Dune: Part Two Review

Words by Harry Moore

A totemic literary epic is granted a definitive cinematic telling as Denis Villeneuve further elevates himself as one of the premier artists of his medium. Picking up immediately after the final scenes of 2021’s “Dune,” the messianic story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) continues as he joins the native Fremen in their fight for the desert planet Arrakis against the dreaded Harkonnens and the galactic empire.

Many modern blockbusters feel the need to be self-referential and made without earnestness, as though they are embarrassed to be genre stories and have to roll their eyes at the prospect of taking anything that’s happening on screen with sincerity. In the pursuit of chasing the MCU’s belt, the wrong lessons from those films were learned by the other studios and permeated into a countless number of would-be blockbusters, such as the norm of undercutting any moments of genuine emotion by repeating iterations on the same tired, hacky jokes that fall into the “so that just happened” or “they’re right behind me, aren’t they?” template, as though every script in Hollywood was being doctored by Colin Jost. All this is to say that “Dune: Part Two” is a marvel itself for staking its own path in creating a modern movie spectacle and taking cues from the likes of “Lawrence of Arabia” rather than, I dunno, “Thor 4,” I guess. You can see the passion emanating from Villeneuve and his team of top-of-the-line craftsmen in every frame, as each and every technical aspect of this film is executed at the highest level and is almost certain to be rewarded with Oscar gold a year from now.

The death of the movie star is often cited as a symptom of the malaise of innovative, grand-scale filmmaking that has permeated the industry over the last decade plus. The ’90s were a boom time of fresh-faced starlets with the likes of Will Smith, Sandra Bullock, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio among many others, ascending to the A-list as household names of the silver screen. Those names would continue to carry the mantle of headlining marquees through the early years of the new century as the next generation of stars — give or take a Jennifer Lawrence or a Bradley Cooper — would struggle to meaningfully take center stage and the characters, not the actors, became the draw. Audiences will buy tickets in droves to see Captain America but not Chris Evans. However, Hollywood has always been cyclical, and it tentatively appears that rumors of the movie stars’ demise have been greatly exaggerated. With “Dune Part Two,” a young cohort of charismatic actors have cemented themselves as the stars of now and tomorrow. With what interestingly feels like a reflection of Paul Atreides, Chalamet has been pedestalled from a young age as the great hope for the modern-era movie star, and he gracefully rises to the occasion at the center of Villeneuve’s sweeping epic. It is hard to argue against his talent as a performer, as anyone who has seen “Call Me by Your Name” or “Little Women” will tell you, Chalamet can tap into a deep well of emotion that actors who are far beyond his years struggle to emote, but the question of whether he could parlay his technical prowess and porcelain doll looks into a movie star career of yore continued to persistent — until now. In last year’s “Wonka,” Chalamet headlined a crowd-pleasing musical that was an international box office hit and showed a level range of his abilities that were previously hidden, and with “Dune” he projects gravitas and a natural screen presence that announces him as the matinee idol of his era.

And he isn’t the only burgeoning young star to flourish to their full potential with this film. Having not seen “Euphoria,” I may not be the best person to comment on Zendaya’s body of work so far, but here she justifies much of the plaudits she’s earned so far in her career, giving a quietly confident performance in a complex role that could have easily fallen by the film’s wayside in less capable hands. Villeneuve seems greatly aware of the power Zendaya possesses on screen, as he chooses to use the final moments of his opus focusing solely on her face. Last year, Austin Butler catapulted himself from being a relatively unknown character actor to being an Oscar-nominated heartthrob after his turn as The King in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” But as the skin-crawlingly villainous Feyd-Rautha, Butler shows once again that he is much more than a pretty face and has a chameleonic ability to disappear into his roles. With his talent and old Hollywood looks, the sky really is the limit for where Butler can take his career. And then there’s the always effervescent Florence Pugh, who had a small but memorable role in the biggest film of last year (“Oppenheimer”) and has another small but memorable role in what will most likely be the biggest film of this year.

Like most middle chapters in a trilogy, “Dune: Part Two” will leave you wanting more, not because you will feel underserved by it, but because it will leave you anticipating the next turns the story takes and remind you of the transportive power of unfiltered visionary filmmaking. Hopefully, the right lessons will be learned for once.