The 2021 release of the first half of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune, Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel which did for sci-fi what The Lord of the Rings did for wizardly fantasy, was affected by the pandemic. It still did well enough to get this Part Two made, only for its release to be delayed by last year’s Hollywood strikes. It’s been worth the wait. Part Two is clearly the better movie. Especially after the long grind of the first which, for all of Villeneuve’s world-building and grim aesthetics, could feel as dry as the planet Arrakis, where it’s set.
Part Two is much more fun. It’s starrier, freakier, funnier, louder (if that was possible), sandier and more romantic. And more action-powered, too, with its grandiose battle scenes and those humongous sandworms, which are a constant threat and a desert rapid-transit network. Every time those big beasties get a wriggle on, the sound might make you wonder if your cinema seat has acquired a massage function.
Part Two does hit an extended flat patch in the third quarter of its 167 minutes, though it’s not as laboured as Part One.
There are fewer spinning plates, character-wise. Here, the focus is on Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). After their Atreides clan was decimated by feudal rivals Harkonnen in Part One, they’ve taken refuge in the Arrakis indigenous tribes of Fremen, where their arrival has been long prophesied. That also brings Paul to Chani (Zendaya), a Fremen woman from his visions in Part One. Theirs is a sweet if sandy Romeo and Juliet-esque YA romantic subplot, complete with a first kiss that nicely navigates those nasal tubes.
There are traces of other classics. It is, after all, the tale of a young person who finds that they are seemingly the born leader of a people whose authenticity is tested by showing they have what it takes to pilot the giant local fauna. Yes, set this on planet Aotearoa and it would have been called Worm Rider.
Director Villeneuve also has fun with a fleeting reference to Blue Velvet, the film David Lynch made after his Dune went down in a screaming heap in 1984. Elsewhere, the Canadian invokes cinema history in grander ways.
With all that sand and Paul’s outsider figure leading a desert people to war, you might be expecting a Lawrence of Arabia homage. But it’s really a full circle moment. David Lean’s film with Peter O’Toole and his intensely blue eyes – in Dune, also a trademark of the Fremens’ exposure to “spice” – came out a few years before Herbert’s book. Elsewhere, there’s a visit to the Harkonnen planet presided over by Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron Vladimir and where the black sun allows no colour. Its colosseum scene borrows heavily from Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda epic Triumph of the Will. So have many movies before, but not quite like this.
But for all of Villeneuve’s film buffery and art-movie leanings, Part Two is still a big Hollywood production with a cast to match. Joining an already pin-up-heavy ensemble are Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, and very briefly, Anya Taylor-Joy. The standout is Butler’s Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the serpentine, nasty nephew of Vladimir and the anti-Paul, whose matinee idol looks have been weaponised into something we’ll be seeing a lot of next Halloween. When there’s a sword fight between Chalamet and Butler, you wonder if they should just drop the blades and go at it with their cheekbones.
There’s quite a bit of swordplay, and worm riding. Oh, and a psychic foetus and the return of those space witches still led by a chilling Charlotte Rampling from behind her macramé habit. Yes, it’s all a bit much. But deafeningly, thrillingly, confoundingly so.
Rating out of 5: ★★★★
Dune: Part Two directed by Denis Villeneuve is in cinemas now.
