Denis Villeneuve’s pacier followup is effective as long as it harnesses the desert power
Denis Villeneuve spent most of the first part establishing the world, characters and moral conflict of the story adapted from Frank Herbert’s 1965 epic science fiction novel. Gladly, its follow-up moves far more swiftly. With most of the groundwork already done, Dune: Part Two could’ve dared harder. But like its protagonist, the movie also keeps dreaming.
Dune: Part Two remains exciting and effective as long as it remains in the heart of the desert. Production designer Patrice Vermette, who won an Oscar for part one, isn’t going on an overdrive in the sequel. With the desert doing most of the world-building, he’s left to lend his expertise to the tiniest parts of the whole. Yet the tents, sand compactors and even the binoculars he designed look so compact and chic that they immediately remind us of the space and time the story is set in. Denis, along with his gloriously gifted technicians, builds a cultural capsule that amplifies Herbert’s imagination by many folds.
One of the best scenes of the film is also set in the desert. When Stilgar (Javier Bardem) takes Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) to a hidden reservoir and explains it as the sacred water made out of the body fluids of people who’ve died in the desert, it gives an instant insight into the way the Fremen live — they conserve, steal and worship water.
But besides a few wellchoreographed action scenes, most of Dune: Part Two shares the same issues as its predecessor. It stretches its vision so high to measure its lofty ideas that it ends up falling back with a thud. Paul’s (Timothee Chalamet) central conflict of whether he should believe in the prophecy and posture as a messiah or dismiss it and grow organically like one of the people, takes some tadpole leaps — unable to maintain a steady graph.
Chalamet gets more of a range to perform here. He’s well cast as a young boy on whom greatness has been imposed, but his static face and body language are unable to bear the weight of what the story demands. Zendaya as Chani is his voice of reason. She gets some moments to shine, but not enough. Bardem gets to have some fun with his accent and comic timing and Stellan Skarsgard (Baron Vladimir) is busy chilling as he did in the first part, but what’s the rest of the seasoned cast doing anyway? Bautista (Rabban) is in full WWE form and yet his final showdown with Josh Brolin (Gurney) ends in a blink of an eye after a fairly long buildup. It’s the same case with Chalamet’s Paul and Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha. Their duel at the end is delicious, but not worth the hype.
In terms of Hans Zimmer’s background score — Yes, it’s all grand and ominous. But the stakes of the screenplay are unable to sync with the sense of foreboding the score invokes. With new characters introduced, there’s a third part in the offing. Can we then expect Denis to drum up the drama, instead of only the sound and scale that are supposed to aid the drama? If not, we need a prophecy and messianic intervention right away.