Film Review: Dune: Part Two

Following a two-year intermission, Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune has made its return to the big screen. Despite being a direct continuation of 2021’s part one, the 2024 release has completely surpassed the spectacle of its predecessor as a visionary epic that is both a technical triumph and a complex critique on ecological imperialism. 

Frank Herbert’s 1965 book sets up the dense unrelenting terrain of Arrakis: an environment on the brink of mass warfare as opposing houses all pursue complete control over the fictionalised galaxy’s rarest resource spice. Over a 2hr47 minute runtime Villeneuve’s blockbuster adaptation manages to adapt and deliver the immense dimensions of Herbert's plot with an intricate attention to all of the book's details. 

Dune: Part Two is a product of masterful directing that is compounded by fantastic casting and an excellent production team that have coalesced to create a transcendental technical marvel that shapes Frank Herbert’s intellectual achievement into an onscreen must see.

The cycle of what constitutes a good sci fi film proliferates fairly rapidly. But one of the fixed measures of science fiction success lies in its ability to play on the power and politics of the modern world. In Arrakis, spice is the vessel that spawns continuous conflict. The exchange, production and essentially commodification of spice is overseen by the oppressive guild: a resource dense collective that, not only yields a stronghold on spice, but completely controls the resources necessary in facilitating the intergalactic travel needed to acquire and circulate it.  It’s an interesting choice for a world 20,000 years into the future, to still be situated as a society bound by a hierarchical social system; an overt allusion to both modern day capitalism and mediaeval feudalism that Villeneuve weaves into his own narration seamlessly.

It is through the characterisation of Paul Atreides, the film’s protagonist and initially reluctant messiah, that the dual narrative operation between condemnation and control is best expressed. In a journey across the southern sand dunes Paul becomes enraptured in spice as the token of true power. The development of Paul's inner strife progresses in tandem with the plot, and as the film fades away from the unrelenting intensity of the first hour Paul seeks to valorise himself as a true prophet who is able to utilise spice as a figment of freedom. 

Paul's evolving fixation on spice metaphysical properties presents us with the plot's central moral conundrum: are the Freman obsession with protecting spice just the same as the empire's obsession with controlling it?

The inner tumult between prophecy and power is dramatised particularly well by Timothee Chamalet who expertly enacts a multidimensional character who is caught in the confused connection between feudal dominance and messianic guidance. 

As a critique on commodity as a means of salvation, the fake prophet versus true messiah narrative that dominates Dune: Part Two is able to avoid anti-religiosity cliches, by repeatedly referring back to the more intricate issue that the acquisition and protection of spice is an inflection of modern-day capitalism. Spice harnesses the power that Paul seeks to obtain and it is only under the promises of a free world that Paul is able to eventually inculcate himself as the messiah turned eventual leader. The development of Paul's character is symbolic, not of prophetic power, but of spice and how it heralds dangerous power, not only over the masses but also over the individual.

In shedding his previous reluctance to power and exchanging it for complete dominion, faith becomes centralised in the hands of Paul who, by the film’s denouement, has been promoted to a god like entity. The development of Paul’s character is indicative of the current strain between humanity and the natural world, which in the attempts to dominate one another has only resulted in further strife and warfare. 

What really solidifies such an epic narrative is Hans Zimmer’s soundscape which establishes the rhythm and order of such a lengthy run time superbly; setting up an immense visual spectacle with an equally impressive soundtrack. 

Bloated by an extreme attention to detail and technical intricacy Dune: Part Two is a truly mesmerising visual triumph of modern cinema that beautifully narrates the ascent of the Atreides family back to a house of greatness. A product of visual excellence that is a cinema must see.

Dune: Part Two is out in cinemas now.