Dune: Part Two
The much-anticipated sequel is just as spectacular and visually gobsmacking (and ponderous) as Denis Villeneuve's 2021 box-office behemoth.
War of the Worms
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” For all its socio-political allegories, Frank Herbert’s distant domain of prophecy, basso profondo vocals, unimaginable spacecraft and giant worms is a world away from ours. Science-fiction occupies a raft of sub-genres, from the hallucinogenic to the Saturday morning intergalactic shoot-out, but for it to exert any emotional traction, it needs to reflect our own reality. Even the most philosophical examples – such as 2001: A Space Odyssey – are imbued with a recognisable horror, an admonition of things to come.
One of the most provocative and intelligent forays into sci-fi this century arrived with Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016), and few directors alive could excavate the complexity of Frank Herbert’s literary trilogy with such poetic grandeur. Not only is the French-Canadian filmmaker a sublime visualist, but he understands the resonance of the human face, and so Dune: Part Two slips from desert spectacle to the agony of a tortured glance with almost elegiac power. While navigating the multitudinous strands of the novel, Villeneuve has armed himself with a host of terrific actors, in particular Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, mother of the Chosen One, and Javier Bardem doing his Anthony Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia bit. For the sequel, Villeneuve has recruited four more stars – Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux and Austin Butler, the latter as you’ve never seen him before, his scalp and eyebrows shaved to resemble the eerie, hairless look of his uncle, the abominable Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård). Along with this is the wondrous location work, sensational CGI, imaginative costume design and Greig Fraser’s astonishing cinematography.
All this amounts to cinema of the highest order, pictorially and technically, so if Dune: Part Two fails, the fault lies with the material. Villeneuve certainly provides it with the space it needs, but the film wears its profundity with great weight, screaming This Is A Masterpiece from the highest sandbank. As with many space sagas of this ilk, there is a confusion of characters and plot lines and the solemnity of it all begs for a nudge of levity. One can but gasp at the epic scope of its canvas, but it is emotionally inert, devoid of genuine human excitement. And with so many dazzling set pieces, it is perhaps telling, at least for this critic, that the most memorable moment arrives when our hero Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) tries to explain to his heart’s desire, Chani (Zendaya), what it is like to swim in water.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Souheila Yacoub, Anya Taylor-Joy, Roger Yuan, Babs Olusanmokun, Alison Halstead.
Dir Denis Villeneuve, Pro Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Denis Villeneuve, Tanya Lapointe and Patrick McCormick, Screenplay Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, Ph Greig Fraser, Pro Des Patrice Vermette, Ed Joe Walker, Music Hans Zimmer, Costumes Jacqueline West, Sound Richard King and Dave Whitehead, Dialect coach Fabien Enjalric.
Legendary Pictures-Warner Bros.
166 mins. USA/Canada. 2024. UK and US Rel: 1 March 2024. Cert. 12A.
