Sequel fulfils prophecy as generational masterpiece
▶ Amid peak expectations, Dune dives into its source material and pulls out a cinematic epic, writes Razmig Bedirian
Dune: Part Two
Director: Denis Villeneuve Stars: Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Austin Butler
Ascience fiction epic should linger in the mind in monolithic splendour. The problem is, most of them do not. Thankfully, there is zero chance whatsoever of Dune: Part Two tumbling out of our memories and ending up at the bottom of the bargain bin.
It is a healthy antidote to the widespread jadedness of contemporary blockbusters – a film that reinstates the marvel of an epic on the big screen.
Its story is sharp. Its struggles are reflective of the modern age. Its writing is precise. Its aesthetic is idiosyncratic. Its score is stirring. Its performances inflict the full gamut of human emotion.
Of course, making a memorable film in any genre is never easy. But making all the small parts click together gets even trickier in the sci-fi realm, where one crack in the structure can bring the whole edifice down and cause it all to blur together in one’s mind into a cliched slurry. This stunning sequel accomplishes it with a deft touch and has all the hallmarks of a generational classic.
Dune: Part Two picks up where the first film trailed off, in both style and substance. It follows Paul Atredies’s (Timothee Chalamet) reluctant rise as the prophesied saviour of the planet Arrakis, as his family’s mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, prepare to invade the desert planet again and wage war on the native population.
While the first film firmly established the foundations for a
geopolitical scuffle, the second dives deep into these tensions, ramping up the pressure in all kinds of unexpected ways. Dune: Part Two is a delectable pay-off to the drama that was burrowed in the foundations of the original saga.
Another thing that makes this instalment engrossing is the heterogeneity and individual quality of its characters. No faction or house is uniform in ideology; the Fremen are divided in how they respond to the prophecies proliferated on the planet by the mysterious sisterhood called the Bene Gesserit, of which Paul’s mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is a member. The group point to Paul being the chosen one, or Lisan al Gaib.
The Harkonnens, as well as the Bene Gesserit, have their own power struggles to contend with. Meanwhile, Emperor Shaddam’s intergalactic rule hangs in the balance and his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) tries to find her own path to leadership while accounting for her father’s oversights.
The film also brings several more star names into the fold, from Christopher Walken, who portrays the emperor, to a surprise role by Anya Taylor-Joy. Austin Butler also takes on
Its story is sharp. Its writing is precise. Its score is stirring. Its performances inflict the full gamut of emotion
the role of Feyd-Rautha, the Harkonnen foil to Chalamet’s character. Zendaya is also propelled to the forefront, playing Chani with a performance that is rife with complexity.
The dynamic between Chani and Paul, unsurprisingly, takes a romantic turn before upending expectations with a tense climactic scene. The second film sets the stage for Paul’s continuing transformation as a leader and, even if you’ve read the book and know how the storyline eventually shapes up, it is a pleasure watching Chalamet’s character struggle in the throes of destiny, prophesy and choice.
What separates an unforgettable sci-fi epic from a lacklustre one is how seamlessly all its disparate layers come together – how holistic the world-building seems in the end.
Complicated worlds work best when they feel simple. With films that are adapted from doorstopper bestsellers, and with source material as dense as Dune’s, the challenge of cohesion often proves insurmountable. It makes sense, then, why the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert had become something of a white whale among filmmakers.
Alejandro Jodorowsky unsuccessfully attempted to adapt it and David Lynch would go on to distance himself from his own 1984 interpretation. For a long while, it seemed that Arrakis was impossible to render faithfully on screen.
Enter Denis Villeneuve, who released Dune in 2021. It somehow managed to not only do its source material justice but stood as its own as a cinematic masterpiece. Between sprawling desert scenes – many filmed in Abu Dhabi – honed by refracting light, to the glumlit and tense instances that feature the Harkonnen, the film was confident in its visual juxtapositions. Its stellar cast, which featured Chalamet, Zendaya, Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista and Javier Bardem, also delivered top-notch performances, and for many of them, the portrayals would be career-defining.
The film marked Hans Zimmer’s best score in years, with otherworldly orchestral and vocal compositions that stir as they border on the eerie, and won six Oscars. However, as much as Dune met acclaim in awards season, there was ambivalence on how to view it. It was, after all, not a complete film in itself, and seemed more like an introduction to the world of Dune than a fully fledged story.
Audiences who had not read the original material also seemed suspicious of the white saviour trope that seemed to direct the film.
The sequel sustains and even elevates the glorious aesthetics that made the first great, proving Villeneuve’s adaptations are achievements in their own right. The sequel is one of those films that reminds a person of their first experience at the cinema. To me, it brings up memories of watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, sneaking into the cinema with a forged passport copy and pretending I was old enough to watch the PG-13 film. It is the cinematic epic of the decade.
When the next awards season comes, it will not be surprising if Dune: Part Two collects its fair share of statuettes. The film has the makings of a contemporary classic, with the only downside being that we will have to wait another few years to see how tensions unfold.
Dune: Part Two is in cinemas now in the UAE and Lebanon; it is scheduled for a wider regional release on April 11