is up to the audience. Villeneuve has made a serious, stately opus, and while he doesn’t have a pop bone in his body, he knows how to put on a show as he fans a timely argument about who gets to play the hero now.

Dune Rated PG-13 for war violence. Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes. In theaters and on HBO Max .

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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Movie Review: ‘Dune: Part Two’ sustains the dystopian dream of ‘Part One’

“Dune: Part Two” stars Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler sat down with AP film writer Lindsey Bahr to talk about their fight scene, director Denis Villeneuve’s playful approach to creating the sci-fi epic, Chalamet’s growth in between trips to the desert — and that sandworm theatre popcorn bucket. The movie hits theatres March 1.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

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This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Zendaya in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet, foreground left, and Austin Butler in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Rebecca Ferguson in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Florence Pugh in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Stellan Skarsgard in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Dave Bautista in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Austin Butler, left, and Lea Seydoux in a scene from “Dune: Part Two.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

movie review dune

Three firm thumps into the Arrakis sand is all you need to summon a sandworm in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” It’s almost as easy as hailing a cab or calling for the check.

The big buggers can’t resist the sound, which is a little like how I feel taking in all the vibrations of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel. Whispers, incantations and guttural sounds buzz throughout “Part Two,” a hissing hulk of a sequel that fluctuates between ominous silences and thunderous booms.

The first “Dune,” released in 2021 when movie theaters were still humbled by the pandemic, tackled just the first half of Herbert’s opus, saving the second half for the sequel. That split can be owed in part to the enormous amount of plot contained in the novel, but it can also be attributed to the operatic rhythms of Villeneuve’s solemn spectacle. Sober as they are, “Dune” parts one and two are almost drunk on their own sense of atmosphere.

And with good reason. Like its predecessor, “Dune: Part Two” thrums with an intoxicating big-screen expressionism of monoliths and mosquitos, fevered visions and messianic fervor — more dystopian dream, or nightmare, than a straightforward narrative.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows director Denis Villeneuve, left, with actor Rebecca Ferguson on the set of "Dune: Part Two." (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

That filmmaking prowess sometimes comes at the expense of other things. Humor, for one, is in shorter supply on Arrakis than water. Javier Bardem, returning as the Fremen leader Stilgar, alone seems to want to breathe a little laughter into all the fiery red sands and mammoth machinery of “Dune.”

“Part Two” primarily follows the rise of Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet ), who, after seeing his father killed and House Atreides routed from the Arrakis capital by House Harkonnen and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (a monstrously good Stellan Skarsgård), is now living among the Fremen, the desert-dwelling peoples of Arrakis, with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

The myth of Paul is already growing among the Fremen, who call him Muad’Dib. (A great feature of these movies, like Hebert’s books, is the exquisite names.) Is he the chosen one or a false prophet? Doubts are gradually erased by his accomplishments (leading strikes against Harkonnen spice harvesters; quickly learning the ways of the Fremen); the cunning maneuvering of Lady Jessica; and the worshipful zeal of Stilgar.

The Fremen warrior Chani ( Zendaya ), though skeptical of the hype, believes, with some reluctance, in Paul. “Part Two” is significantly propped up by their dynamic and budding romance , a relationship that gives a deserving wide-screen canvas to two of the most exciting young movie stars of their generation.

For a while it’s fun and games in the desert, blowing up stuff and learning how to ride sand worms. Oh, there’s the matter of the “holy poison” forced on Lady Jessica, a neon-blue liquid extracted from sand worms that looks like it would produce a fine Slush Puppie , but, if it doesn’t kill you, confers a frightful clairvoyance of the universe.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Zendaya in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Blue is an important color in the otherwise darker shaded “Dune.” It lights up in Lady Jessica’s eyes and, later, Paul’s too. If you thought Peter O’Toole’s eyes blazed in “Lawrence of Arabia,” Paul’s look like they’ve been pumped through with windshield-wiper fluid. As his following swells, Paul grows increasingly aware, and fearful, of his god-like power.

“Dune: Part Two” spends much of its energy with Paul wrestling with this supposed messianic destiny. Like “Lawrence of Arabia,” he’s a white protagonist from the West (or, here, the “Outer World”) on a Middle Eastern-like desert, leading the revolution of a dark-skinned population against oppressors whom he, himself, has deep ties to.

Herbert’s metaphor-rife book has sometimes been interpreted — or misinterpreted, scholars would say — by the alt-right for its racial politics. Villeneuve’s film, scripted by the director and Jon Spaihts, appears highly conscious of this legacy as well as that of the white-savior trope. And often — as in so much of these two films — the movie expresses itself most through imagery and movement.

The Harkonnens, universally white, bald and violent, are served up as the symbol of colonist rule. In the middle of “Part Two,” the film introduces the Harkonnen prince Feyd-Rautha (a hairless Austin Butler, looking a bit too much like the albino protagonist of 1995’s “Powder” ) who is a kind of opposite to Paul. He, too, could take command of Arrakis.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Austin Butler, left, and Lea Seydoux in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

When Villeneuve temporarily switches to Feyd-Rautha’s story and away from Paul and Chani, the film’s richly orchestrated sense of momentum falters. But the comparison is illuminating. In a massive colosseum, Feyd-Rautha ruthlessly battles a trio of Atreides survivors in a scene, bleached in monochrome, that looks like “Triumph of the Will,” supersized.

There’s an earnest reckoning here in the power dynamics of the source material and previous Hollywood tales of first-and-third world confrontations. There’s plenty of doubt to go around for all involved, too. The movie’s perspective ultimately resides in the drained, shrouded face of Charlotte Rampling, who plays the matriarch of the Bene Gesserit (again, the names!), a mystic order that pulls the strings behind the galactic politics of “Dune.” For her, it’s a game of raw calculation and “no sides.”

As “Part Two” brings all parties together for the final act, it begins to loose steam. The Emperor (Christopher Walken) and his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), seen sporadically from afar debating the events on Arrakis, turn up. But while Walken’s company is always welcome, he might be too warm a presence for “Dune” — too much of the Earth despite so often seeming on a planet of his own.

Yet the limpness of the finale, despite all of the expert build-up of Hans Zimmer’s score and Mark Mangini and Theo Green’s sound design, goes to something deeper. Villeneuve’s great talent lies, I think, in invocation. He may be less perfect when it comes to conclusions but he’s brilliant at summoning — a sense of doom, a suddenly appeared spacecraft, a sandworm. Even better than those serpentine sand creatures (the runaway stars of “Part Two”) is that thump, thump, thump that precedes them.

“Dune: Part Two,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language. Running time: 165 minutes. Three stars out of four.

JAKE COYLE

Movie Review: 'Dune: Part Two' sustains the dystopian dream of 'Part One'

Denis Villeneuve's “Dune: Part II” is almost as intoxicating as “Part One.”

Three firm thumps into the Arrakis sand is all you need to summon a sandworm in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” It’s almost as easy as hailing a cab or calling for the check.

The big buggers can’t resist the sound, which is a little like how I feel taking in all the vibrations of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel. Whispers, incantations and guttural sounds buzz throughout “Part Two,” a hissing hulk of a sequel that fluctuates between ominous silences and thunderous booms.

The first “Dune,” released in 2021 when movie theaters were still humbled by the pandemic, tackled just the first half of Herbert’s opus, saving the second half for the sequel. That split can be owed in part to the enormous amount of plot contained in the novel, but it can also be attributed to the operatic rhythms of Villeneuve’s solemn spectacle. Sober as they are, “Dune” parts one and two are almost drunk on their own sense of atmosphere.

And with good reason. Like its predecessor, “Dune: Part Two” thrums with an intoxicating big-screen expressionism of monoliths and mosquitos, fevered visions and messianic fervor — more dystopian dream, or nightmare, than a straightforward narrative.

That filmmaking prowess sometimes comes at the expense of other things. Humor, for one, is in shorter supply on Arrakis than water. Javier Bardem, returning as the Fremen leader Stilgar, alone seems to want to breathe a little laughter into all the fiery red sands and mammoth machinery of “Dune.”

“Part Two” primarily follows the rise of Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet ), who, after seeing his father killed and House Atreides routed from the Arrakis capital by House Harkonnen and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (a monstrously good Stellan Skarsgård), is now living among the Fremen, the desert-dwelling peoples of Arrakis, with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).

The myth of Paul is already growing among the Fremen, who call him Muad’Dib. (A great feature of these movies, like Hebert’s books, is the exquisite names.) Is he the chosen one or a false prophet? Doubts are gradually erased by his accomplishments (leading strikes against Harkonnen spice harvesters; quickly learning the ways of the Fremen); the cunning maneuvering of Lady Jessica; and the worshipful zeal of Stilgar.

The Fremen warrior Chani ( Zendaya ), though skeptical of the hype, believes, with some reluctance, in Paul. “Part Two” is significantly propped up by their dynamic and budding romance, a relationship that gives a deserving wide-screen canvas to two of the most exciting young movie stars of their generation.

For a while it’s fun and games in the desert, blowing up stuff and learning how to ride sand worms. Oh, there’s the matter of the “holy poison” forced on Lady Jessica, a neon-blue liquid extracted from sand worms that looks like it would produce a fine Slush Puppie, but, if it doesn’t kill you, confers a frightful clairvoyance of the universe.

Blue is an important color in the otherwise darker shaded “Dune.” It lights up in Lady Jessica’s eyes and, later, Paul’s too. If you thought Peter O’Toole’s eyes blazed in “Lawrence of Arabia,” Paul’s look like they’ve been pumped through with windshield-wiper fluid. As his following swells, Paul grows increasingly aware, and fearful, of his god-like power.

“Dune: Part Two” spends much of its energy with Paul wrestling with this supposed messianic destiny. Like “Lawrence of Arabia,” he’s a white protagonist from the West (or, here, the “Outer World”) on a Middle Eastern-like desert, leading the revolution of a dark-skinned population against oppressors whom he, himself, has deep ties to.

Herbert’s metaphor-rife book has sometimes been interpreted — or misinterpreted, scholars would say — by the alt-right for its racial politics. Villeneuve’s film, scripted by the director and Jon Spaihts, appears highly conscious of this legacy as well as that of the white-savior trope. And often — as in so much of these two films — the movie expresses itself most through imagery and movement.

The Harkonnens, universally white, bald and violent, are served up as the symbol of colonist rule. In the middle of “Part Two,” the film introduces the Harkonnen prince Feyd-Rautha (a hairless Austin Butler, looking a bit too much like the albino protagonist of 1995’s “Powder” ) who is a kind of opposite to Paul. He, too, could take command of Arrakis.

When Villeneuve temporarily switches to Feyd-Rautha's story and away from Paul and Chani, the film’s richly orchestrated sense of momentum falters. But the comparison is illuminating. In a massive colosseum, Feyd-Rautha ruthlessly battles a trio of Atreides survivors in a scene, bleached in monochrome, that looks like “Triumph of the Will,” supersized.

There’s an earnest reckoning here in the power dynamics of the source material and previous Hollywood tales of first-and-third world confrontations. There’s plenty of doubt to go around for all involved, too. The movie’s perspective ultimately resides in the drained, shrouded face of Charlotte Rampling, who plays the matriarch of the Bene Gesserit (again, the names!), a mystic order that pulls the strings behind the galactic politics of “Dune.” For her, it's a game of raw calculation and “no sides.”

As “Part Two” brings all parties together for the final act, it begins to loose steam. The Emperor (Christopher Walken) and his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), seen sporadically from afar debating the events on Arrakis, turn up. But while Walken’s company is always welcome, he might be too warm a presence for “Dune” — too much of the Earth despite so often seeming on a planet of his own.

Yet the limpness of the finale, despite all of the expert build-up of Hans Zimmer’s score and Mark Mangini and Theo Green’s sound design, goes to something deeper. Villeneuve's great talent lies, I think, in invocation. He may be less perfect when it comes to conclusions but he's brilliant at summoning — a sense of doom, a suddenly appeared spacecraft, a sandworm. Even better than those serpentine sand creatures (the runaway stars of “Part Two”) is that thump, thump, thump that precedes them.

“Dune: Part Two,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language. Running time: 165 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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Dune: Part Two Review

Desert. power..

Tom Jorgensen Avatar

Dune: Part Two opens in theaters March 1.

If you threw a rock on the internet when Dune: Part One came out, you’d hit a comment calling it “ Star Wars for adults.” The sandworm-eating-its-own-tail of that assessment aside, Denis Villeneuve’s efforts to adapt Frank Herbert’s novel of interplanetary empire and rebellion really share more in common with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – films which transposed a thorny, dense literary mythology into an accessible, groundbreaking spectacle which remains beloved today. In that respect, Dune: Part Two’s considerable expansion of the story’s scope and splendor positions the movie as a Two Towers for the 2020s, a middle chapter that doubles down on the quirks of its source material and is largely successful at sustaining its unwieldy, fascinating identity.

Dune: Part Two picks up in the immediate aftermath of the Harkonnens’ obliteration of House Atreides, with the supplanted Duke of Arrakis Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) hiding amongst the desert planet’s native Fremen people. After narrowly avoiding death himself, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) is moving quickly to resume control of spice harvesting. The storyline splinters into a tapestry of war, intrigue, and destiny from there. For as heady and sometimes hard-to-follow as the mythmaking surrounding Paul gets – or the space politics, for that matter – Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts’ script constantly reinforces the most important information with streamlined efficiency. Dune: Part Two can’t even get to the Warner Bros. logo without reminding the audience how important spice is – remember, it’s the lifeblood of the economy in this far-off future – and it’s with that fervor that Baron Harkonnen sets about consolidating his family’s power. The success of Paul’s counteroffensive, and his rise as a messianic figure amongst the Fremen, are contingent of how much of himself he’s willing to sacrifice in the name of destiny, and Chalamet does a good job navigating the Kwisatz Haderach through the darker territory this time around.

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movie review dune

Tense confrontations between Paul and trusted confidants like his mother and his mentor, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), serve to highlight Dune: Part Two’s story of generational divide, and Chalamet’s rising frustration feels well-pitched to the stakes as they boil over into a larger conflict. Villeneuve drives a particularly interesting wedge between Paul and Jessica, a far more active player this time around who tests the limits of her own Bene Gesserit power in some of the most surreal sequences of Part Two. Dune certainly traffics in big emotions, but there’s quiet tragedy in the distance that grows between Paul and Jessica as they reach fuller understandings of their own potential.

After being more or less confined to dream sequences in Part One, Zendaya’s Chani is a focal point of Part Two. Her reluctance to accept Paul as the Lisan al Gaib – the savior promised to the Fremen by the Bene Gesserit – is representative of larger sociological forces at play, with Stilgar’s (Javier Bardem) Northern tribe being more secular than Arrakis’ zealous Southern Fremen. The Fremen will need to be united to stand against the forces of the Imperium, and the sacrifices and compromises that Chani make constantly ground the story with help from Zendaya’s direct, steely performance.

Dune: Part 2 Character Posters

movie review dune

If all this talk of prophecy and fate sounds like a rather ponderous way to spend 166 minutes, don’t worry – Villeneuve knows exactly when to drop one of Part Two’s fantastic action sequences. An early attack on a spice harvester gives the director ample opportunity to frame the central conflict in microcosm, with Fremen expertise and adaptability outpacing technological advantage in jaw-dropping fashion. Villeneuve’s as detail-oriented with Dune: Part Two’s bombast as he is with the spiritual minutiae, thrillingly staging battles and duels that remain in conversation with the human drama at play. It’s why Paul’s first sandworm ride – rapturously received by even Fremen who doubted him up to that point – feels like both a triumph and a bad omen. Villeneuve frequently asks the audience to remember that winning a battle does not mean winning a war, and Paul’s growing influence over the Fremen feels like an increasingly double-edged sword as Part Two goes on.

With Rabban (Dave Bautista) proving to be all bark and no bite in his role heading up spice-mining operations, Baron Harkonnen turns his eye to an even more brutal nephew, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). The younger Harkonnen’s raucous introduction through gladiatorial combat – and his compulsive throat-slitting – tells us everything we need to know about the character, and really, all there is to know. By design, Feyd-Rautha is a dark mirror of Paul – the kind of leader he fears he could become – and that’s about as much detail as Part Two commits to the character. Butler’s animalistic physicality and Skarsgårdian vocal qualities do a good job animating House Harkonnen’s id, but Feyd-Rautha is a tool of not only the characters in the story, but of the script itself.

A similar fate befalls Part Two’s other notable addition to the cast, Florence Pugh’s Princess Irulan. As counselor to her father Emperor Shaddam (Christopher Walken), Irulan’s scenes function to illustrate the precarious balance of power in the Imperium. Walken’s Shaddam is rendered as a frail, indecisive leader, which gives Pugh room to imbue Irulan with enough authority to feel like a power player, but the cutaways to the princess’ debates with her elders don’t have the same visceral power as the action on Arrakis and its on-the-ground perspective. The cat-and-mouse game between Fremen and Harkonnen, the hotly debated arrival of the Lisan al Gaib, Lady Jessica’s machinations – these movements of the story feel ominous and weighty and are handled with such panache that by the time of the Imperium’s delayed arrival on the desert planet, they feel out of touch in a way that makes them feel less threatening than they probably should.

But no matter where in the universe Dune: Part Two’s narrative takes you, there’s incredible production design in place to hold you captive. A superlative, seamless blend of practical and visual effects make these distant worlds feel vibrant and tangible. Villeneuve keeps finding ways to ratchet up the atmosphere on Arrakis, with visions of glittering spice and dreamy, warm tones providing plenty of variety to the surface of the desert planet. Feyd-Rautha’s extended introduction on Giedi Prime gives the director and cinematographer Greig Fraser an excuse to shake up that visual language in favor of space-Brutalist architecture and a black and chrome palette that externalizes Harkonnen power quickly and impactfully, as if their gravity are enough to change how light bends on the planet. Dune: Part Two may ask for a lot of your time and focus, but it’s nearly impossible to look away from.

It may come as a surprise that none of this resolves in a particularly satisfying way: The sequel more or less completes Villeneuve’s adaptation of Herbert’s first Dune novel, but it’s also very obviously the second act of a film trilogy. The ending is certainly less abrupt than Part One’s, but Paul’s fleeting glimpses of the future and Jessica’s doomsaying promise more fateful battles ahead, and by the time Part Two’s final showdown kicks into high gear, there are enough hanging plots threads and underdeveloped new characters to recognize there’s just not enough runway left to service them all. Villeneuve has more than earned our patience, and once this trilogy is complete, that feeling will no doubt lessen – but we’re still midstream. On its own terms, and despite all its strengths, Dune: Part Two’s desert power starts to fade by the time credits roll.

Dune: Part Two expands the legend of Paul Atreides in spectacular fashion, and the war for Arrakis is an arresting, mystical ride at nearly every turn. Denis Villeneuve fully trusts his audience to buy into Dune’s increasingly dense mythology, constructing Part Two as an assault on the senses that succeeds in turning a sprawling saga into an easily digestible, dazzling epic. Though the deep world-building sometimes comes at the cost of fleshing out newer characters, the totality of Dune: Part Two’s transportive power is undeniable.

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Dune: Part Two Review: Denis Villeneuve's Sci-Fi Epic Is Blockbuster Perfection

Praise shai halud.

Three sandworms attack soldiers in Dune: Part Two

My review of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune that was published in September 2021 was effusive, full of descriptions of cinematic wonder and gratitude for the blockbuster’s fealty to the source material, but my adulation came with a specification: the film alone doesn’t provide a complete narrative. An adaptation of half a book, it introduces multiple planets, establishes the key characters in the story, and instigates foundational conflicts, but it’s not built to provide any conclusions – leaving that duty for a sequel. The otherwise perfect movie required a companion follow-up feature that, as of its theatrical release, wasn’t guaranteed to be made.

Release Date:  March 1, 2024 Directed By:  Denis Villeneuve Written By:  Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts Starring:  Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Austin Butler, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, and Florence Pugh Rating:  PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language Runtime:  166 minutes

A little over two years later, Denis Villeneuve has brought his dream of Dune: Part Two to life, and it is every bit the film that fans have been both expecting and hoping for. It’s a breathtaking piece of blockbuster art that, like its predecessor, makes a dense sci-fi world magically tangible – only this time, there’s fulfillment of the heroes and villains’ arcs, and they satisfy in dramatic and devastating ways. To see it is to ride a sandworm, join a prayer around the hailed Lisan al-Gaib, and take vengeance against House Harkonnen and the corrupt intergalactic empire. It engulfs your mind in the spice melange; it’s a movie that you don’t just watch but experience.

Following the coordinated destruction of House Atreides that is orchestrated in Part One , Dune: Part Two picks up with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Lady Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson ) as they attempt to assimilate into Fremen culture so that they may have any kind of chance surviving the harsh desert landscape of Arrakis. It is Paul’s hope to fight alongside the indigenous people of the planet as they take up arms against House Harkonnen – which has resumed its sadistic spice harvesting operations, but that initiative is disrupted by a sect of the Fremen. There are some, including the leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem), who believe that Paul is a prophesized messiah, and Lady Jessica not only doesn’t demur from the debate, but proselytizes the message when she becomes a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit.

With his love Chani ( Zendaya ) by his side, Paul and the Fremen wage a guerilla war against Arrakis’ occupiers, earning the rage of the despot Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his nephew, Glossu “Beast’ Rabban (Dave Bautista). But the fascistic Baron and Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV ( Christopher Walken ) have respectively dangerous allies on their side – namely the psychotic warrior Feyd-Rautha ( Austin Butler ) and brilliant young Bene Gesserit Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh). Further adding serious complication, Paul is plagued by horrific visions that tell him that his ascent to become the foretold Lisan al-Gaib will lead to the deaths of millions.

The second half of Frank Herbert’s Dune finally gets the big screen adaptation it deserves – with some smart changes made along the way.

This is the second time that this half of Frank Herbert’s Dune has made its way to the big screen… but on a certain level, that’s not totally true. While I count myself among the fans of David Lynch’s Dune film from 1984, anyone familiar with the novel will note that the back half of the story is critically underserved and rushed – lessening its impact. Denis Villenueve’s vision, in collaboration with co-writer Jon Spaihts, gives the material the real estate it needs, and it’s epic to behold.

With its 166-minute runtime, Dune: Part Two has the breadth to let audiences witness Paul and Lady Jessica respectively getting folded into Fremen society, peek into the political maneuverings being planned by the antagonists, and be awed by intense action as behemoth spice miners and Harkonnen soldiers are dismantled and dispatched by deadly and explosive ambushes. The film wows with spectacle, but provides everything with the weight that comes from understanding the perspectives of all the players and the personal consequences of their actions.

It’s noteworthy that this is partially achieved via deviations from the source material, but every choice made is logical and benefits the story – the standout narratively being the elimination of the book’s two-year time jump. An excellent creative direction is taken with the novel’s most unadaptable character (Paul’s hyper-intelligent toddler sister, Alia), and the film brilliantly captures a theological divide among the Fremen that is spearheaded by skeptical Chani and the zealous Stilgar. It all turns up the heat on the envisioned future that gives Paul nightmares and makes the shocking ending all the more powerful.

Passionate characters are brought to life by phenomenal performances…though fans shouldn’t get excited to see a lot of certain stars.

I should offer a warning for audiences: if you’re going into Dune: Part Two anticipating it as a “Florence Pugh” movie, you’re going to be as satisfied as Zendaya fans were going into the first film: it’s an important part that gets limited screen time, but she is set up for big things should Denis Villeneuve get his desired chance to make a film of Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah . Pugh fans have nothing to be worried about based on what we see with Chani in this chapter, however, as Part Two is in many ways her story: we see Paul become accepted into the Fremen society through her eyes, and as she demonstrates her impressive skills fighting side-by-side with the man she grows to love, she is also the primary figure grounding him and holding him back from a death-filled future. Zendaya does tremendous work.

Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is a savage, brutal force whose unpredictability makes one trepidatious about blinking (with a perfect voice to match Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron Harkonnen), and Rebecca Ferguson’s presence as the evolved, Machiavellian Lady Jessica is hypnotic – but the surprise standout of the cast is Javier Bardem. As Stilgar he accepts every sign of Paul’s messianic rise with a tear-filled fervor that is painfully earnest, as the passion that Bardem emotes and represents makes one understand the extreme danger in Paul’s ascendancy.

Dune: Part Two is one of the great big screen experiences of the 21st century.

All of Dune: Part Two ’s dynamic action and drama plays out in a fictional world that feels real to the extent that one wonders how the production budgeted cast and crew transportation to another galaxy. Every scene and set piece is visually dazzling – from Jessica’s Reverent Mother transformation to Feyd-Rautha’s monochromatic gladiator battle – but it notably provides a big screen experience like few others in Paul’s first attempt to ride a sandworm. It stands alongside the Burj Khalifa climb in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , the sandstorm in Mad Max : Fury Road and “Avengers, assemble” in Avengers: Endgame as one of the great blockbuster moments of the young 21st century; it’s a breathtaking wonder that is not to be missed.

A disservice was done to Dune: Part One , as the film was given a day-and-date streaming launch alongside its theatrical premiere, and as such, there are members of the movie-going public who didn’t get to properly appreciate the majesty of the work. The jaw-dropping spectacle that is Dune: Part Two getting an exclusive big screen release is an opportunity to help mend that pop culture scar and gain a fuller understanding of the experience’s power. Had it come out on its original release date, it would have been crowned the best movie of 2023, but it will instead likely end up being remembered as the best movie of 2024.

Eric Eisenberg

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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‘dune: part two’ review: timothée chalamet and zendaya in denis villeneuve’s gorgeous but limited sequel.

The second film also features returning stars Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, as well as fresh faces Austin Butler and Florence Pugh.

By Lovia Gyarkye

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Dune Part Two Warner Bros Pictures

In one of the most arresting sequences in Denis Villeneuve ’s Dune: Part Two , the Fremen fighter Chani ( Zendaya ) teaches the Atreides Duke Paul ( Timothée Chalamet ) the correct way to sandwalk.

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Game, set, match: zendaya takes josh o'connor and mike faist to court in 'challengers' trailer, two new 'dune' books offer intimate glimpse (and never-before-seen photos) from set of hit sci-fi film, dune: part two.

Fremen society and Paul’s relationship with Chani are among the threads that get more robust consideration in Villeneuve’s highly anticipated sequel. Dune: Part Two maintains the grandiose visual style introduced in Dune while also paying more attention to story and character development. Plot takes precedence in this second installment of Villeneuve’s planned three-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s series.

The film, written with Jon Spaihts, picks up hours after the destructive events of the first film. Paul and Lady Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson ) have joined Chani’s Fremen group, their integration met with equal parts curiosity and suspicion. Some members easily embrace the Atreides nobles, while others wonder if they are spies. Meanwhile, the Harkonnen, led by the bloodthirsty Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgard), have regained control of spice production on Arrakis and launched a genocidal war on the Fremen. 

Running close to three hours, Dune: Part Two moves with a similar nimbleness to Paul and Chani’s sandwalk through the open desert. The narrative is propulsive and relatively easy to follow, Hans Zimmer’s score is enveloping, and Greig Fraser’s cinematography offers breathtaking perspectives that deepen our understanding of the fervently sought-after planet. All these elements make the sequel as much of a cinematic event as the first movie.

It’s not that Villeneuve is uninterested in the Fremen. Paul’s integration with the Arrakis natives makes up most of Part Two ; the director does explore how their society works. After killing Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) in Dune , Paul earns the respect of Stilgar (a sharp Javier Bardem ), a religious Fremen army leader waiting for the Messiah, and the tentative approval of Chani. The pair help the eager royal acclimate to life in the desert by teaching him how to have a relationship with the land. Through their lessons, Paul sees the planet as more than a place from which to extract the psychotropic melange known as Spice. He learns to work with the parched terrain instead of trying to dominate it, an approach that improves his combat skills.

Villeneuve stages impressive fight sequences, which show how the Fremen’s small army consistently outwits the technological muscle of the Harkonnens. From riding extraterrestrial worms to using the sandstorms as cover, they draw upon their natural world to maintain an upper hand. In some scenes, the bright, bleached sand surroundings become engulfed in deep, almost blood-like terra-cotta clouds of dust that disorient Fremen enemies. As the opposing soldiers try to find themselves, the Fremen move swiftly to disarm and dismember them.

Chalamet and Ferguson’s performances are strongest when mother and son tussle about the right thing to do. Through these arguments, Chalamet sheds the boyish innocence of the first film for a darker, more complicated persona. Ferguson’s character also enters more morally ambiguous terrain when she is asked by the Fremen to become the group’s Reverend Mother. Accepting the role means inheriting the memories of the Fremen. It’s here that Villeneuve’s film could have seized the opportunity to interrogate the implications of Paul and Jessica, two outsiders connected to the imperial regime, inheriting the secrets and traditions of the indigenous Arrakis. That transference, a fellow critic noted after the press screening, is its own kind of colonial violence.  

Instead, Dune: Part Two undercuts attempts to complicate this more textured understanding of imperialism by repeatedly and subtly playing the Fremen’s religiosity for laughs. It would have been far more interesting to parse, even briefly, why there are intra-Fremen divisions about the existence of a Messiah in the first place. Why does Chani (a compelling Zendaya) vehemently fight Paul’s increasing popularity, whereas Stilgar falls over himself to embrace it? Can these factions be attributed to more than Bene Gesserit machinations? 

Even as the Duke learns from the Fremen, wrestles with the existential crisis of submitting to the Bene Gesserit prophecy, and falls in love with Chani, he keeps his father (played by Oscar Isaac in Dune ) close to his heart. Much of Paul’s personal journey and character development are tied to a desire to avenge his father and the people. It’s within the spirit of the young fighter that the stakes of Part Two ’s most interesting questions about destiny and loyalty, individual grievances and the greater good, and the future of Arrakis in general, are truly felt.

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'Dune: Part Two' Review: Timothée Chalamet’s Sci-Fi Epic Is Bigger Than Ever — and That’s Not Always a Good Thing

Denis Villeneuve completes the first part of his epic based on Frank Herbert's series.

The Big Picture

  • Dune: Part Two impresses with masterful special effects and expands the universe's scope.
  • New characters add complexity but overload the storylines, making the movie feel rushed.
  • The third act stands out with incredible action scenes, remaining true to the source material.

After walking out of Dune , I felt assured that Denis Villeneuve 's vision of Arrakis and Paul Atreides couldn't be topped. Villeneuve did what many failed to do: adapt the unadaptable . With Dune: Part Two though, it's about sticking the landing for that adaptation . Part Two achieves the impossible by fully realizing Villeneuve and author Frank Herbert 's vision, but nothing is perfect. While Part Two is impressive on multiple fronts, it doesn't make it to the finish line without stumbling first.

Dune: Part Two

Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.

'Dune: Part Two' Is Larger in Scope and Cast

Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem in Dune: Part Two

Part Two picks up mere hours after the first movie and follows Paul ( Timothée Chalamet ) and his mother, Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson ), as they adjust to their new normal now living among the unfamiliar Fremen in the vast deserts of Arrakis. Paul learns from both Stilgar ( Javier Bardem ) and Chani ( Zendaya ) about how to navigate the desert as Jessica continues to fuel the belief that Paul is the messiah. Meanwhile, Baron Harkonnen ( Stellan Skarsgård ) oversees his new control of Arrakis as it mines the precious and valuable spice . When his nephew, Beast Rabban ( Dave Bautista ), fails to fight off the attacking Fremen and obtain command of the planet, the Baron sends in his other nephew, the sadistic Feyd-Rautha (a perfectly menacing Austin Butler ), to the planet in his place. On top of all of that, we also meet Princess Irulan (a fleeting Florence Pugh ), the daughter of the Emperor (an enigmatic and restrained Christopher Walken ), who played a large part in the fall of House Atreides.

Part of the problem with Part Two was always going to arise when tackling Dune . With the expansion of the world comes more characters. Where we mainly circled the Atreides family in Part One , the second part not only throws us into the world of the Fremen, but also introduces more Bene Gesserits , more Harkonnens, and the Emperor and his family. If you're familiar with the Dune book series , you'll know that these characters are quite important and need to have their time on screen. But if you're not familiar with the books, you might be wondering why there's a new character popping up on screen every few minutes.

Similarly, the scope has widened. While before it was merely about arriving and understanding Arrakis, Part Two deals with the beginnings of a holy war, perpetuating a prophecy, and taking over an entire galaxy. This is where the story begins to deal with the larger concepts at the heart of Dune and, for someone coming in for the first time, this can all be very daunting. For those who indulge in complicated worldbuilding and love to explore new fantasy universes, Part Two goes deeper than ever before and warrants a second viewing to get all of the details . But for more casual viewers, all the extra details might just end up falling by the wayside as incomprehensible.

'Dune: Part Two's Focus Is Weakened by Its Pacing

As the world expands, Part Two is somehow both too long of a movie and too short. It became clear to me that if television shows had the budgets that movies had, these two movies would have been better served as a multi-episode series rather than two massive films. In one instance, when Paul is first learning how to survive in the desert with the Fremen, we might expect the film to go through a montage of endurance and inner strength. Instead, it cuts immediately from him preparing to face this challenge to his success a vague number of days later. These cuts make sense given the long runtime of the film, but weaken the narrative with an inconsistent timeline and achievements that are unearned.

Newly introduced characters like Princess Irulan or Feyd-Rautha barely have any personality beyond the trope they are meant to embody . Irulan acts as a privileged and emotionally distant figure who serves partially as a narrator. And though we get glimpses into Feyd-Rautha’s psychology in his time on his home planet, there is little depth to the character who simply acts as an agent of cruelty and domination. Despite marketing leaning heavily on Florence Pugh and Austin Butler’s star power , much like Dune: Part One ’s Zendaya, they are in less of the movie than you might think.

In his attempt to cover the totality of Dune , Villeneuve must pack in all the universe-building that exists in Frank Herbert's books while also trying to tell a compelling story. There are scenes where one character must explain, in detail, an aspect of the universe to the other for the benefit of the audience. The result is a film that is heavy in exposition . It isn't until the final third of the movie that we rush toward the conclusion of the narrative. Up until then, the pacing of the film is inconsistent, leading to a feeling of aimlessness. It’s clear halfway through that this is not the end of Villeneuve’s storytelling. He is setting the stage for future installments of the franchise, and it’s hard to tell at this point if his gamble will pay off.

Characters Struggle To Shine in 'Dune 2'

While the acting is by no means bad, it pales in comparison to the technical mastery of Dune: Part Two . Ferguson, who had such an impactful performance in Part One , is relegated to the position of a mysterious religious leader , while Chalamet must now pick up the mantle of a would-be messiah. The vague white savior vibes that Dune has always given off are still here in Part Two . No matter the complexity behind it, the optics of a white kid walking into a sea of brown people bowing to him and calling him a messiah is going to turn him into a white savior. The saving grace is Paul's own belief that his identity as a savior is merely manufactured by his mother and the other Bene Gesserit. Chani and the other younger Fremen's doubt of his position as a messiah also adds a counterpoint to the zealous believers in Paul's destiny.

With more time on-screen, Chalamet primarily shares his scenes with Zendaya, who is a bright spark as Chani. Although we only got glimpses of her in Part One , Part Two reveals that Zendaya and Chalamet lack the romantic chemistry to make the couple feel believable, and perhaps the relationship is best seen only in small amounts .

Special Effects, Massive Fight Scenes, and Sound Editing Remain the Highlights in 'Dune 2'

 Timothée Chalamet in a hood as Paul Atreides looking angrily away from camera in Dune: Part Two

However, more time in the desert means more time on the sandworms and that turns this film into a full-on spectacle to witness. While we might have only gotten a glimpse of the sandworm riding in Part One , Part Two triples down on them. The special effects are magnificent and a masterpiece of filmmaking . Watching as Paul masters riding the shai-hulud (as they are called in Arrakis) is a heart-pounding experience and the masterful sound editing in Part Two is a major contributor to this as well. Villeneuve takes us into the sandstorm, putting us in Paul's shoes as he struggles to ride the massive beast, throwing the viewer into confusion and disarray with the movement of the camera. It is only after pulling away that we see his triumph from the eyes of the fellow Fremen. It's an exhilarating experience made better through the different perspectives Villeneuve employs.

While I had my criticisms of Part One 's sound editing and soundtrack with its loud female vocals that sounded off like an alarm in every other scene, Part Two finds a perfect harmony in the visual and the aural. The action sequences are also a delight to watch . Whether we’re on the Harkonnen planet, bathed in black and white and among the crowd of cheering fans in a gladiatorial stadium or watching from the ground on Arrakeen as three monstrous sandworms come barreling toward us through a haboob accompanied by thousands of Fremen, it’s impossible to capture the immense scale of these scenes on a small screen.

One of the highlights of the first film was the first attack on Arrakeen, where Villeneuve matched sweeping shots of the planet with close encounters between characters within the palace. The same exists here in a parallel as we watch the Fremen launch their attack on the Harkonnen in wide shots that linger over the city to show the scale of the battle. Within the palace, the setting sun behind Paul and Feyd-Rautha as they fight makes it look like they're on fire. As much chaos as there is on the ground, there is tense control held by these two men in their fight to the death. Unlike most big-budget movies today, Villeneuve doesn't employ heavy cutting that confuses the viewer as to where the characters are. Instead, the way the camera lingers during fight sequences ratchets up the tension during the one-on-one face off. Movies are always best enjoyed on the biggest screen , but never has a movie demanded an IMAX screen more than Dune: Part Two . Get yourself to the biggest screen you can to enjoy this.

Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya as Paul Atreides and Chani looking at each other in Dune Part 2

You Will Never Be Able to Unsee 'Dune 2's Popcorn Bucket

'dune: part two' overflows into the future.

Zendaya as Chani glaring at Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica in Dune: Part Two

As the movie draws to a close, it would be hard to say that there's any true tone of finality in Part Two . Instead, the sense is that this is merely the end of the beginning of Paul's story . It feels like a prequel — one where we, as the audience, should already know where Paul ends up. Villeneuve has set up a lot and I left Dune: Part Two excited for more of this story, especially with surprising cameos that hint at a fantastic future . I’ve criticized a lot of this movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a joy to watch on screen. Villeneuve has achieved the impossible, and I’m sure he’s converted many people into becoming Dune fans. But, I can't help but think that this is how I felt in 2021 when I first saw Part One . Will Dune: Part Two become a pivotal part of a movie franchise or a harbinger of worse things to come?

Dune Part Two Poster

'Dune: Part Two' achieves masterful special effects success and widens the scope of the universe.

  • The sound editing and special effects, particularly of the sandworm, are stunning.
  • The adaptation honors and stays true to the source material.
  • The third act is the best part of both movies and contains some of the best action sequences thus far.
  • The introduction of new characters means there are too many storylines to focus on.
  • Despite the long runtime, it still feels like parts are missing from the film, making it feel rushed at times.

Dune: Part Two is in theaters in the U.S. starting March 1. Click below for showtimes.

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Review: ‘Dune: Part Two’ stirs its sands darkly, deepening a sci-fi masterpiece in our midst

Two warriors face off in a knife fight.

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It takes chutzpah to restart your years-in-the-making sci-fi epic in the womb, but after a quick prologue, that’s basically where “Dune: Part Two” begins. The floating fetus, we’re told, communicates with mother and brother not in the typical ooh, the baby’s kicking fashion, but rather, in full-blown telepathic sentences about interplanetary strategy and guerrilla warfare. She is the unborn Alia and her sibling, Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet ), has words for her, too: “Sister, Father is dead,” he says, sounding less like a hero on the rise than a glum teenager in need of a hug.

There’s a spooky grandeur to these scenes with the galaxy-brain baby, one in keeping with the overall spirit of Frank Herbert’s revolutionary 1965 novel, which was itself in conversation with a future generation. For all its Campbellian myth building, the book spoke to a dawning audience of young people who wanted drugs (fine, call it “spice”), expanded consciousness and eco-awareness. Over the years, “Dune” has lured the most audacious filmmakers to crash their dream ships on its craggy shores, visionaries like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky .

I would never have put the spectacle-minded French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve in their company — and still wouldn’t. But he understands something about “Dune” that those cult creators never did, an insight that makes the second half of his colossal-feeling, frequently staggering adaptation an instant landmark of its genre. (The sentient unborn Alia is Villeneuve’s own invention, a departure from Herbert’s text.) He widens our eyes with big action hugeness — the products of an army of visual effects experts — but then asks us, as he did with 2016’s “Arrival,” to interpret and connect the dots. Less an act of literary fidelity than generosity, his sequel plunges us into the book’s messianic prophecies, but also into spiritual uncertainty, cultural conflict and doubt, as it must. Somehow, Villeneuve has made a “Dune” for right now — and tomorrow.

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and JOSH BROLIN as Gurney Halleck in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “DUNE."

Review: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ is a transporting vision, but it could use a touch more madness

Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Oscar Isaac headline Denis Villeneuve’s seat-rattling adaptation of the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic.

Sept. 3, 2021

If the chair-rattling first movie prioritized Imax-sized mood over incident (no small feat during our pandemic-challenged 2021), it nonetheless set the billiard balls in motion and we return to them midbreak. Rebecca Ferguson ’s pregnant Lady Jessica and Chalamet’s Paul are strangers in a strange land: the sole survivors of House Atreides, their family and army recently murdered in a sneak attack on Arrakis, the arid, unforgiving desert world where precious spice is mined. It’s scary enough to be pursued by armored, faceless soldiers who can float up the sides of canyons, but Jessica and Paul also find themselves barely tolerated by the local Fremen, a blue-eyed people who see them as interchangeable with any other invader.

Their presence is also complicated by an ancient, controversial legend, a tale that anticipates the coming of a revolutionary fighter, the Voice From the Outer World. Almost immediately, undercurrents of colonialism and imposed mysticism elevate Villeneuve’s central performances in ways the first movie could only suggest. Chalamet’s delicate features take on a haunted sharpness as Paul hopes to earn what his mother, the Bene Gesserit priestess Jessica, would rather manipulate into being by converting nonbelievers. (Ferguson, her face tattooed throughout much of the movie, leans into an arresting menace.)

Two finely complex supporting turns add depth to the mother-son survival story: Zendaya’s suspicious Fremen soldier Chani, falling for Paul despite her better judgment; and a roaring, religiously transported Javier Bardem , who, with avuncular warmth, goes all in on the prophecy. There are gigantic sandworms to be mounted and surfed like waves, vials of blue goo to be imbibed for clarifying properties, yet “Dune: Part Two” fixes firmly on the idea of authenticity. At every step, the script (by Villeneuve and returning co-writer Jon Spaihts) injects Herbert’s Arabian-inspired milieu with a countervailing critique. Is Paul, their “desert mouse,” a pretender in hiding?

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Meanwhile, Paul learns to take down spice harvesters and conduct raids, his pale skin covered in dark goggles and shawls. How are we to receive this gargantuan slab of occupation and racial cooptation? It’s a hand grenade of a question that will no doubt be lobbed at “Dune: Part Two,” as it is, sometimes, at 1962’s soaring “Lawrence of Arabia,” the origins of which were an influence on Herbert. The answer will vary from viewer to viewer, but to these eyes Villeneuve enters into what could have been toxic with a conscious, scene-by-scene sense of fatalism, Chalamet stirring his character’s rise with notes of rage, guilt, unhappiness and imposter syndrome. Composer Hans Zimmer ’s drone-laden score never strikes a tone of triumphalism; so much of this movie’s tricky poise is his.

Then, on a dime, the film executes a stunning transformation, shifting to the spoiled-milk palette of Giedi Prime, an overindustrialized hellscape illuminated by a “black sun” where a young baron-to-be presents a cosmic challenge to Paul’s cosmic birthright. (Boldly, cinematographer Greig Fraser shoehorns in an entire second movie shot in silvery monochrome.) Austin Butler’s commitment to “Elvis” was the stuff of legend , but his eerie Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen may be just as impressive: a pallid, hairless monster prone to roars and dark appetites. These scenes — futuristic fascist rallies and gladiatorial stabbings — lift the whole of “Dune” into a realm of ominous stakes. You lean in for the showdown that’s inevitable.

There are still elements of Herbert’s saga that no filmmaker, not even one as thoughtful as Villeneuve, can solve. It’s got one royal princess too many — here she’s played by Florence Pugh in a role that’s almost as thankless as the part Lynch gave to Virginia Madsen. She can’t be the ultimate prize of a battle this consequential. And the idea of a holy war that turns on the last-minute rediscovery of the “family atomics” seems a touch stuck in the 1960s, even if it is masterminded by a scruffy presence as likable as Josh Brolin.

But has the final stretch of a movie ever leaned so heavily on the quivering chin of one actor? Zendaya wrestles with the ramifications of her Paul turned fierce and vengeful and oh-so-political. Chalamet stomps his foot and the camera shakes.

“Dune: Part Two” isn’t a battle for freedom won, so much as the beginning of something far more cynical, the potential for an entire universe to explode into flames. Villeneuve has made good on one of the great Hollywood gambles in recent memory, delivering a two-part epic of literary nuance, timely significance and maybe even the promise of another film or two. Like that talking baby in the womb, it speaks to what’s coming more than we may know.

'Dune: Part Two'

Rating: PG-13, for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language Running time: 2 hours, 46 minutes Playing: In wide release Friday, March 1

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Joshua Rothkopf is film editor of the Los Angeles Times. He most recently served as senior movies editor at Entertainment Weekly. Before then, Rothkopf spent 16 years at Time Out New York, where he was film editor and senior film critic. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Sight and Sound, Empire, Rolling Stone and In These Times, where he was chief film critic from 1999 to 2003.

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Timothée Chalamet as Paul and Zendaya as Chani in Dune: Part Two.

Dune: Part Two review – second half of hallucinatory sci-fi epic is staggering spectacle

Denis Villeneuve’s monumental adaptation expands its extraordinary world of shimmering strangeness. It’s impossible to imagine anyone doing it better

T he second part of Denis Villeneuve’s monumental Dune adaptation lands with a sternum-juddering crash; it’s another shroom of a film, an epic sci-fi hallucination whose images speak of fascism and imperialism, of guerrilla resistance and romance. Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel – working with co-writer Jon Spaihts – draws on David Lean, George Lucas and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator in the (perhaps inevitable) mega-stadium combat scene with the tiny billions of CGI crowds in the bleachers. But he really has made it all his own: secular political cruelty meets Indigenous people’s struggle in those vast mysterious planetscapes. The sound design throbs and drones in this film’s bloodstream, lending a queasy frisson to its extraordinary visual spectacle and the recurrent horror-fetish BDSM chic which appears to govern so much intergalactic-wrongdoer style.

My only reservation is that some of the momentum that the first part had built up has been lost since that movie was released more than two years ago. Those outside the existing Dune fanbase could feel that the ending does not deliver the resounding closure to which we all might, maybe naively, consider ourselves entitled to at the end of 330 minutes total screen time. And the final eventful moments of the film feel a bit rushed, as if Shakespeare had decided to shrink Henry VI Part III into a zappy coda to go at the end of Part II.

None of that damages the film’s flair and staggering display. We begin with another extraordinary and surreal desert-battle scene with the invented technological detail that is so commanding and distinctly scary, as if we are witnessing a posthuman evolutionary development. The signature design touches are presented with absolute confidence; in any other film, those black nasal tubes would look odd, especially when the two leads are expected to kiss while wearing them. Here you accept it.

We are on the planet Arrakis, with its hugely lucrative mineral resource of Spice, under the hideously corrupt Harkonnen rule, having brought off a duplicitous coup against the Atreides family, to whom the emperor had assigned administration rights. The Harkonnens are the gruesome Baron (Stellan Skarsgård) and his creepy nephews Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) and the even creepier Feyd-Rautha, played by Austin Butler. The charismatic Paul (Timothée Chalamet) is still gallantly fighting with the Fremen insurgency, in love with Chani (Zendaya) and considered by warrior Stilgar (Javier Bardem) to be their messiah. But Paul’s mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), part of the occult Bene Gesserit sisterhood, is with him also, taking her own place in the Fremen power structure. A great reckoning between the Fremen and the Harkonnen is approaching, and between Paul and the Emperor and his daughter Princess Irulan; these latter are slightly perfunctory roles for Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh.

On classically feline and insinuating form … Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring in Dune: Part Two.

It’s a panorama of shimmering strangeness, now expanded to include a bigger cast, with Léa Seydoux on classically feline and insinuating form as the Bene Gesserit initiate Lady Margot Fenring and a tiny, almost subliminal cameo for Anya Taylor-Joy . As before, the second Dune film is superb at showing us an entire created world, a distinct and now unmistakable universe, which will probably be much imitated: a triumph for cinematographer Greig Fraser and production designer Patrice Vermette. Hans Zimmer’s score provides exactly the right tone, at once plangent and grandiose.

Villeneuve shows such ambition and boldness here, and a real film-making language. But I can’t help feeling now, at the very end, that though it’s impossible to imagine anyone doing Dune better – or in any other way – somehow he hasn’t totally got his arms around the actual story in the one giant, self-contained movie in the way he got them around his amazing Blade Runner 2049 . There’s no doubt that Chalamet carries a romantic action lead with great style, even though there is so much going on, with so many other characters, that his heroism and romance with Chani is decentred. But this is a real epic and it is exhilarating to find a film-maker thinking as big as this.

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‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: Denis Villeneuve’s Sci-Fi Epic Is Staggering to Look at but Agonizing to Watch

David ehrlich.

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Denis Villeneuve has insisted that “ Dune: Part Two ” would be a direct continuation of its predecessor rather than a sequel, and the man has absolutely made good on that promise: Not only does this new movie pick up exactly where the last one left off, it also carries over the strengths and weaknesses that made the previous chapter so astonishing to look at but stultifying to watch. 

Once again, the biblical solemnity of Villeneuve’s approach — along with the tactile brutalism of his design — have combined into a Timothée Chalamet movie that shimmers with the patina of an epic myth. And once again, the awesome spectacle that Villeneuve mines from all that scenery is betrayed by the smallness of the human drama he stages against it, with the majesty of the movie’s first hour desiccating into the stuff of pure tedium as Paul Atreides struggles to find his voice amid the visions that compel him forward. It’s a struggle that “ Dune: Part Two ” continues to embody all too well.  Related Stories Natalie Portman Finds ‘Liberation’ in YouTube Being Bigger Than Film ‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger’ Review: Martin Scorsese Enlivens Reverent Doc on Iconic Film Duo 

This isn’t quite the same common — and admittedly boring — criticism that’s been leveled against massive studio movies since the industry first started making them. This isn’t a case of sound and fury signifying nothing, or one of special effects signifying even less. The artistry of this film ’s craftsmanship and the sincerity of its application would in and of themselves make it disingenuous to compare “Dune: Part Two” to the likes of, say, “Jurassic World” and Disney’s “live-action” remake of “The Lion King.” 

If “Dune: Part Two” is more nuanced and action-packed than the previous installment, and Chalamet’s twiggy princeling a far less passive hero than he was the first time around, the relative density of the drama that Villenueve has packed into this movie is deflated by a similar uptick in the grandiosity of the spectacle that surrounds it. Much like his protagonist, the filmmaker is straining to reconcile a larger-than-life sense of predestination with the intimate pain of a moral dilemma, but his own failure to achieve that balance makes it all but impossible for Paul to succeed on the same terms. 

movie review dune

The droning heaviness of Villeneueve’s direction is great at creating a sustained mood (in this case, one of mournfully pyrrhic victory), but it flattens characters into the sets around them until they start to feel like part of the scenery themselves. It’s as difficult to trace the granular changes in Paul’s thinking as it would be to notice a single chip in the giant slabs of gray concrete that form the gladiator arena on Giedi Prime (Chalamet’s gradual transition from reverent whisper-talking to empyrean scream-shouting is the closest thing we get to legible character growth), and that lack of detail becomes a fittingly enormous problem for this film as the transportive stage-setting of its first half gives way to the stunted fatalism of its second. 

Instead, Paul’s growing prescience becomes a major albatross for a film too focused on the big picture to look for signs of life in each scene along the way, and watching this boy-god arrive at the only possible future among the many that he learns to foresee is as dull and emotionally disengaging as it was to watch him awake to that destiny in the first “Dune.” “Part Two” may be the more broadly entertaining of these two movies, but feeling unmoved by the climactic sight of Willy Wonka riding a 400-meter sandworm into battle against a Manhattan-sized disco ball is also a much weirder and more uncomfortable kind of disappointment than anything the last chapter had to offer. 

movie review dune

This time, however, the road towards that colossal letdown is a bit smoother. Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts have already teased out the lay of the land, and so “Dune: Part Two” is able to dig a little deeper from the moment it starts — to actually show us some of the places that were alluded to in the previous movie, and to complicate the white savior myth that Paul brings with him when he and his pregnant mom (Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica) are escorted to the secret Fremen community of Sietch Tabr. 

These early scenes represent the very best of what Villeneuve can bring to this story, as they viscerally bring to life “a place where nothing can live without faith.” It’s because the arid deserts are so merciless that we can understand why the Fremen suck the moisture out of their enemies’ bodies and honor their own dead by pouring their water into a giant pool, and it’s because of an indelible new track from Hans Zimmer’s semi-recycled score — a bittersweet wail that cuts deeper than any of the music he wrote for “Part One” and sustains the emotion of this movie long after the script has run out of steam — that we can parse the complicated roles that anger, pride, and resentment play in the Fremen’s need for outside help.

movie review dune

That clarity lends a welcome shot in the arm to the thrilling action sequences that Villeneuve stages on the sand, which are clear and concussive enough to compensate for their brevity. These setpieces — which peak with a sandworm-riding trial so exhilarating that the rest of the movie can’t help but feel like a letdown — are also more exciting than anything that follows because they allow Paul to forge his relationship with the two Fremen who will most directly impact his fate.

And then, of course, there’s Chani. The skeptical and self-reliant Fremen was the patron saint of everything that didn’t work about the last movie, as Spaihts and Villeneueve reduced her character to a living reminder of all the sacrifices their adaptation had to make on its way to the screen. In “Part Two,” Chani is allowed to take her rightful place at the heart of Paul’s story, even as she questions whether or not it should belong to him (and even as the script dramatically streamlines her role in it). 

Zendaya is more than up for the challenge. Not to belittle Chalamet, whose furrowed brow sows doubt in all the right places, but the most interesting thing about Paul’s trajectory is how it’s reflected across Zendaya’s face. So much of this increasingly interminable film is spent on slow-motion shots of silhouettes walking towards the sunset as Zimmer goes ham over the soundtrack, but all it takes is a single reaction shot of Chani for the drama to snap back into focus.

movie review dune

This “Dune” is never better than when it frames its messianic spectacle as the backdrop for a star-crossed love story about a woman falling in love with the same man she doesn’t trust to free her people. Villeneuve’s “Dune” has almost nothing new to say about religion as a form of control, or the risks that an indigenous community might incur by trusting their salvation to a white boy from another planet, but none of that seems to matter when it all comes down to a couple of people who lose sight of the signs whenever they look at each other. 

Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who was such a monstrous force of nature in the previous “Dune,” is now a shadow of his former self, and so it’s up to his nephew Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler, doing an excellent Skarsgård impression) to step up and lead the family to the promised land. Butler certainly doesn’t half-ass his transformation into a sexually vulnerable psychopath so white — or whiiiiiite — that Colonel Tom Parker would probably self-combust if he saw him, but his commitment to the part can’t redeem the fact that Feyd-Rautha is just a pasty knife-licking bore.

movie review dune

Villeneuve introduces him in a hideous, monochromatic fight sequence that so clumsily literalizes the film’s black-and-white moral binary that it feels like a detour into a Zack Snyder movie, and from that point on Feyd-Rautha never has a chance to rise above his look to become a rival worthy of Paul’s ascendance. His only scene that doesn’t bring “Part Two” to an absolute standstill involves Léa Seydoux dropping by for some light “Under the Skin” cosplay. 

The Emperor’s arrival is meant to reflect Paul’s discovery that power cannot be tamed, and that “the heart is not meant to rule,” but his non-presence only manages to incite one of the largest and most underwhelming final battles a sci-fi blockbuster of this scale has ever served up. That anticlimax may be true to the plot of Herbert’s novel, but it reflects the missteps of Villeneuve’s stolid adaptation. In a film so booming and immense that it seems like sandworms are rumbling under your feet, a film that best identifies with the Bene Gesserit’s detached and ultra-wide POV on this story, even the most significant events tend to blow over like farts in the wind. Even the oldest and most oft-told of myths feel more alive in the moment.

The pieces on this chess board are so big that we can hardly even tell when they’re moving, and while that sensation helps to articulate the sheer inertia of Paul’s destiny, it also leads to a shrug of an ending that suggests Villeneuve and his protagonist are equally at the mercy of their epic visions. No filmmaker is better equipped to capture the full sweep of this saga (which is why, despite being disappointed twice over, I still can’t help but look forward to “Dune: Messiah”), and — sometimes for better, but usually for worse — no filmmaker is so capable of reflecting how Paul might lose his perspective amid the power and the resources that have been placed at his disposal. 

Warner Bros. will release “Dune: Part Two” in theaters on Friday, March 1.

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‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: Timothée Chalamet Grows Up — and So Do the Sandworms — in Denis Villeneuve’s Epic Follow-Up

A massive gamble at a time of diminished moviegoing, Warner Bros. and Legendary's multipart adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel graduates from the world-building thrills of the 2021 original to a meaty, all-encompassing narrative.

By Peter Debruge

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Dune 2

On Earth, human beings have evolved to enjoy a fairly comfortable place in the food chain. You have to venture far from other people to risk being eaten by an apex predator — by straying from the path on safari, say, or swimming in dark, shark-infested waters. By contrast, no one takes his safety for granted on Dune, the spice-rich desert outpost of Frank Herbert’s early-’60s pulp serial, where surface-dwellers live in fear of giant sandworms that slither at great speed to gobble anything remotely edible up above.

The sandworms are back in “ Dune: Part Two ,” just one of the many dramatic payoffs Villeneuve strategically withheld till the other side of a two-year intermission. Whatever you do, don’t mistake this follow-up for a sequel. It’s the second half of a saga, which Villeneuve has hinted about wanting to carry through a third installment, provided “Part Two” earns enough for him to keep going. Like Christopher Nolan, the director is operating on the largest possible scale, pushing the medium to accommodate his vision. Also like Nolan, he has composer Hans Zimmer’s help in making everything sound as stunning as it looks.

There will be some who start with this film, and why not? The first movie opened during the pandemic, released day-and-date on HBO Max, whereas “Part Two” is being presented exclusively as a theatrical event. Building upon the same aesthetic, Villeneuve treats each shot as if it were a painting. Every design choice seems handed down through millennia of alternative human history, from arcane hieroglyphics to a slew of creative masks and veils meant to conceal the faces of those manipulating the levers of power, nearly all of them women.

The antagonists are easy to identify; less so the heroes in Herbert’s book series, which tracks the rise of Chalamet’s character — the apocryphal savior, or Kwisatz Haderach — with great skepticism. The movie asks: Is Paul the messiah or merely a self-fulfilling prophecy? Could centuries-old religious beliefs have been implanted with the express purpose of manipulating the masses? While it’s satisfying to see Paul get his revenge in “Part Two,” he’s tormented by visions of the holy war to come and right to question his own destiny.

Like both Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke in the “Star Wars” series (which Herbert’s “Dune” obviously inspired, even though George Lucas beat it to the big screen), this powerful leader is drawn to the dark side. The morality of “Dune” isn’t nearly so binary, and many will miss — or else misinterpret — the deeply ambivalent tone of the movie’s final minutes. What looks like triumph could well be a turn for the worse.

No one would fault you for struggling to keep things straight on Arrakis, the remote, water-starved planet otherwise known as “Dune.” Practically everything here has two names, for this is a world of diametrically opposed peoples with competing languages, some guttural (like the deep, unsettling blast that barks “Power over spice … is power over all” before the shield-like Warner Bros. logo even appears), others silent, communicated via hand signs.

Herbert’s dense novel can be a daunting slog for the average reader, who can’t tell a Sandworm from a Sardaukar — which is one of the reasons Villeneuve’s approach felt like such a breakthrough: It pared the mythology down to something manageable, serving up visceral action set-pieces at regular intervals. The movie air-dropped audiences in a world where foreign customs, politics and technology had long been established, never letting the complexity of those elements slow down the storytelling.

That’s not to say Villeneuve’s “Dune” movies are fast-paced. Channeling the austerity of Andrei Tarkovsky at times, the director takes nearly five hours to cover what David Lynch did in just slightly more than two (though iconic in some respects, the now badly dated 1984 version barely scratched the surface of Herbert’s concerns). If “Part Two” feels slow in places, it’s because Villeneuve takes time to develop the connection between characters, as in a handful of scenes dedicated to Fremen warrior Chani ( Zendaya ) and Paul, aka Muad’Dib (or Usul), whose undeniable attraction doesn’t align with Jessica’s plans for her son.

Those trials engage, largely because Villeneuve invests equal time in Paul’s emotional evolution, reflected in the night-and-day transformation between the callow young man seen at the beginning of “Dune” and the assertive, even domineering persona Chalamet puts forth in this film. Villeneuve works closely with DP Greig Fraser to orchestrate striking contrasts, cutting between light and dark, wide macro views of sun-scorched Arrakis and more intimate close-ups, even going so far as to check in on the fetus Jessica is carrying. In one prophetic flash-forward, Paul stands face-to-face with his sister (played by an uncredited Anya Taylor-Joy), though the events of the film take place entirely before her birth.

The more significant new character here is the na-Baron, Feyd-Rautha (a hairless Austin Butler, assuming the role made iconic by Sting, his teeth blackened behind a diabolical smile). Unlike his uncle, who’s constantly soaking his bloated body in oily spa treatments, the ferocious na-Baron appears to have been chiseled out of marble, gleaming white during the gladiator match that marks one of the film’s high points. Given Feyd-Rautha’s own proximity to power, it’s no wonder the Bene Gesserit (especially Charlotte Rampling’s Reverend Mother) position him as a rival prospect in their own shadow games.

Audiences spoiled by TV series such as “The Sopranos,” “Succession” and “Game of Thrones,” which juggled intricate strategizing with explosive confrontations over runs of many years, will find in Villeneuve’s multipart saga a satisfaction few films can offer. It’s an enormous gamble, given the expense of creating at this scale, and a vote of confidence in cinema, which still hasn’t recovered to the pre-pandemic level at play when the franchise was conceived. The fate of far more than Arrakis is riding on “Dune.”

Reviewed at Dolby Burbank screening room, Burbank, Calif., Feb. 13, 2024. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 166 MIN.

  • Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release of a Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures presentation of a Legendary Pictures production. Producers: Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Villeneuve, Tanya Lapointe, Patrick McCormick. The executive producers are Joshua Grode, Jon Spaihts, Thomas Tull, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison.
  • Crew: Director: Denis Villeneuve. Screenplay: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, based on the novel by Frank Herbert. Camera: Greig Fraser. Editor: Joe Walker. Music: Hans Zimmer.
  • With: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem.

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Movie review: 'Dune: Part Two' maintains high sci-fi standards

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Dune: Part Two, in theaters March 1, drops viewers right back into the world of Dune. It is a seamless follow-up to 2021's first part, with some new additions to the tale.

Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have been living among the Fremen -- natives of the planet Arrakis. The Harkonnen empire is still trying to raid Arrakis for the planet's valuable resource: spice.

Action ensues quickly as the Fremen attack Harkkonen harvesting equipment in epic desert battles. Dune: Part Two doesn't spend any time catching up new viewers, as it clearly is intended for people who are following the story from Part One .

This is respectful of the Dune audience, although even having seen Dune two years ago, or recently, it is still a lot to remember. Dune: Part One already was stuffed with terminology and mythology that could require a glossary, but the stakes are clear even if one doesn't follow the nitty-gritty.

Science-fiction that looks real has become less of a novelty since 2001 and Star Wars . What sets director Denis Villeneuve's rendition of Dune apart from the usual special effects fantasy is that it is designed more for function than appearance.

Villeneuve uses the technology not to create an animated fantasy, but to render what Dune could look like if armies and industries were operating what author Frank Herbert described.

To traverse or mine vast deserts requires heavy machinery, and the film conveys the weight of those lumbering machines. Arrakis is inhabited by sand worms, and those giant creatures, too, are lumbering beasts.

Even walking on desert sand is hard, and the actors convey the effort they're making to adapt to the environment.

In Part One , Paul dreamed of a Fremen girl, Chani (Zendaya) and only met her at the end of the film. When Part Two picks up, they are not yet in love.

Chani is still skeptical of a royal outsider, and her standoffishness makes their relationship more interesting. Paul proves himself to her in the field, aiding the Fremen and proving valuable in battle.

Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) believes Paul can fulfill a prophecy that will free the Fremen. Paul and Chani oppose using mythology to manipulate people, to which Stilgar essentially counters that if Paul plays his role, the prophecy will be true.

Though Herbert may have intended Paul to prove himself to be the messiah, the film leaves the accuracy of the prophecy ambiguous enough to interpret either way. Stilgar could be right or Paul just could be using the prophecy to achieve his ends.

This is still a world in which some characters employ psychic powers, so who's to say what is religion and what is physics in science-fiction?

New characters join the story, like the Emperor (Christopher Walken) above Baron Harkonen (Stellan Skarsgard). The Emperor's daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) gets involved, employing psychics like Lady Margot (Léa Seydoux) to inform the empire.

The Baron makes his nephew, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), governor of Arrakis, but really Feyd-Rautha will be the muscle to squash any rebellion.

Though they are all striking, the film can only visit new characters sporadically. It mainly stays with Paul and the Fremen.

The new characters make all of their moments count, though. Each gets a tad more screen time in this movie than Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) gets in both movies combined.

Dune: Part Two is the continuation of the story promised by Part One . It still tees up more story from future Herbert books, and if the quality of presentation remains this high, further adventures of Dune will be welcome.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

Movie review: 'Dune: Part Two' maintains high sci-fi standards

Movie Review: 'Dune: Part Two' sustains the dystopian dream of 'Part One'

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene...

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "Dune: Part Two." Credit: AP

Three firm thumps into the Arrakis sand is all you need to summon a sandworm in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” It’s almost as easy as hailing a cab or calling for the check.

The big buggers can’t resist the sound, which is a little like how I feel taking in all the vibrations of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel. Whispers, incantations and guttural sounds buzz throughout “Part Two,” a hissing hulk of a sequel that fluctuates between ominous silences and thunderous booms.

The first “Dune,” released in 2021 when movie theaters were still humbled by the pandemic, tackled just the first half of Herbert’s opus, saving the second half for the sequel. That split can be owed in part to the enormous amount of plot contained in the novel, but it can also be attributed to the operatic rhythms of Villeneuve’s solemn spectacle. Sober as they are, “Dune” parts one and two are almost drunk on their own sense of atmosphere.

And with good reason. Like its predecessor, “Dune: Part Two” thrums with an intoxicating big-screen expressionism of monoliths and mosquitos, fevered visions and messianic fervor — more dystopian dream, or nightmare, than a straightforward narrative.

That filmmaking prowess sometimes comes at the expense of other things. Humor, for one, is in shorter supply on Arrakis than water. Javier Bardem, returning as the Fremen leader Stilgar, alone seems to want to breathe a little laughter into all the fiery red sands and mammoth machinery of “Dune.”

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“Part Two” primarily follows the rise of Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet ), who, after seeing his father killed and House Atreides routed from the Arrakis capital by House Harkonnen and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (a monstrously good Stellan Skarsgård), is now living among the Fremen, the desert-dwelling peoples of Arrakis, with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).

The myth of Paul is already growing among the Fremen, who call him Muad’Dib. (A great feature of these movies, like Hebert’s books, is the exquisite names.) Is he the chosen one or a false prophet? Doubts are gradually erased by his accomplishments (leading strikes against Harkonnen spice harvesters; quickly learning the ways of the Fremen); the cunning maneuvering of Lady Jessica; and the worshipful zeal of Stilgar.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet...

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." Credit: AP/Niko Tavernise

The Fremen warrior Chani ( Zendaya ), though skeptical of the hype, believes, with some reluctance, in Paul. “Part Two” is significantly propped up by their dynamic and budding romance, a relationship that gives a deserving wide-screen canvas to two of the most exciting young movie stars of their generation.

For a while it’s fun and games in the desert, blowing up stuff and learning how to ride sand worms. Oh, there’s the matter of the “holy poison” forced on Lady Jessica, a neon-blue liquid extracted from sand worms that looks like it would produce a fine Slush Puppie, but, if it doesn’t kill you, confers a frightful clairvoyance of the universe.

Blue is an important color in the otherwise darker shaded “Dune.” It lights up in Lady Jessica’s eyes and, later, Paul’s too. If you thought Peter O’Toole’s eyes blazed in “Lawrence of Arabia,” Paul’s look like they’ve been pumped through with windshield-wiper fluid. As his following swells, Paul grows increasingly aware, and fearful, of his god-like power.

“Dune: Part Two” spends much of its energy with Paul wrestling with this supposed messianic destiny. Like “Lawrence of Arabia,” he’s a white protagonist from the West (or, here, the “Outer World”) on a Middle Eastern-like desert, leading the revolution of a dark-skinned population against oppressors whom he, himself, has deep ties to.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Zendaya in...

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Zendaya in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." Credit: AP/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Herbert’s metaphor-rife book has sometimes been interpreted — or misinterpreted, scholars would say — by the alt-right for its racial politics. Villeneuve’s film, scripted by the director and Jon Spaihts, appears highly conscious of this legacy as well as that of the white-savior trope. And often — as in so much of these two films — the movie expresses itself most through imagery and movement.

The Harkonnens, universally white, bald and violent, are served up as the symbol of colonist rule. In the middle of “Part Two,” the film introduces the Harkonnen prince Feyd-Rautha (a hairless Austin Butler, looking a bit too much like the albino protagonist of 1995’s “Powder” ) who is a kind of opposite to Paul. He, too, could take command of Arrakis.

When Villeneuve temporarily switches to Feyd-Rautha's story and away from Paul and Chani, the film’s richly orchestrated sense of momentum falters. But the comparison is illuminating. In a massive colosseum, Feyd-Rautha ruthlessly battles a trio of Atreides survivors in a scene, bleached in monochrome, that looks like “Triumph of the Will,” supersized.

There’s an earnest reckoning here in the power dynamics of the source material and previous Hollywood tales of first-and-third world confrontations. There’s plenty of doubt to go around for all involved, too. The movie’s perspective ultimately resides in the drained, shrouded face of Charlotte Rampling, who plays the matriarch of the Bene Gesserit (again, the names!), a mystic order that pulls the strings behind the galactic politics of “Dune.” For her, it's a game of raw calculation and “no sides.”

As “Part Two” brings all parties together for the final act, it begins to loose steam. The Emperor (Christopher Walken) and his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), seen sporadically from afar debating the events on Arrakis, turn up. But while Walken’s company is always welcome, he might be too warm a presence for “Dune” — too much of the Earth despite so often seeming on a planet of his own.

Yet the limpness of the finale, despite all of the expert build-up of Hans Zimmer’s score and Mark Mangini and Theo Green’s sound design, goes to something deeper. Villeneuve's great talent lies, I think, in invocation. He may be less perfect when it comes to conclusions but he's brilliant at summoning — a sense of doom, a suddenly appeared spacecraft, a sandworm. Even better than those serpentine sand creatures (the runaway stars of “Part Two”) is that thump, thump, thump that precedes them.

“Dune: Part Two,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language. Running time: 165 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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'Dune: Part Two' nails the dismount in the conclusion(?) of the sweeping sci-fi saga

Glen Weldon at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., March 19, 2019. (photo by Allison Shelley)

Glen Weldon

movie review dune

Zigazow!: Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two. Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

Zigazow!: Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two.

It's been three years since Denis Villeneuve brought his twin directorial passions (breathtaking vistas, whispered dialogue) to bear on Frank Herbert's beloved 1965 sci-fi novel/spice-opera . Now that, with Dune: Part Two , he's nailed the dismount with such assured visual sweep and splendor — and enriched many of the novel's thin characterizations in the process — it's worth examining why his approach worked then, and works now.

After all, many before him had attempted to distill that thick book's internecine tale of disparate interests who jockey for galactic control using tools like war, eugenics, mind control and propaganda. What was so bracing about Villeneuve's 2021 film, besides its many, many arresting set-pieces, was its decision to leave all those plotting families and their deviously chewy schemes-within-schemes just sort of churning along in the background.

He had a primary job to do before turning to that stuff, which was to get audiences invested in his brooding hero, whose cheekbones were so sharp they could slice Pecorino and whose raven hair couldn't seem to help but swoop Byronically. That would be young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), who with his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) found himself stranded on the desert planet of Arrakis after his father was murdered by a treacherous rival family.

Colors of the world

Fortunately, Arrakis was home to an indigenous population called the Fremen who had adapted to living in the desert. They took Paul and his mother in – a strange decision made less strange once you realize that one of those aforementioned shadowy galactic groups had long ago planted prophecies among the Fremen of a savior who would come from another planet and lead them in an uprising that would turn Arrakis into a paradise.

'Dune': A sweeping, spectacular spice-opera — half of one, anyway

'Dune': A sweeping, spectacular spice-opera — half of one, anyway

The fact that said savior happened to talk and behave a lot like Paul? Yeah, that helped.

Villeneuve knew that beneath all the book's fussy business about trading charters and ancient mystic sects and the intricacies of space navigation, there was a very clear and simple Chosen One narrative, complete with reluctant hero, refusal of the call – the whole Joseph Campbell schmear, really. So that's what he set out to tell, though he did take the time to dress it up in epic battles and endless horizons and great cheekbones and Charlotte Rampling sniffily sniping at everyone while swanning around in a veil.

Spice up your life

Dune ended with Paul and Jessica encountering a Fremen tribe and its leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem). Part Two begins where it left off – with Paul making the acquaintance of one particular Fremen warrior named Chani (Zendaya), whom he'd previously glimpsed only through prophetic dreams.

Reading 'Dune,' My Junior-High Survival Guide

PG-13: Risky Reads

Reading 'dune,' my junior-high survival guide.

The first film tackled the hard work of arranging the game pieces on the board, so Part Two swiftly sets about bashing them into one another. All those factional conflicts roiling away throughout the first film finally get to boil over at last.

There's the evil Harkonnens, led by a human pillbug of a Baron, played by Stellan Skarsgård and his fat suit. (The Harkonnens are bald and wear black; their crowd scenes look like a Palm Springs leather bar at happy hour.)

The Baron pits his two nephews, feral Rabban (Dave Bautista) and sinister Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), against each other. Bautista rages, Butler slithers – and pulls off an impressive Skarsgård impression while he's at it, proving 1. Sneery, grumbly line-readings run in the Harkonnen genes, and 2. His Elvis was no fluke, this kid's one gifted mimic.

Rising up against the Harkonnens are the Fremen, markedly and gratifyingly less monolithic here than they are in the book. Both Bardem and Zendaya get a lot more screentime this time out, and they each make the most of it, in vastly different ways. Stilgar is a true believer in Paul and his prophecy, yet Bardem doesn't play him credulous or naive; instead he finds the dry wit in the script's few jokes and proceeds to toss them away like the pro he is.

movie review dune

Every boy and every girl: Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Zendaya as Chani Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

Zendaya's tough, independent Chani belongs to a younger generation of Fremen who see the prophecies around Paul for what they are – a clever marketing ploy, executed over hundreds of years via selective breeding. (Zendaya brings a grounded, searching ambivalence to her portrayal, which makes the Chani of the original novel seem like a one-note, lovesick child by comparison.)

And finally there's the emperor, Shaddam IV, played by Christopher Walken with what counts, for him, as restraint. His daughter Irulan (Florence Pugh) wasn't in the first film, but here she gets a few scenes to helpfully narrate the movie's many gearshifts for us – a role the character (her diary, anyway) plays in the book, too. In those fleeting glimpses we get of her, Pugh manages to invest Irulan with sufficient intelligence and empathy to justify her presence in this film, and to make you want to see more of her in the future.

Which is a sneaky way of telling you that the film only sort of concludes the story that the first film began. Here's why that's not a bad thing.

Slam it to the left

Nothing about Dune or Dune: Part Two feels padded or unnecessary. (Indeed, Herbert purists will complain about the wholesale eliding of entire plotlines – and one fan-favorite character, in particular.) Villeneuve carefully planted seeds in Part One that not only bear fruit in Part Two , but that fundamentally change the story being told in the process.

With 'Dune,' Denis Villeneuve has made Hollywood's definitive post-9/11 epic

Reporter's Notebook

With 'dune,' denis villeneuve has made hollywood's definitive post-9/11 epic.

If you hadn't read the book, you might have come out of Part One thinking its story was simply yet another Chosen One narrative (which it was), and yet another White Savior narrative (which it wasn't, exactly): After all, no sooner does Paul arrive on Arrakis than some Fremen start to whisper he is the prophesied leader who will lead them to victory.

Villeneuve's decision to foreground Paul to the extent he did in the first film easily fed that reading. But in Part Two , the director makes explicit what he kept implicit before – various galactic puppetmasters emerge from the shadows, their agendas resolve into focus. This causes Paul's relationship to the Fremen to grow more complicated: Will he be their savior, or will he damn them to hell? Is he being used by others, or is he using them? Is he in control, or is he not?

movie review dune

Tribal spaceman and all that's in between: A scene from Dune: Part Two Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

Shake it to the right

Throughout the film, Villeneuve keeps adding texture to storylines and relationships that Herbert was content to keep smooth, or only introduce in later books. As a result, the film's conclusion feels far less conclusive than that of the novel.

But is that so bad, really? Especially if it means we might get Dune: Messiah: Part One a few years down the road, with Villeneuve at the helm?

In Villeneuve's hands, a sci-fi epic like Dune: Part Two can deliver what's expected – big stakes, big conflicts, big explosions – but it can do so in a clear and rigorously consistent visual language that serves the story. Even in the biggest battle scenes, his camera keeps us focused on what matters most – the human cost of it all. He closes in on eyes, hands, the movement of bodies. A wide shot which finds Harkonnen troops in black warsuits crawling over a sandy outcropping gets its visual and thematic echo later, in close-up, as black ants swarm over a human body.

Villaneuve finds moments like that one, and creates many others that the novel never even bothered to hint at, that collectively serve to deepen, humanize and ultimately improve both the story of Paul Atreides himself (as he did in Dune ) and of everything he will unleash (in Dune: Part Two ... and, let's hope, in what comes next).

'Dune 2' review: Timothee Chalamet sci-fi epic gets it right the second time around

movie review dune

Timothée Chalamet didn’t seem like much of a sci-fi movie savior in the first “ Dune .” The sequel, though? Well, consider us believers.

Director Denis Villeneuve's “Dune: Part Two” (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters March 1) bests his first 2021 epic, based on the classic Frank Herbert novels, in every significant way. Even though it snagged six Oscars (and a best picture nomination), the previous “Dune” was a mixed bag with lackluster storytelling – even David Lynch’s crazypants 1984 adaptation was a more entertaining exercise. But “Part Two” rights the cosmic battleship with plenty of staggering visuals, all the gigantic sandworms you’d ever want, plus a deeper thematic exploration of power, colonialism and religion.

“Part One” introduced a sprawling fantasy landscape that centered on the desert planet Arrakis, where the precious resource of spice is mined. The family of House Atreides – including young Paul (Chalamet), heir apparent to the throne – is put in charge of operations but come under a massive attack by the villainous Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and House Harkonnen.

Paul and his mom, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the witchy sisterhood Bene Gesserit, are seemingly the only survivors. Left to fend for themselves in the desert, they meet a tribe of the Indigenous Fremen – including Chani ( Zendaya ), a mystery woman whom Paul sees in his possibly prophetic visions.

Here's the thing: Paul might be a messiah foretold in an ancient prophecy, and that’s the primary gist of “Part Two." With the help of Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Chani, Paul learns the ways of being one of them, from living in hazardous desert conditions to riding sandworms. But there’s a divide among the Fremen about if he’s really the one said to deliver them to paradise.

Paul also becomes of one the Freman’s fiercest fighters against the Harkonnen threat, so much so that the Baron installs his psychotic nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) as the governor of Arrakis. He and Paul factor in a much larger game afoot, about who is and who should be in charge of ruling the universe.

'Dune 2' Timothée Chalamet rides a sandworm, Austin Butler is a bald psycho in first trailer

Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya spark core relationship of 'Dune: Part Two'

While the political dealings of the expansive “Dune” mythology were touched on in the first film, they’re one of the more fascinating aspects of the sequel as Villeneuve leans into them and weaves in debuting personalities. Christopher Walken plays the aging Emperor, Florence Pugh is his daughter Princess Irulan – who begins to worry about how unsteady the galaxy is becoming – and Lea Seydoux co-stars as Lady Margot, an ambitious member of the Bene Gesserit.

Villeneuve doubles down on the sci-fi action, too, with more space battles, more vicious blade fights and more insect-y helicopters (which are honestly really cool). But they mean more this time around because there's actually some character development. Chalamet fleshes Paul out as a complex dude torn between loved ones and fretting over his fate, and a strong chemistry with Zendaya fuels the movie's core relationship. Ferguson’s Lady Jessica rises to become a gripping “Dune” persona, who goes from being extremely dry in the first film to an intriguingly determined figure in “Part Two.”

Team Old Spice: Why David Lynch's 1984 'Dune' is still cool

Don't be cruel: Austin Butler leads the baddies in 'Dune' sequel

The pasty-faced bald baddies of House Harkonnen, dangerous in the first film, now loom as a dastardly existential threat for our heroes. Skarsgård is super-creepy as the Baron, Dave Bautista gets more to do as his brutishly insecure oldest nephew Rabban, and for those who want to wipe Butler’s Elvis from their memory, watch him lick knives and chew scenery as the venomous yet magnetic Feyd-Rautha. And he doesn’t even show up till well into the movie: At two hours and 46 minutes, the latest “Dune” still feels long but packs in a bunch of mythology before the all-hands finale.

Villeneuve leaves you wanting in his "Empire Strikes Back"-like second chapter, but at least it’s not an anticlimactic cliffhanger like last time. That “Dune” ended with no real temptation to hurry back to Arrakis. When this “Dune” finishes, you’re not only ready for a third one but likely digging into the Herbert books with one hand while your other’s in a sandworm popcorn bucket .

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  2. Director: Denis Villeneuve

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    Director Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two" (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters March 1) bests his first 2021 epic, based on the classic Frank Herbert novels, in every ...