“Dune: Part One” from 2021, was considered by many to be one of the best movies of that year, and by some, one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. However, if you caught me in 2021, you would not be hearing the same thing. I thought the movie was overall dry, somewhat repetitive, and extremely boring. Sure, many of the visuals were stunning, especially in IMAX, but even that could not change my opinion.
The story followed Paul Atredies and his family’s betrayal at the hands of the emperor, and his ultimate escape into the desert of the planet Arrakis, which is where the sequel picks up. While on the surface this may seem like an interesting plot, it ultimately felt like it took forever to actually get to the interesting moments.
Today though, after seeing “Dune: Part Two,” I can say that the sequel retroactively makes everything that happened in the first movie better while standing on its own as an amazing film. “Dune: Part Two” is possibly the best movie to be released in 2024 so far.
One of the best parts about “Dune: Part Two” is, like the first film, the visuals. Every scene is breathtaking in its own way, from the amazing ship designs to the beautiful sandworm scenes. This movie is especially great in IMAX, which I would recommend seeing it in if you can, as it allows for the full visual experience without anything being shrunken down or missed. The visual are not bad in regular theaters, as you will still get the full experience, but it does feel a bit tainted.
Another great part about “Dune: Part Two” is its employment of sound. Every shot fired and step in the sand can be heard crystal clear, and the soundtrack itself is amazing. “Dune: Part Two” has a much more subtle soundtrack than the first, with a lot less loud sound all the time, but I feel it really works often better than the first’s in conveying the emotions of the character and scene.
“Dune: Part Two” also contains a lot of good acting throughout the film. While everyone performs well, the easy standouts are Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, nephew of the villainous Baron Harkonnen, and main villain. They both play somewhat antagonistic roles that fit their acting styles extremely well. I wish the character of Feyd-Rautha showed up more in both films, as his delightful insanity often gives some surprising brevity in certain scenes. He is not comedic, but he is definitely entertaining.
The story of “Dune: Part Two” is also a standout. Denis Villeneuve, the director and screenwriter, and Jon Spathis both do a great job getting across the spirit of scenes from the book while making setting changes or even changes to make the scenes fit more cohesively together. The screenplay also does a great job of getting across the different new and old ideas, to the point where you could watch this movie, and not have to have seen the first one. Even though the adaptation work is sublime, the changes that the screenwriters make to the story make it shine, especially toward the end of the film. The movie has a completely different ending than the book, which will get anyone hyped for the next film, “Dune Messiah.” The movie also makes the interesting choice to portray one of the main characters in the first film, Lady Jessica, in a villainous role, when she uses religion to exploit the people of Arrakis.
However, though “Dune: Part Two” is great, there are still plenty of problems with the film. One issue is pacing. The movie is almost three hours long, and there’s a whole 30-minute-long sequence that is just introducing Feyd-Rautha, with almost none of the scene affecting the plot except for in the last five minutes of the film. It is a cool scene, but it feels slightly out of place to have all of this happen in one moment, and not stretched through the entire movie, or at least in the first half. The problem is partially because they decided not to introduce Feyd-Rautha until this movie, which was probably the poorest choice the writers decided to make in the adaptation.
Another problem is the acting. Everyone gives a good performance, but not everyone has a great performance, especially Christopher Walken as the Emperor, who seems wildly miscast in the role. He just doesn’t have the bravado required for many of the emperor’s scenes, so they ultimately fall flat.
“Dune: Part Two” is a great film that has amazing story, sound, and visuals, and though it does falter a bit in the acting and pacing, most of the problems disappear when you are lost in the world the film has created for you.
