Dune: Part Two is a film directed by Denis Villeneuve based on the novel by Frank Herbert. It stars Timothée Chalamet and features performances by Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem.
Denis Villeneuve is back, dazzling us with this desert spectacle about a war between civilizations, where the visual elements again become the main lure.
Dune: Part Two is a three-part story narrated across several worlds and characters, leading young Atreides to accept the prophecy that transforms him into a messiah as a war rages in every corner of the known universe.
These films, with such eye-catching visual elements that they almost overshadow everything else, tend to sideline the story, over-burdens the characters, and stories often become secondary because what matters is what you see.
In Dune: Part Two, there is a lot to see, but also a lot to understand in this well-achieved adaptation of Herbert’s novels, which they said were entirely unadaptable due to their complexity in terms of plot and characters.
Just like with the “Lord of the Rings,” the outcome is so superior both visually and in narrative elaboration that both Peter Jackson and Denis Villeneuve have silenced many critics.
Dune is a must-see, no question.
Plot of Dune: Part Two
Paul Atreides embarks on a spiritual journey on the planet Arrakis as the Holy War threatens to destroy all known civilization and the future seems devastating.
About the Movie
Denis Villeneuve takes this second part of Dune with the calm and rigor the story deserves, allowing time for its plots to unfold and taking the necessary patience for such a complex story to reach its climax in the final sequences.
It’s a film of grand visual effects, where every shot takes weeks of work on production, CGI, and performance levels. Everything is perfect, everything goes as planned, and it’s one of those stories that couldn’t be better shot, paid attention to the detail, carefully handled, and meticulously edited.
Will it captivate the viewer? The most challenging part of Herbert’s novels was not getting lost amid so many characters, so many stories intertwined with each other. No, it was impossible to narrate everything, and what is told is just perfect and narrated perfectly.
A cold film? This has been blamed on Villeneuve, as they did with “Blade Runner” or in his many incursions into sci-fi. It’s a film with its own name too, that of its director and screenwriter. If you like his style, you’ll love it, and it’s much less cold than some of his other films.
Well performed as far as these types of films allow. Villeneuve lets actors act and lets Zendaya show us what a great actress she is. We have other great supporting actors, like Javier Bardem and Christopher Walken, all shining.
Dune: Part Two stands out, of course, in its production department, in one of those adaptations that are so monumental that, we predict, it will make future adaptations (if any) of Herbert’s work very difficult.
Our opinion
It’s the literary adaptation that will mark this decade, and we can do nothing less than almost pay homage to it on all levels. It is a work honoring cinema in all its facets and consuming it as the major art that combines narrative, visual style, and musical rhythm.
Dune: Part Two has it all.
