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Posted in: Dune, Kaitlyn Booth, Legendary, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: dune: part two
Dune: Part Two Review: Has A Few Small Issues But Is Overall Excellent
Dune: Part Two only stumbles in ways that hardly count, but with Villeneuve expertly guiding a truly talented ensemble cast, it all ultimately comes together.
Article Summary
- 'Dune: Part Two' excels despite minor pacing issues and complex lore challenges.
- Denis Villeneuve's vision celebrated for making foundational sci-fi feel fresh.
- Standout performances by Rebecca Ferguson and Timothée Chalamet anchor the film.
- Adaptation hailed as momentous, comparable to Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings'.
Dune: Part Two has a few issues, most of which can be linked back to the decision to make this a true Part One and Part Two experience, but they aren't pervasive enough to ruin an overall excellent film.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Summary: Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
When you decide to split a movie in half, some issues will come with that decision that just cannot be avoided. The structure and pacing of your film will be a bit off because you aren't giving people two complete films; you're giving them 50% of a movie with the promise of wrapping things up by the end of the second. Plenty of movies have dealt with this split well, and Dune is one of those films. Part One was a bit on the slower side, and the front half of that film was very lore-heavy with a ton of exposition, ending on a cliffhanger. Dune: Part Two hits the ground running and makes no assumption that you are here having seen Part One and having seen it recently. Dune, both as a film and a book, has never been about holding its audience's hand.
However, even though this is the movie's second half, things still take a long time to get going. Instead of this entire film being an extended third act, the movie feels more like an extended second act with a shorter-than-expected third act. Some things need to be explained as Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), adapt to an entirely new way of living. It's another way of dropping a ton of lore and exposition on us, which does feel out of place for a Part Two. However, it's also incredibly important that we see how Fremen live because we need to see how Paul becomes one of them and, eventually, their leader.
The opening moments with Paul learning how to live in the desert, him bonding with Chani (Zendaya), Jessica possibly going completely off her rocker, and the Fremen slowly starting to believe that Paul is the One are necessary. Much like the first film, these moments will likely become better the second time around; much of Dune appears to be enjoyed more on round two because you can just let it wash over you. However, the first time through and for people unfamiliar with all of the lore, it will be a lot to take in, and some of these sections will likely start to drag. The decision to tweak the timeline of the second half of the story could annoy book purists because some changes are very different, but they do appear to be made in an attempt to make all of this a bit more palpable for the masses.
All of this, however, are merely nitpicks against a film that ultimately delivers. This is a hard book to adapt; there is a reason why we have seen so few adaptations even though this book came out in 1965. It's a massive story about a big world that seemed impossible not long ago. There is also the fact that director Denis Villeneuve is adapting something that is part of the DNA of so much science fiction that we see today that there was the worry that this film would somehow feel redundant because so many things have been ripping Dune off that Dune itself would feel unoriginal. These two films prove that with the right people guiding an adaptation, much like Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings, you can be a foundational piece of media and still feel just as original when you finally get that big adaptation.
The cast does much of the heavy lifting here, and there isn't a weak link in the bunch. It's one of those ensembles where you're disappointed that some characters don't get more screen time because they are doing a good job with the limited amount of time they are given. Much will be said about Austin Butler, who absolutely goes for it as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, and Florence Pugh remains as ethereal as always as Princess Irulan. The woman is royalty in all of our hearts. However, the movie's MVP will likely be Ferguson, who is given a tough role to play with Jessica when she starts down this new path, and they do something really interesting with her that feels very true to the character while also being amusing. Javier Bardem as Stilgar is likely the other one who will be overlooked as we see the journey of a man witnessing his faith bear fruit.
At the center of all of this are Chalamet and Zendaya. Paul is a notoriously difficult character for people to wrap their heads around because you think he is supposed to go in one direction while writer Frank Herbert explicitly points you in the other. The script and Chalamet do a better job of portraying Paul as, frankly, less of a manipulative asshole than he is in the book and more of a man scared to death of the future he's desperately trying to avoid while still trying to make a difference. Chani is another place where the film deviates from the book, changing one of the most one-note love interests in fiction to someone who has a very strong opinion on all of this and isn't going to follow Paul around.
Dune: Part Two only stumbles in ways that hardly count, but with Villeneuve expertly guiding a truly talented ensemble cast, it all ultimately comes together. There is no denying the pacing and structure issues that come with this being half a movie, but it also feels massive because Villeneuve was given two films to adapt this massive book. There were so many places all of this could have gone wrong, and the fact that it mostly went right is yet another one of those movie miracles. Villeneuve and his two Dune films join the ranks of Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings as one of those adaptations where, somehow, source material older than most people who are seeing the film still feels new.
Dune: Part Two
9/10
Dune: Part Two has a few issues, most of which can be linked back to the decision to make this a true Part One and Part Two experience, but they aren't pervasive enough to ruin an overall excellent film.
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