My Review of Dune: Part Two (2024)

 

Written by Denis Villeneuve And Jon Spaihts

Directed by Denis Villeneuve 

Paul: "I am Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis. The Hand of God be my witness, I am the Voice from the Outer World! I will lead you to PARADISE!"

Having watched both these movies days apart, I'm still not entirely as enamoured with this space saga as many others have been but I can admire the scale and ambition of this movie franchise.

From the previous movie, prophet Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) had managed to fall in with the Freman tribe and become allies with then in their quest to get back at those who betrayed their family. It was a quest that would inevitably bring out a much darker side to Paul.

Of course there was also the romance between Paul and Chani (Zendaya), the latter who was very much against prophecies and being controlled by destiny. I'll admit, it's a strong enough aspect of the movie with Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya giving it their best. However their romance also hit a major complication towards the end of this one.

When Chani wasn't brazenly defying destiny and disturbing customs, Paul found himself betrothed to Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh). Irulan was the daughter of Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) and he was directly responsible for Paul's father being killed and House Atreides almost being taken off the map. 

With Paul and Chani somewhat at odds, one of the strengths of this movie would be the furthest expansion of the Bene Gesserit. The Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) conspired while both Princess Irulan and Lady Margot Fenring (Lea Seydoux) were revealed as members. Lady Jessica underwent her own ascension within the ranks and even Paul got subjected to his own ascension to boot.

Then there was House Harkonnen. They somewhat paid for their attempts to dismantle the Atreides. This movie saw both the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard) and his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista)  get taken down along with the odious Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). The latter character was a delightful addition, though surprisingly not as prominent as I thought he would. He does however manage to get a decent confrontation with Paul before his demise.

- Anya Taylor-Joy appeared briefly through visions as Paul's unborn sister, Alia. She would be born in 10,191 A.G.

- It was revealed that Jessica was the Baron's daughter, making Paul cousins with both Rabban and Feyd-Rautha. The latter seemed amused by that revelation.

- To complete this trilogy, we'll be getting Dune: Messiah by 2026 (or more likely, 2027)

- Chronology: Not long from where the first part of the movie left off. 

I did slightly enjoy Dune: Part Two a little more than the first but I also found it overlong with certain parts almost dragging out too much. The new characters were interesting as was the way both Paul and Chani's relationship progressed and devolved throughout.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Dune: Part One (2021)

 

Written by Jon Spaihts And Denis Villeneuve And Eric Roth

Directed by Denis Villeneuve 

Paul Atreides: "That's the future. It's coming. Holy war spreading across the universe like unquenchable fire."

To venture into territory that has previously been ventured. Frank Herbert's reputable sci-fi book series has already been a previous big screen offering back in 1984 and a miniseries in 2000/2003. However this adaptation has managed to become the definitive take, in spite of it's release during the pandemic.

I've never read the book or watched the previous adaptations, so I'm going in blind with this one. Our lead protagonist, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) has a destiny and one that he's not quite prepared for or even understands that much. During the first part of this saga though, he had a fair amount of shit to deal with.

First of all, he kept seeing a Freman woman named Chani (Zendaya) in his dreams but it wasn't until the end of the movie that he actually encountered her and the tribe led by ally Stilgar (Javier Bardem). I know aspects of their love story but here, it definitely did not seem like love at first sight between Paul and Chani.

Of course, the main plot of this movie involved spice and Paul's father, Leto (Oscar Isaac) being assigned the job ofreplacing Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) as the fiefholder of Arrakis and with that, came trouble. It didn't take long for Leto to become a casualty and it didn't take long either for both Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) to be almost taken out either.

Paul's relationship with his mother was the thing I found the most interesting from this movie. Jessica's a consort rather than wife to Leto and came from a sisterhood named the Bene Gesserit, who have their own unique abilities. It's also interesting that while Jessica was instructed to bear a daughter, she defied the matriarchal group by having a son instead.

There's a lot of characters and machinations to keep afoot with in this movie and it's cast are definitely it's biggest strength. There's strong supporting performances from the likes of Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban and Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck to name a few.

- Sharon Duncan-Brewstsr appeared as Dr. Liet Keynes, a character who's usually male in the source material. 

- The Part One part of the movie was almost hidden from the marketing even though this clearly was meant to be a two part saga.

- The brief showing of sandworms did look cool as did that spider creature. 

- Chronology: Distant future, mainly on Arrakis.

I got to admit that my experience with Dune: Part One is something of a mixed bag. On a technical level, there's a lot to like with it. It looks stunning, the acting's certainly not lacking and the script tried to make the dense material accessible but there's something a bit cold about it that made me struggle to care as much as I should. 

Rating: 7 out of 10