Shortly after the War of Arrakis led to the extermination of House Atreides at the hands of the Harkonnens, Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) expects spice production to resume with the planet being turned back over to its former masters.  The Fremen, though, will not allow that to happen and with their army led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem), they disrupt the harvest at every opportunity. Back at Sietch Tabr, the home of the Fremen in the North, Stilgar is convinced that Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) – who fled the capital during the war with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and was intercepted by Stilgar’s war party – is the Lisan al Gaib, a messianic figure, but not all are convinced. It is not until the more fervent believers in the South hear of Paul’s mastery over the desert that those in the North begin to believe as well in the coming of Lisan al Gaib who will lead them to paradise. Chani (Zendaya), despite her budding romance with Paul, remains unconvinced of the prophecy and her own place in the legends of old. 

Denis Villeneuve brings about Dune: Part 2, the second part in a seemingly cursed franchise with Part 1 bowing in the heat of Covid 19, and this second installment is one of the more notable delays of the industry strikes of 2023.  Continuing his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel for Warner Brothers and Legendary, he retains much of the creative team from Part 1 including co-writer Jon Spaihts, Greig Fraser behind the lens, Joe Walker in the editing suite, production designer Patrice Vermette, and Hans Zimmer extending his score with new music. He also expands the already star-studded cast making Dune: Part 2 one the most anticipated films of the year, but not without some major hurdles to cross.  Commanding the PLF screens for what will be most of the spring thaw, it will have little trouble making up any box office receipts that would have been lost given its 166-minute runtime.  On the narrative side, however, it was marketed as a conclusion but during the press tour it was teased that there is no less than one more Dune film on the horizon so it puts the incredible weight of expectation immediately on its shoulders as a potential middle piece of a trilogy à la The Godfather II (1972), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Dark Knight (2008), some of the oft-cited best films of all time. 

The film can be seen narratively as three distinct parts: desert power, prophecy, and palace intrigue.  Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, the first hour or so is focused on Paul’s harnessing of desert power; sand walking, water conservation, adopting the Fremen tongue, and eventually riding sandworms.  This first hour is a real challenge for the film as it follows some of the broader arc of a chosen one narrative. The arid wilderness, while beautifully shot, offers little in the way of visual excitement, and much of what Paul is accomplishing is just a more elaborate display of skills he already showed us in Part 1.  It is here where the film is at its most basic, and it makes sense as in the larger arc of the saga it opens in the middle of an Act II lull, but it is a cumbersome opening for the film on its own because is not really teaching us anything new about this world.  While there is little going on narratively and the physical structures are largely missing from these scenes as they traverse the empty desert, there is a tangibility to it that makes Dune stand out from the glossy, digital sheen that plagues modern blockbusters and helps to immerse us in the hostile world of Arrakis. 

Thankfully, when the party arrives at Sietch Tabr, we begin to really dive into the complicated lore of Herbert’s novel.  The Reverend Mother (Giusi Merli) is dying, and Lady Jessica, already trained in the ways of the Bene Gesserit is named her successor after drinking The Water of Life and learning all the secrets of the past.  It is here where Dune becomes really interesting as it begins to divide the Fremen into factions based on their belief in Paul.  From Part 1, Lady Jessica and Paul’s relationship was always an interesting one.  After the preamble, the film opens with the two of them at breakfast where she continues to train her son in his mastery of “the voice,” to a brief scene late in the film when he takes command of their survival in the desert.  With a single glance over her shoulder at her boy – now a man – Ferguson subtlety sets the stage for her character’s arc here in Part 2 as someone who may be able to have influence over a new rise of power while pushing a narrative of her own as a Theotokos which itself is a threat to the Bene Gesserit order.  She is an absolute force in the film, filling out Jacqueline West’s stunning costumes, but even without the colorful robes and distinctive look, she draws all eyes to her effortlessly in every scene.  Further, her arc is invigorating as she begins to manipulate the prophecy and bend the Fremen to her own will.  Pregnant with a daughter, her ultimate allegiance is a little unclear as she seems to be paving the way for her, but she is also very demanding of Paul and reacts negatively when he does not follow her will.  His rise to power is clearly a key part of her master plan, and watching Ferguson flex her role as a mother over her son, and Chalamet, in turn, is walking the tightrope of dutiful son and leader of the Fremen makes the exploration of the prophecy the most interesting thread in an already robust story because it is causing friction in one of the most sound relationship dynamics from the start of the film. 

After Lady Jessica travels to the South to begin sowing the seeds of her son’s fulfillment of the people’s prophecy, the film takes a sudden, jarring shift to Giedi Prime, the seat of House Harkonnen.  Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) is furious with his almost impossibly incompetent nephew, Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista), who has been unable to squash the Fremen squads that have been destroying the spice harvesters.  Being such a major threat in the first film, the total neutering of Beast in the sequel seems strange, but it opens the way for the real antagonist of Paul’s, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler).  The camera is all too happy to capture Butler’s bleached white skin with long, thick brush strokes of oil painted on him by his concubines.  The design of his character matches the interiors of Giedi Prime which had been seen before – a sleek, black, oily palace – but now we also get to see the exteriors, specifically a coliseum where Feyd-Rautha will get to kill some drugged Atreides slaves as part of his birthday celebration.  He makes good on the talk of his sadism and skill with a knife, but in a story this sprawling and a film this long, he is a little neglected on the page.  The performance is spot on, and Butler really flaunts for the camera with some deranged mannerisms to convey just how ruthless this character is, but his threat really just lies in the overall Harkonnen name and there is little that he does to rise above that.  He remains interesting though, because up in the stands of the coliseum, across from the parapet where Vladimir sits, is Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux), another of the Bene Gesserit, and she is scheming.  This shift is intriguing, and it is setting Feyd-Rautha up quite nicely for his inevitable duel with Paul as a similarly powerful entity who comes from a respected house with the backing of the devout, while on the real-world marketing side of things, the film is able to boast two of the hottest stars going head-to-head on screen together. 

With such a large cast it can be hard to balance – Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, daughter of the Emperor has only minutes of screen time and Anya Taylor-Joy as Alia Atreides is tucked away into only a cameo appearance – and while both women are being set up for major roles in the following films, Dune: Part 2 seems to be making up for lost time by prominently cutting to Zendaya who only appeared for mere minutes after receiving top billing in Part 1, but it still has so little for her to do. Both a foil and a comfort to Paul, she never gets to flex her influence over the story as she gets pushed to the sidelines as a lover scorned instead of a true challenge to the prophecy. It is a real testament to Zendaya, though, as with a few looks and even fewer lines, she forms a fully tragic arc for Chani and audiences can feel her frustration against the prophecy, the politics, and Paul as things begin to get more and more out of hand.   

As for Paul, he is one of the few young heroes in the chosen one genre that has an indecisiveness that so many claim to have, but the difference here is we truly believe it.  In some of his introductory scenes back in Part 1 he tells his father that he does not want to ascend to the seat of House Atreides, and his actions in that film are all in service towards the protection of his mother.  His actions in this film eventually betray our impression of him, especially in Act I as he is training under Stilgar and Chani, and while he claims not to want to travel South to embrace the prophecy, he is actively pursuing the other aspects of what has been foretold about an outsider who will adapt to the ways of the desert.  Paul still needs to be spurred into action ahead of the third act, and despite the larger stakes, he is, unfortunately, a far less interesting character for much of this film. What that means, though, is when the narrative shifts at around the hour mark and spends a good forty minutes with Lady Jessica in the South and then the Harkonens, we do not find ourselves missing our hero as he trains upwards because we are finally getting wrapped up in a pretty incredible and engaging plot. It is not until he has fully embraced his role as Lisan al Gaib that he gets that spark back. The performance is envigorated with a new energy, and while it would have been nice to see a little more development so that we can see more clearly as Paul’s own doubts begin to turn into belief in himself, Chalamet is still commanding in this wager to secure his status as a bonafide leading man and not just an indie sweetheart.

Part 2 tells its own complete story and arc while still paving the way for a continuation which Warner Brothers will certainly want to pursue after their messy divorce with Christopher Nolan. Villeneuve is still at the top and looking down in regards to science fiction and blockbuster filmmaking, especially given the stalled state of the Star Wars franchise and Netflix‘s multi-million misfire, Rebel Moon. Sure, Villeneuve is working from a novel that has inspired countless epics since its original publication – including Star Wars, which is visually referenced a few times across this sequel – but he takes the dense and esoteric tome and makes it so clear for his cast that they are not intimidated by the eons of preceding lore. That comfort with the material then translates to our enjoyment of the film because the cast is clearly engaged and having fun in their roles as they breathe new life into this massive and influential story.

With at least one more film that has been all but announced, the success of Dune does cause a flicker of dread as Villeneuve, one of the proponents of original ideas in blockbuster filmmaking, risks being locked down into a franchise that, as a series of novels has a lot more story to tell, but as a film and with Dune: Part 2’s own first act as proof, there may be little more to show.  As a film that is just as much about the story as it is the spectacle, it can not risk the spectacle becoming normal because when that happens, the films become no better than a facsimile of themselves and what they once were.  This specific arc though does seem to promise growth as it is biblical in both scope and theme. While the world has been left largely unknown to audiences of the film, and Chalamet’s charm as he rises to power is still exciting and raw, the series is on the precipice of a Skywalker Problem of its own – and Atreides Problem – in that everything comes back to this one boy who does not want power but will ultimately succumb.  With a Holy War getting ready to be waged, there is a promise of an expansion and a transfer of power; politically, and therefore, narratively.  It is a problem for a later installment to figure out how to handle, but Dune: Part 2, while a fascinating and fast-paced conclusion to Part 1, has certain undeniable cracks in the storytelling that set a troubling precedent for the future of the series, though that should not deter audiences from enjoying all of its incredible merits as well.