Title: Dune: Part Two, The Wrath of Shadout Mapes
Describe This Movie In One Rambo III End Credit:
This Film is dedicated to the Gallant People of Afghanistan
Brief Plot Synopsis: In Soviet Arrakis, worm eats you!
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3.5 frozen Han Solos out of 5.
Tagline: “Long live the fighters.”
Better Tagline: “Revenge is a dish best served hot.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) attempt to join the Fremen after escaping the Harkonnen invasion of Arrakis. The Fremen are mostly suspicious, except for tribal chief Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and warrior Chani (Zendaya), though for different reasons. Stilgar believes Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib, or “Voice From the Outer World” — who will lead them to paradise. Standing in the way is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his heir apparent Feyd Rautha (Austin Butler), as well as the Bene Gesserit order to which Jessica belongs. Oh, and the Emperor (Christopher Walken) they prop up.
“Critical” Analysis: The 2024 movie season finally kicks into high gear with the release of the most hotly anticipated blockbuster of the year. The publicity around it has been almost unprecedented, and the dent it’s going to make on film, genre or otherwise, is going to be significant until well after the end credits roll.
Unfortunately, Madame Web is already in theaters, so I guess I’ll have to talk about Dune: Part Two instead.
Picking up right where the first Dune (Duno?) left off, Part Two is less a sequel than a direct continuation of the adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel. This one goes hard on the prophecies/Bene Gesserit propaganda surrounding Paul, who undergoes transformations both literal and metaphorical along the way. It’s also, in many ways, more about Paul’s immediate circle than the Man Who Would Be Kwisatz Haderach himself.
Those prophecies, incidentally, are responsible for one of the best unintentional(?) Monty Python’s Life of Brian references of all time (“Only the true [Mahdi] denies his divinity”).
Here, as with all of his films, director Denis Villeneuve cements his stature as one of the most visually arresting directors working today. D2 is set on a desert world where nary a drop of rain ever falls, and yet Villeneuve makes it as beautiful as you’d expect from a guy who can CGI in a few extra suns when he feels like it.
The integration of human beings with the digital is as seamless as it gets, especially in the era of middling Marvel efforts. Little tweaks like rendering Geidi Prime in black and white for Feyd’s gladiator contest and (wisely) adopting a less is more approach to the sandworms helps keep the story and performances front of mind. Until it’s time to raise some Shai-Hellud, that is. Heh.
Part Two is also quite a showcase for Ferguson — whose Lady Jessica is a much more compelling and problematic character than previously seen — and Bardem, whose Stilgar treads an unsteady line between prophet and comic relief.
And it’s as deadly serious as David Lynch’s 1984 version was campy and over the top. One thing that can’t be escaped: how goofy the Harkonnens are. The ’80s versions were scenery chawing space chuds, while Villeneuve’s are just as cartoonishly evil, only pale and hairless. Unlike Sting in the early version, Butler is more feral and threatening, while Dave Bautista’s Rabban is vicious, but no less an oaf than his open-mouth chewing Reagan Era counterpart.
That seriousness occasionally threatens to undermine the visual feast Villeneuve serves up. Political parallels are much more starkly drawn this time around, and Paul’s story is significantly more complicated, especially when your would-be followers/brothers-in-arms/subjects aren’t a monolithic bloc.
I miss the weirding modules, though. And I need a buddy comedy between Stilgar and Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck.
Dune: Part Two is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
