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DUNE: PART TWO
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts
166 minutes, rated M
★★★
George Lucas gets ribbed for starting off each Star Wars chapter with a big block of text about previous events. But at least it gave you something to latch onto if you hadn’t done your homework.
In Dune: Part Two, based on the second half of Frank Herbert’s cult science-fiction novel, writer-director Denis Villeneuve dives straight in, trusting his audience will recall where he left off in 2021.
I can’t be so sure. So here goes with the obligatory recap: following a massacre, youthful hereditary autocrat Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) has fled with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), to the desert of Arrakis, where they’ve been given grudging refuge by the semi-nomadic Fremen people.
Timothee Chalamet and Austin Butler cross swords.Credit: Warner Bros
Arrakis lies at the centre of a larger power struggle, as sole source of the precious spice that makes space travel possible (and has mind-expanding powers when ingested). But is Paul truly the messiah prophesied in Fremen lore, destined to lead the locals to victory over their oppressors, the Harkonnens?
If not, should he assume the role all the same, furthering his quest for revenge against the Machiavellian emperor (Christopher Walken) of the known universe? What of his disturbing prophetic visions, his sceptical Fremen love interest (Zendaya), or the unborn telepathic sister who counsels Lady Jessica from the womb?
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These are broad strokes, but hopefully enough to go on. As for the film’s style, Villeneuve is certainly no Lucas, any more than he’s the second coming of David Lynch, who directed a famously disastrous adaptation of Dune in 1984 and has lamented ever since not having a final cut.
Neither a zippy adventure nor a metaphysical mind-bender, this Dune has the heaviness of an old-fashioned Hollywood epic. The characters speak in solemn half-whispers, all the better to contrast with Hans Zimmer’s booming score once the battle sequences heat up (typically for Villeneuve, the sound design is a major strength).