Dune: Part Two Completes a Nearly Flawless Adaptation of a Sci-Fi Classic

Ever since the pandemic hit in 2020, studios, movie theaters and Nicole Kidmans everywhere have spent a lot of time trying to convince us that the only real way to experience a movie is via the Big Screen. Yet in an age of ubiquitous—if fragmented—streaming services and increasingly affordable home entertainment technology anchored by 75-inch TVs, it’s a hard sell to convince a family of four that dropping $100+ for the “magic” of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Dicks: The Musical or Cocaine Bear is worth it. And that’s not meant as a slight against those films—the calculus of whether the viewing experience is sufficiently enhanced by a giant screen and state-of-the-art sound system to offset the cost (and potential annoyance) of public viewing is seldom a question of how good the film is. For many, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Past Lives and Anatomy of a Fall are going to be just as enjoyable to watch in a darkened living room as in a multiplex. But Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two? Set aside the complicated calculus of food, shelter and family needs. It’s time to shell out the big bucks and head to the local IMAX. To borrow from Kidman’s AMC commercial more explicitly, though you might not be “somehow reborn,” there will be “dazzling images,” sound you can feel and you will be taken somewhere you’ve “never been before” (at least, not since Dune).

As befits a Part Two, Villeneuve’s film picks up in medias res, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and the Fremen encountering and dealing with a murderous Harkonnen hunting party while trying to reach the Fremen stronghold. From this encounter, Villaneuve nimbly guides the narrative from one key moment to the next, a veritable dragonfly ornithopter of plot advancement (with a few slower moments to allow the burgeoning relationship with Paul and Zendaya’s Chani to breathe).

If the outcome of each narrative stop feels very much fated, that in turn feels appropriate given the messianic prophecy undergirding the entire tale.

In films centered on seemingly inexorable prophecies, there is usually some amount of dramatic suspense to be mined in how said prophecy will come to pass. A bit of a twist, a bit of surprised recognition that the fate so fought against or fled from turned out to be right where the story was heading all along, protagonist preferences be damned. In Dune: Part Two, there’s no such suspense regarding whether this prophecy will be fulfilled, no narrative sleight of hand allowing room for viewer doubt. The only uncertainty exists, fleetingly, in the minds of some of the film’s characters. Most of these micro-arcs can be summarized as variations of “I don’t think he’s the one. Never mind—I now believe he’s the one!” and “If he’s not the one, he’ll die doing this thing. Never mind—he lived!”

This could be considered a flaw, except Dune: Part Two isn’t trying to be a Christopher Nolan-esque puzzle box for us to decipher and be surprised by. It’s space opera, the current chapter of which just happens to take place on a planet. The story might move dutifully from point A to point B, but the experience is all about the alphabet—or more precisely, about Arrakis itself. To that end, Dune: Part Two is an immersive experience on par with Avatar (but with a much better story), Interstellar (but benefiting from a much richer narrative tapestry) and Mad Max: Fury Road (no notes!). 

There’s a reason Dune won Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects (and was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling). Too often in science fiction films, the attempt to imagine whole societies and technologies yields a gasping plea for suspension of disbelief. In general, “good enough” can be considered great—if the costumes and sets do not distract from the story being told, success! Dune: Part Two’s production design is as much center stage as its star-studded cast. Villaneuve pummels the viewer with the sheer scale and brutal, industrial efficiency of the Harkonnen operation—well, it would be efficient if not for those pesky Fremen—yet all of it is engulfed in turn by Arrakis itself. Meanwhile, the sound design and throbbing aural cues evoke the weight and oppressiveness of a centuries-spanning empire, the suffocating cunning of “90 generations” of Bene Gesserit schemes and the inescapable gravity Arrakis and its spice-producing leviathans exert on both.

None of this is meant to detract from the contributions of the impressive cast, they just are additional—if important—threads in an immense tapestry. Javier Bardem and Florence Pugh stand out even as their roles occupy a backseat to the film’s more central characters (Paul, Chani, Lady Jessica, etc.) and the (appropriate) scene-chewing of Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha. Bardem’s Stilgar just feels an iota more real than the rest, and Pugh brings the same fascinating presence to a Princess Irulan who, while beefed up here compared to her role in the book, provides quiet pools of respite in an otherwise frenetic, sensorially relentless epic. Bardem makes you feel like, “Hey, I know that guy.” Pugh makes you feel like, “Man, I want to know more about her.” (By now, it’s fair to consider this latter effect a signature ingredient of Pugh’s talent.)

Villeneuve is scrupulously faithful to the source material without being slavishly so. Purists who desire every detail mirrored will find a solid listicle’s worth of changes to munch on, but I suspect even the most militant quibbler will acknowledge that Dune: Part Two has about the highest grade of fidelity one can find in the Book-to-Screen section of the movie marketplace. This overarching fidelity also means that anyone who has qualms about the original story will likely have those same qualms about the movie. A white savior leading a fierce but noble tribe of brown-skinned warriors in their fight against an occupying power may have felt fresh at the time of publication in 1965—though its popularity took a while to develop, Dune came out in the Academy Award-winning wake of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after all—but some contemporary moviegoers have likely developed an allergy to this particular variant of the Hero’s Journey.

For those who haven’t, and for those torn on whether it’s worth venturing forth to the multiplex, consider Dune: Part Two a compelling two-hour-and-forty-six-minute argument in the “for” column. And that “indescribable feeling” you get when “the lights begin to dim?” That’s cinematic escape velocity, instantly achieved. Next stop, Arrakis.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem
Release Date: March 1, 2024

Michael Burgin reviews movies from time to time.