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This movie is big. It feels big, it looks big, it sounds big, it's runtime is big, etc... If you thought Dune Part 1 was over the top and epic, Part 2 is standing right behind you saying "hold my beer..."
I might as well get the nitpicks out of the way first. The script is surprisingly coherent for a production of this magnitude, but it still relies a bit too much on people doing their homework before watching. There's no recap of Part 1 and little explanation of the larger world this story is a part of. There's also a few confrontations and character fates that have been shifted around for maximum audience cheers, and like Eowynn killing the Witch King in Return of the King, it can feel a bit cheap when it happens. Zendaya continues to be a limited actress. She's got the non verbal part of her role down, but every time she speaks I'm whisked away to the halls of high school. Austin Butler does a fairly good job being menacing as Feyd Rautha, but he can't quite get the high camp of Sting's take on the character out of my head. Dave Bautista shows that three films as Drax the Destroyer have wrecked his ability to be seen as a serious threat. Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy pop up for glorified cameos that are more notable for the "hey! That's the girl from..." reaction they generate than any real story function. Hans Zimmer's score is even more groaning and atonal than the first part, and while it's effective at stirring a reaction in the audience, that reaction is just as likely to be "for the love of God turn that crap down" as wonder. The sound mix dialog levels are less whispery than the first part, but the overall volume still gets obnoxiously loud to the point of distortion a few times too often.
Flipping the dial to what the film does well... The story doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable dual nature of Paul's rise. There's plenty of dark foreboding of what happens to him and the universe further along in the Dune franchise, and his ultimate victory at the end of the movie is nowhere near as triumphant as the one shown in David Lynch's Dune. Here it's filled with dread at what's to come. Timothee Chalamet does a good job navigating Paul's transition into a messianic figure, and he's well supported by Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, but none of them can hold a candle to the true acting standout: Rebecca Ferguson. Her shift from a caring mother to a driven, facially tattooed, amoral advocate for the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach (don't forget to do your homework kids) is truly scary.
The cinematography is breathtakingly epic, filling every inch of the screen with huge locations, massive crowd shots, and enormous desert vistas on par with Lawrence of Arabia. The visual effects work is every bit as good as Part 1, with the only real issues being with some less than convincing compositing during a gladiator fight on Geidi Prime (shot in black and white no less). The sandworms play a more active role in this installment, and every time they appear they own the screen with their huge size and cacophonous, clicky vocalizations. Vocalizations that sound a bit too close to the sound of a blown speaker cone for comfort, but I digress...
Overall, this movie makes a great case for theaters still being relevant. Every inch of it has been constructed for the big screen, and it feels at home there more than anything has since the last Avatar movie in 2022. It leaves the ending wide open for a third installment (rumored to be adapting Dune Messiah), and one can hope this movie does well enough to justify an investment into that part of the story. Denis Villeneuve clearly has a lot of interest in the material, and with two tremendous films already produced from it, it'd be a shame to stop him now.
I might as well get the nitpicks out of the way first. The script is surprisingly coherent for a production of this magnitude, but it still relies a bit too much on people doing their homework before watching. There's no recap of Part 1 and little explanation of the larger world this story is a part of. There's also a few confrontations and character fates that have been shifted around for maximum audience cheers, and like Eowynn killing the Witch King in Return of the King, it can feel a bit cheap when it happens. Zendaya continues to be a limited actress. She's got the non verbal part of her role down, but every time she speaks I'm whisked away to the halls of high school. Austin Butler does a fairly good job being menacing as Feyd Rautha, but he can't quite get the high camp of Sting's take on the character out of my head. Dave Bautista shows that three films as Drax the Destroyer have wrecked his ability to be seen as a serious threat. Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy pop up for glorified cameos that are more notable for the "hey! That's the girl from..." reaction they generate than any real story function. Hans Zimmer's score is even more groaning and atonal than the first part, and while it's effective at stirring a reaction in the audience, that reaction is just as likely to be "for the love of God turn that crap down" as wonder. The sound mix dialog levels are less whispery than the first part, but the overall volume still gets obnoxiously loud to the point of distortion a few times too often.
Flipping the dial to what the film does well... The story doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable dual nature of Paul's rise. There's plenty of dark foreboding of what happens to him and the universe further along in the Dune franchise, and his ultimate victory at the end of the movie is nowhere near as triumphant as the one shown in David Lynch's Dune. Here it's filled with dread at what's to come. Timothee Chalamet does a good job navigating Paul's transition into a messianic figure, and he's well supported by Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, but none of them can hold a candle to the true acting standout: Rebecca Ferguson. Her shift from a caring mother to a driven, facially tattooed, amoral advocate for the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach (don't forget to do your homework kids) is truly scary.
The cinematography is breathtakingly epic, filling every inch of the screen with huge locations, massive crowd shots, and enormous desert vistas on par with Lawrence of Arabia. The visual effects work is every bit as good as Part 1, with the only real issues being with some less than convincing compositing during a gladiator fight on Geidi Prime (shot in black and white no less). The sandworms play a more active role in this installment, and every time they appear they own the screen with their huge size and cacophonous, clicky vocalizations. Vocalizations that sound a bit too close to the sound of a blown speaker cone for comfort, but I digress...
Overall, this movie makes a great case for theaters still being relevant. Every inch of it has been constructed for the big screen, and it feels at home there more than anything has since the last Avatar movie in 2022. It leaves the ending wide open for a third installment (rumored to be adapting Dune Messiah), and one can hope this movie does well enough to justify an investment into that part of the story. Denis Villeneuve clearly has a lot of interest in the material, and with two tremendous films already produced from it, it'd be a shame to stop him now.
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