Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Half Two is a triumphant—and tragic—take a look at the price of energy.
Paul Atreides, the central determine of the Dune sequence, is a really particular boy. That is one thing the viewers is advised time and again, each in Frank Herbert’s first, totemic sci-fi novel and the Denis Villeneuve movie diversifications that bifurcate its intricate narrative into two sand-swept epics. The first installment of Dune was all about Paul’s potential, surrounding him with obscure prophecies of his future as an almighty conqueror whereas making him a refugee on the hostile planet Arrakis. Dune: Half Two sees that potential realized, reworking Paul from a stranger in a wierd land into its messianic ruler. This journey is appropriately triumphant—and, simply as vital, tragic and terrifying.
That’s what Villeneuve has persistently understood about Herbert’s books, which prior diversifications of Dune struggled to floor. Dune does observe a typical hero’s quest, with Paul surviving towards all odds to turn out to be an excellent warrior and precise revenge for the demise of his father. However by all of it, Paul is aware of the lack of humanity that comes with such victories, and the grievous human calculations demanded by the politics of struggle and resistance. Villeneuve’s movie is a grand success, engaged on an excellent broader canvas than the primary Dune—however it’s tinged with deep mournfulness, a top quality that units it other than its blockbuster contemporaries.
Dune: Half Two picks up proper the place the earlier movie left off, with Paul (performed by Timothée Chalamet) and his mystic mom, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), becoming a member of a bunch of guerrilla warriors known as the Fremen within the arid panorama of Arrakis. His household and allies have in any other case been annihilated by a rival aristocratic home known as the Harkonnens, a hairless, pitiless cadre of fascists. So Paul assimilates into the Fremen world, studying to outlive within the desert, experience the large sandworms that populate it, and finally achieve sufficient native cred to woo Chani (Zendaya), a Fremen lady tasked with mentoring him.
The primary Dune was intent on laying out the complicated royal intrigue of Home Atreides’ arrival on Arrakis, however a lot of Dune: Half Two is in regards to the nuances of Fremen life. Villeneuve is a director who cherishes the little particulars; he imbues his films with an environmental fullness that rewards repeat viewings, and the fun of this movie largely come by Paul’s gradual understanding of a world so in contrast to his personal. Javier Bardem brings some gruff humor to the function of Stilgar, the Fremen chief who takes Paul in, however it’s Zendaya who will get the plum function right here, with Chani’s standing tremendously expanded past her perform within the novel (the place she is basically a secondary character).
Chani and Paul’s romance is the emotional core of Dune: Half Two, however it’s additionally Villeneuve’s route for smuggling in skepticism about Paul’s rising energy—one thing Herbert’s e-book solely hinted at earlier than increasing on it in future volumes. Because the viewer is repeatedly knowledgeable, Paul is the alleged “Kwisatz Haderach,” a long-prophesied savior blessed with staggering psychic skills. As Paul’s authority expands, nonetheless, Chani foresees doom on the finish of his vengeful path, and correctly realizes that messiahs are sometimes simply one other type of dictator. Zendaya has all the time overflowed with pure charisma, and that is the very best efficiency I’ve seen her give on-screen. Chani balances her real affection for Paul together with her terror of what he’s turning into, primarily functioning because the movie’s beating coronary heart as its supposed hero turns into increasingly of an alien overlord.
Chalamet is equally ready for that problem—though completely profitable within the first Dune, he leans right here into Paul’s remoteness, and unleashes waves of arresting magnetism the place essential. Dune: Half Two is in regards to the burden of management, and it demonstrates that by having Paul really feel relatable because the movie begins and fully inscrutable by the top, higher at commanding a crowd of 1000’s than speaking to his closest allies. The place later, inspired-by works akin to Star Wars smoothed Herbert’s novels into one thing extra predictably heroic, Dune is full of menace, even when the “good guys” begin profitable.
Nonetheless, it’s onerous to not root for Paul given the state of the unhealthy guys. Stellan Skarsgård continues to have grumbly enjoyable because the imposing Baron Harkonnen, with Dave Bautista barking madly as his despotic nephew Glossu “Beast” Rabban. The worthiest new addition is Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a knife-wielding princeling who fancies himself to be Paul’s archenemy. Villeneuve shoots the Harkonnen-home-planet sequences in intensely contrasted black and white, lending a brutal starkness that makes Arrakis’s deserts appear virtually welcoming. Butler brings a whole lot of psychotic pleasure to the proceedings, by no means letting Villeneuve’s seriousness overwhelm a little bit of B-movie villainy.
There are many different eye-catching additions to the solid—Christopher Walken because the taciturn emperor, Florence Pugh as his chain-mail-wearing daughter. However the greatest star of Dune: Half Two could also be its immersive atmosphere: the enormous ships touchdown and taking off, the colossal sandworms who rampage and not using a care on the planet for imperial politics. Anytime the viewer would possibly get tripped up by the right nouns, Villeneuve is there to strike them with the ability of Herbert’s universe. If there’s a movie that may justify—and fulfill—such absurd storytelling scale, it’s this one.
