Stunning second part of the film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, in which Paul Atreides learns about life in the desert and begins to struggle with the burden of his enormous task.
FAST FACTS:
• Eagerly awaited major cinema event from master director Denis Villeneuve
• Film adaptation of one of the most famous science fiction novels ever
• „Dune Part One“ had1.9 million ticket sales in Germany in 2021
• Fantastic cast with Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler and Rebecca Ferguson
• Impressive visual design; cinema as talk of the day
CREDITS:
O-Title: Dune Part Two; Country/Year: USA 2024; Running Time: 168 minutes; Director: Denis Villeneuve; Screenplay: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, Craig Mazin; Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Christopher Walken, Charlotte Rampling, Léa Seydoux
REVIEW:
This is just the beginning. Those are the last words to be heard in „Dune Part One“, spoken by the ethereally beautiful Fremen Chani, who had initially only been seen dimly in visions of Paul Atreides during the course of the film and finally moved to the center of the action in the last ten minutes. She now takes on an equal leading role next to Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. Back then, at the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, when said sentence first was heard, it was still an expression of hope. It was not a foregone conclusion that there would actually be a second part. The final first images of a ride on a sandworm, filmed from a distance, were an amuse geule, without knowing whether the main course could even be prepared. Look what we could offer you, if only we were allowed to!
Of course, the sentence could also be understood as a commitment, as a promise that the first 150 minutes were really just an exposition, simply an introduction to the world that Frank Herbert had first formulated in 1965 in his novel „Dune“ – one of the essential science fiction worlds that would soon enjoy a legendary reputation and which spawned five more novels (and a final part split into two books, written by Herbert’s son Brian after the writer’s death), was one unmistakable model for George Lucas‘ „Star Wars“, saw a film adaptation by Alejandro Jodorowsky that failed in pre-production and a controversial adaptation by David Lynch, and, among other things, inspired Iron Maiden to write the song „To Tame a Land“. „Against evil / The fire that spreads through the land / He has the power / To make it all end“.
At the end of „Part One“, Greig Fraser’s camera once again sweeps over the dunes and rocks that make up the planet Arrakis, trying to look as far as possible, as if it already wants to catch a glimpse of what could come, what will come. In the end, we had to wait another two and a half years for it, partly because Warner Bros. moved the film, which was primarily financed by Legendary, back from its original November release date due to the two Hollywood strikes to turn it into the first major cinema event of 2024. A short prologue opens „Dune Part Two“. For the first time, we catch a glimpse of the Emperor, , in the first part a merely implied threatening presence off-screen, now played by Christopher Walken, with his daughter, played by Florence Pugh. The plot then starts exactly where the characters were last seen, picking up the narrative thread, as was to be expected since Denis Villeneuve had filmed pretty much only the first half of the original novel in the first movie.
Which of course also means that the first film was the overture, a prime example of perfect and economical worldbuilding, the introduction of an ingenious universe and numerous characters of the most diverse origins, continuous exposition embedded in powerful and atmospheric visual worlds, overwhelming cinema to marvel at and think along with. Power over spice is power over all: Now it’s straight into the desert, into the strange world of the Fremen, where Paul Atreides and his pregnant mother are on their own and have to prove themselves. While Paul finds happiness in his private life with Chani and experiences moments of harmony, he also begins to struggle with the great expectations and demands he is confronted with. At the same time, Baron Harkonen, with his sadistic nephew Feyd-Rautha at the head of the armed forces, sets out to subjugate the desert planet and wipe out the Fremen.
After Paul’s first ride on one of the enormous sandworms sets a first spectacular visual exclamation mark early on, „Part Two“ escalates into an exhilarating war movie in which the future of Arrakis is at stake. The set pieces come at an impressive pace, one more exciting than the next. As palatable as it gets, the movie never loses its mind as a complex meditation on power and politics, control of the masses and the price to be paid for revenge and ambition. The leitmotif is always about death and birth, dying and rebirth, about change and metamorphosis, about tactics and manipulation, about the heavy burden on the shoulders of Paul Atreides, who at the beginning of the film is still characterized by idealism and hope, but also by grief for his murdered father, but becomes increasingly hard and pragmatic as the plot progresses, the loss of innocence in just under three hours. Timothée Chalamet’s performance is impressive and always convincing.
In its (many) best moments, „Dune Part Two“ is delirious filmmaking without a net or a false bottom, trippy, detached, indulgent, hypnotic, but also ascetic, as close to Hollywood blockbuster cinema as it is to the austere art cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky. Particularly memorable is a long sequence in black and white under the black sun of Giedi Prime, in which Feyd-Rautha makes his first gruesome appearance in a gladiatorial arena with his shaven skull, no eyebrows and black teeth. The same goes for the final showdown, which is played out on the biggest screen imaginable. Denis Villeneuve does not shy away from the big questions, the difficult themes, but above all he has created a cosmic film that strives for pure beauty, for the supernatural and the divine, even in its harrowing and violent moments. It’s contained in the images, in the compositions. But also personified by the cast, a collection of absurdly attractive actors.
This applies to the two stars, Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, as well as Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling, who were already in the first film, and the new additions Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy, androgynous, ethereal creatures who can be marveled at on screen in their apotheosis, cinema about another world as if from another world, three hours that literally whisk the viewer away and pamper them with a visual splendor and sublime mood that is humbling. And gives hope for a third part, the conclusion of the trilogy, the film adaptation of „Dune Messiah“, the Holy War, to which again the last uttered sentence of „Dune Part Two“ prepares us for.
Thomas Schultze