Dune Part II (2024)

Since we are apparently still several years away from the next Star Wars or Star Trek movie on the big screen, director Denis Villeneuve has given us the next best thing....or maybe something even better? :) 

This long-awaited sequel to the Oscar nominated sci-fi blockbuster Part 1 picks up EXACTLY where the previous film left off.....Paul (Timothee Chalomet) and Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) now venturing on the desert planet of Arrakis (otherwise known as Dune) with the Fremen tribe lead by Javier Bardem's Stilgar while also becoming getting more acquainted with Chani played by Zendaya.  And of course a burgeoning war begins to escalate with the Harkonnens who have violently taken over the desert planet lead by the Baron played by Stellan Skarsgard.  Also including in this stacked cast are Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin, Christopher Walken, Dave Bautista, and Austin Butler.  LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS!

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

Transcript

DUNE PART II – 2024

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Lea Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Souhella Yacoub, and Christopher Walken

Genre: Sci Fi Epic  (Audio clip)

Sorry to further weaken the discourse by picking the lowest hanging fruit AND pretty much all of these franchises are conversation with each other but....leaving the theater watching this, feeling fully energized, my first thoughts did go to Star Wars. 🤭 

THIS is the Sci Fri franchise sequel that 'The Last Jedi was proclaimed to be.

Yup Denis Villeneuve has directed a massive science fiction EPIC with all of the necessary trimmings: spectacle, humor, intrigue, romance tension, applause moments, and.....a willingness to challenge his audience by presenting flawed characters who cannot be easily boxed into simple tropes. He pulls off what I have been told again and again over what Rian Johnson was both unfairly vilified AND praised for....you know "subverting expectations." :) Such a cliche at this point I realize but WOW....I had issues with TLJ and I didn't hate it but talk about a movie which bends over backwards to reassure its core audience in the last half hour that "everything will be OK." 

With Dune Part II, Villeneuve takes this story in tricky directions in a more organic manner and also shows the courage of his convictions all the way to the very last shot....it's glorious, thoughtful mass entertainment and sadly I'm sure it will still gross a fraction of what TLJ did. :( This movie is heady, it's dense, it's 100% sincere, and it positively FILLS that 165 minute runtime so well that I was indeed wanting even more when the credits started to roll....

Chalomet continues to impress me more and more, and this is coming from some one who was NOT dazzled by his performance in Part 1. (To be fair, that was actually before I finally saw him in Call Me By Your Name....then I started to buy the hype) He pulls off the action well, he pulls off the emotion well, and his Paul Atreides/Muad'Dib/"Desert Mouse" protagonist goes through a convincing and satisfying arc in this second chapter. Do I think he's the MOST convincing yeller? 🤔 (Which his character does a few times unexpectedly for effect here) Not completely....it's possibly the weakest part of his performance but that's a minor criticism AND it kinda gibes with the character's background. 

Zendaya is equally impressive as Chani, the Fremen Fighter with the most skepticism while also forging a touching romance with Paul....make no mistake too, SHE is the co-lead here and very much becomes the heart of the movie. Undoubtedly yes LIKE T-Chal, she has been overexposed but I have yet to see the actress deliver a less-than-convinving performance even when working with the likes of Sam Levinson. 🙄 She also handles the action well along with the borderline-thankless lectures her character has to give....like Diane Venora in Heat, it's still both compelling and necessary for a story like this. 

The rest of the cast also does well with the standouts being Rebecca Ferguson reprising her role as Lady Jessica (Paul's mother who becomes the High Priestess for this Fremen tribe here) from Part 1 and newcomer to the franchise, Austin Butler playing the homicidal Feyd-Rautha Harkonen. Butler's cracked performance is certainly helped by fantastic make-up and the startling color grade used to introduce his character but yup he fills out the metallic diaper left over by Sting (from the '84 Dune) more than adequately...even without an actual metallic diaper this time. His is a very menacing presence during the second half of the movie and a strong villainous counterpart to Paul. 

Ferguson ALSO brings more menace than I would have expected....well at least for some one who hasn't read Herbert's original novel. Her character is also saddled with a bizarre running trait throughout which could easily come as silly in the wrong hands but she pulls it off. In many ways, Jessica becomes the most complex character here and I found her story very compelling even though it did feel a BIT repetitive at points through no fault of her own. 

For the most part, Villeneuve (with co-writer Jon Spaihts) has crafted an engaging, well-structured screenplay. There are a couple points where new characters are inserted and/or reintroduced in a slightly clunky manner but much more often than not, everyone is would together tightly

The bottom line is that this is just one hell of a ride as the action sequences really work with tech credits just excellent across the board from Greg Frasier returning as DP to Hans Zimmer composing yet another immersive score. 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Speaking of The ‘Zimm (as I can be prone to refer to him), he once again delivers arousing epic score, utilizing several exotic sounds often coming from newly crafted instruments.  It’s all punctuated with female vocals chanting out a unique new language created for just this universe – what results is a just an expansive wall of sound which enhances what we’re seeing on the screen but rarely distracts from it.  And this time around, I noticed at least a few distinct themes shine through….for me, the most notable one and even one I was humming after leaving the theater COULD be referred to simplistically as “Paul and Chani’s Love Theme” but it actually represents more than that….and it features some GORGEOUS horns driving it. (Audio clip) 

We hear this over some key sequences throughout the first half as we not only watch Paul and Chani bond but how he also learns the ways of the Fremen…some of this potion of the movie even drifts into somewhat of a training montage which I’m always a sucker for.  We then also hear the them reprised towards the end but in a much more wistful manner…..at its peak, it’s quite rousing.  This track is called “A Time of Quiet Between the Storms.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Like I said, it's a DENSE story as we also meet Christopher Walken playing the Emperor and Florence Pugh portraying his daughter, Princess Irulan - they're both strong additions to the cast even though I would have liked a BIT more from them....especially Walken. We learn off the bat that his character has sort of been pulling the strings from the get-go which is also referenced in Part 1.  And for me, that that calls into question as to why we couldn't just see his character in the first movie as it might have laid a bit more groundwork this time around....it just kind of shortchanges his character a bit for context.  I still liked what I saw and if I’m being honest, narration from Pugh’s Irulan actually does a better job of laying down that context….both are good, I just would preferred a more organic way to utilize these characters by having them there from the get-go. (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Even with no shortage of impressive set pieces throughout, I STILL found myself dazzled the most by one which happened to be heavily spoiled in both one of the trailers and the extended IMAX preview.....seeing it on the big screen in the first hour of the movie just completely sucked me in. :) I'm of course referring to the sequence when Paul rides a sandworm for the first time - just a masterclass of scale and tension, this apparent rite of passage for the natives of Arrakis is just beautifully executed on every level including sound design, editing, and of course seamless visual effects. Like the rest of this movie, it just grips you and leaves a mark. (Audio clip)

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Over the past decade, Denis Villeneuve has burnished a reputation as one of our most distinct auteurs delivering medium and/or big budget Hollywood films with depth.  I haven’t loved ALL of his films but every one of them has had ambition, urgency, and at least a couple of sequences which you can never forget.  I liked but didn’t love his previous Dune film but MAINLY for the reason that it felt a bit incomplete at the end….even though that was kind of the intention with it being a Part One.  Beyond that, the main protagonist of Paul Atreides is set up as a very tropey “chosen one” archetype….he’s given sine depth of course but not being a book-reader, we KIND of think we can see where this character’s story is going…..

And this movie KINDA goes there from an overall structural standpoint but the with which Paul, Chani, and how others AROUND them allows not only feels more authentic but allows for more complexity….it explores the very idea of a “Messiah” and how treacherous that can be but never in a ham-fisted manner.  Whatever ideas are being explored, they are explored organically through characters and their actions….and I have found this to also be the case with what I consider to be Villeneuve’s best films including Sicario and Arrival.  Add to that the fact this film just LOOKS beautiful and never really flags with regards to pacing, you just have the full package here….a thoughtful, entertaining blockbuster.  For directing what is definitely among THE best franchise blockbusters I have seen in years, Denis Villeneuve is the MVP.        

Final Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5 

Oh and one more thing….if you haven’t yet seen Dune Part 1, I would HIGHLY recommend seeing it before you see this.  I actually rewatched it during the day in the lead-up to seeing Part II…seeing them back-to-back actually elevated both films a bit.

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And that ends another SUBVERTED review!