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DUNE: PART TWO
Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Souheila Yacoub MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:46 Release Date: 3/1/24 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 1, 2024 If co-writer/director Denis Villeneuve's Dune took too much time getting to the point, the filmmaker's sequel is, perhaps, in too much of a rush to actually consider the many points it wants to make. Dune: Part Two begins with such confidence that Villeneuve's decision to split the Frank Herbert novel in twain seems like a smart decision. Now, the first movie feels even more like a prologue than a self-contained story, and this payoff, while certainly an improvement in terms of the narrative and the visual elements, might end up seeming like a prologue for whatever the filmmaker—or his successor, perhaps—has in store for what comes next. No, this one ultimately doesn't quite feel complete, either, and that's not simply because of the movie's cliffhanger ending, in which the stakes of the journey of Paul (Timothée Chalamet), the last living heir of House Atreides and the possible messiah for the native inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis, expand beyond this dry slice of the galaxy. It's also because the story's best and thorniest ideas, which have to do with religious prophecy and faithful fanaticism and how both are so easily exploited or created to serve the powerful, are constantly teased but kept sidelined for a whole host of new characters, conflicts, and expansions of the already-established ones. After whittling down the number of characters and the focus of the conflict in the first movie, Villeneuve and returning co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts immediately introduce us to more and more. Indeed, "more" seems to the central philosophy of the storytelling here, whether that be in seeing and understanding more of Arrakis and its inhabitants, as Paul partakes in and begins to lead a campaign of guerilla warfare against the industry of Spice mining on the planet, or in bringing us to a couple other worlds, in order to meet a collection of new characters. The story is so busy with introductions and exposition that the core of the actual plot feels hurried—even within the movie's nearly three-hour run time. The heart of it, as the first installment established generally and made clear was pretty simplistic, is a tale of revenge from multiple angles. There's Paul, whose father and most of whose noble house were massacred by the nefarious House Harkonnen during the predecessor's climax. He wants to kill Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), the floating blob of villainy who organized the slaughter, and any other member of that house, such as Harkonnen's right-hand man Rabban (Dave Bautista) or Austin Butler's sociopathic nephew Feyd-Rautha (a character who gets a lot of hubbub for as on-the-nose as he is and as little purpose he finally serves), who gets in Paul's way. Paul is also convinced the galaxy's Emperor (Christopher Walken) had something to do with the murderous plot, so that guy has to go, too. The early strength of the material here is in how Paul's plan, which is to join the local Fremen people in their attacks on mining operations, is primarily an excuse to learn about and explore the culture of the local tribe, who essentially want revenge for decades of colonization and resource-plundering. Paul and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who also wants revenge and decides to use her religious sway as an indirect means of achieving it (and her ability to control minds as a more direct means), have been taken in by a band of Fremen—seen with suspicion by some and with reverence by others, who are quickly convinced that Paul is the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy. He learns their ways, tries to stay as anonymous a part of the collective as possible (leading the clan's chief and true believer Stilgar, played by Javier Bardem, to become even more convinced Paul is their savior), and starts an understated romance with Chani (Zendaya). She's weary of the outsider at first, but the two form a mutual respect that gives this installment a degree of humanity the previous one lacked. All of this, of course, is mainly a justification for spectacle, and from the ground-level assaults on massive pieces of mining equipment to a larger—and, at times, transportive—role for the sphincter-like sand worms, the movie delivers in a way that's regularly impressive. The opening sequence set against an eclipse alone makes the first movie look even aesthetically blander by comparison, and a scene of gladiatorial combat on the Harkonnen home world is striking in the way a black moon turns everything monochrome (Maybe Villeneuve has a sense of humor about how the abundance of shades of beige gave the previous movie a different hue of monochromatic sameness at times). The centerpiece sequence of Paul attempting to ride a sand worm eliminates any inkling of silliness by turning it into an intimidating, up-close-and-personal push through walls of sand. Eventually, the many other threads—some of them, such as characters played by Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux, unmentioned until right now and others, such as Jessica's religious rise and how much is devoted to Feyd-Rautha, only suggested—overburden the narrative. The result is that every element of the story of Dune: Part Two feels undercooked. Whether that's an issue of adapting everything from a significant tome or shortchanging too many of those things is irrelevant. The resulting movie doesn't come across as if it's telling the whole story it wants to tell. Copyright © 2024 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief
strong language)
