12/12 ForReel Score | 5/5 Stars

It’s insurmountably challenging not to be romantic about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films. From the sweeping soundscapes to the larger-than-life imagery, Dune dares you not to disappear into its breathtakingly exotic world. Notoriously deemed unadaptable by almost everyone who has read Frank Herbert’s original text, Dune is truly a behemoth of a story. Often considered the grandfather of the science fiction genre, Herbert masterfully intertwined the dangers of factionalism, colonialism, religious institutionalization, messianism, and political espionage into what many consider the most significant piece of sci-fi ever written.

As a fan of the book and a longtime fan of director Denis Villeneuve, I was simultaneously excited and wary of the latest installment of his Dune series, Dune: Part Two. Thankfully, Villeneuve translates Herbert’s text with exceptional competence and creates one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time - a film that might be even better than the original text.

Dune: Part One, or also simply known as Dune, is a much more stripped-down interpretation of the book. There is really only one plotline, which follows Paul Atreides (played by Timothee Chalamet), the heir to the House of Atreides. Dune: Part One operates as a standard hero’s journey as Paul comes of age and rises to the occasion throughout the film, supplemented by Villeneuve’s tremendous vision. Dune: Part Two, however, is an entirely different beast. There are so many parallel plotlines and character arcs in Part Two that it almost feels overwhelming to process everything that’s going on. The keyword here is “almost.” A less-skilled director would lose some of their momentum jumping from so many different characters and planets - but not Villeneuve. Villeneuve’s grasp on Herbert’s source material is so focused that it almost feels surreal to see Herbert’s ideas and themes illustrated on the big screen.

Furthering his ventures into the sci-fi genre, Denis Villeneuve continues to demonstrate his prowess in visualizing the impossible. Films like Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival indicated Villeneuve as more of a tone poet, whereas films like Incendies, Sicario, and Prisoners accentuated his tenacity towards darker themes and ideas. In a sense, Villeneuve is the ideal filmmaker to tackle a story as grandiose, bleak, and fantastical as Dune. Villeneuve’s ability to create such consistent tones and atmospheres is where the bulk of Dune as a story lies.

In the most rudimentary terms possible, it’s Star Wars for people who prefer Game of Thrones. While that statement is quite reductive on paper, the way Villeneuve imbues the strangeness of sci-fi storytelling with utter sincerity makes the stakes even higher. Whether that be through the immense scale or Hans Zimmer’s thundering score, every second of Dune: Part One feels vital. Part Two doubles down on this with a sense of tactility that almost feels effortless. The worlds are bigger and more jaw-dropping. The sounds are louder and more realistic (even if they are sounds for things that don’t exist). It’s like Dune: Part One on steroids.

Whereas the color palettes of Dune: Part One were beautifully minimalist, making the most of the drab deserts of the planet Arrakis, the color palettes of Part Two are genuinely unbelievable. Part Two hits the ground running, starting with an eye-popping sunset action sequence. This scene is shot in such a rich shade of orange that it feels like you’re seeing the color for the very first time. Part Two never fails to take your breath away by simply being present, largely thanks to cinematographer Greig Fraser firing on all cylinders. His work on Dune: Part One was awe-inspiring, but the images he captures in Part Two are mind-bogglingly sublime. In an extended sequence on the planet Geidi Prime, Villeneuve and Fraser shoot exterior scenes with infrared cameras, resulting in gorgeously imposing monochromatic images. The vastness of Part Two’s visual aesthetic surpasses anything I imagined while reading the book, completely exceeding any of my expectations. There were so many moments and scenes that I could not wait to see, and I was not disappointed.

On the topic of expectations, there are several changes from the book that were big surprises, but they worked perfectly in the context of a film split into two parts. While I did want to see everything within the novel, I recognize that it just is not possible to do in fragments. Villeneuve splits Dune in half with surgical precision, giving us the fundamentals of the novel while potentially saving other pieces for a third film, Dune: Messiah, the second book in the Dune series. Villeneuve elaborates and expands on Herbert’s original intentions by making Paul a much darker character than he was in the novel. Villeneuve’s Paul is deeply flawed, extremely unsure of himself, and quite scary at times.

Watching Paul’s rise to power was as terrifying as it was epic, culminating in a finale that perfectly realizes the severity of Paul’s character arc. When Herbert wrote Dune in 1965, some readers recognized the novel as a hero’s journey, when Herbert intended it to be seen as a cautionary tale. Make no mistake, Dune: Part Two is that cautionary tale. Herbert’s subversion of the hero’s journey was incredible to read, but Villeneuve makes that subversion much darker and more clearly defined than the book.

Furthermore, Chani (played by Zendaya) is so much better than her novel counterpart that it actually hurts. She is given so much agency and identity that it feels like a completely different character, operating as her own person rather than Paul’s love interest/yes-man. She is so much stronger and more opinionated in this iteration, with many beliefs that contest the messianic prophecies about Paul. This results in such an interesting tug-of-war in not only Paul and Chani but the entire Fremen race as a whole. It’s a thought-provoking microcosm of the dangers of belief, and the microcosm grows as the word is spread. Chani exists as our anchor in this film, clearly seeing through all of the conspiracies and lies that have been sewn into the Fremen’s religion. As Paul’s character goes down a darker and scarier path, Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts expertly shift the emotional core from Paul to Chani, with an extremely drastic (and welcome) change from the book that I did not see coming. This might be the best performance from Zendaya, and she is absolutely a standout from a cast that consists of standouts.

Speaking of standouts, I refuse to gloss over the chameleonic transformation of Austin Butler into the menace that is Feyd Rautha Harkonnen. Being so soon after his Oscar-nominated turn as the king of rock in Elvis, I purposefully avoided marketing material of Butler so that I could hear his new voice in Part Two, and it was such a surprise it genuinely made me appreciate him more as an actor. On top of a grotesque physical transformation and a psychotic demeanor, Butler sounds so much like Stellan Skarsgard (who plays Baron Harkonnen, Feyd Rautha’s uncle) that it’s a shock that Butler isn’t one of the Skarsgard brothers. Butler is so clearly having fun with this role but resists the pitfalls of such a kitschy performance; he’s hamming it up without overdoing it. He chews up the scenery so well that I could watch an extra three hours of this character. I was looking forward to seeing this iteration of Feyd Rautha, and I was not disappointed.

If I could endlessly blather about the laundry list of memorable performances, lines, shots, moments, and ideas, I would be writing for days about how blown away by Dune: Part Two I am. Not in my life would I have thought that Dune: Part Two would be even better than the book, but here we are. My expectations were through the roof, and they were exceeded tenfold. Very rarely are we, as an audience, subject to a great series of films. Plenty of mega blockbuster series have graced theater screens in my lifetime, but I would argue that not since The Lord of the Rings trilogy have we had a film saga of the magnitude and quality that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has accomplished, and it is my hope that future installments continue to live up to this reputation.

Now we have Dune, and it’s here to stay. A new benchmark for contemporary sci-fi/blockbuster filmmaking, Dune: Part Two will go down in history as one of the greatest movie sequels of all time.

Movie Review: "Dune: Part Two"; A Remarkably Epic Adaptation For The Ages