166 min | PG-13 | March 1, 2024 | Warner Bros. Pictures
Denis Villeneuve finishes what he started. The second half of Frank Herbert’s novel is the dangerous half. Villeneuve handles it with intelligence and spectacle in equal measure.
The first Dune was a prologue. This is the story. Paul Atreides has survived the destruction of his house and lives among the Fremen of Arrakis. He learns their ways. He falls in love with Chani. He becomes the prophesied messiah that the Bene Gesserit seeded generations ago. And he uses that manufactured religion to wage a holy war. Herbert’s novel is about the danger of charismatic leaders. Villeneuve understands this and does not flinch from it. Paul’s arc is not heroic. It is terrifying.
Timothée Chalamet plays Paul with a coldness that deepens as his power grows. The wide-eyed boy from the first film hardens into something calculating and frightening. Zendaya plays Chani with fierce independence and growing horror as she watches the man she loves become the thing she fears. The film gives Chani more agency than the novel did. It is a smart choice. Austin Butler plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen with psychotic menace. He is terrifying. Javier Bardem plays Stilgar with the fervent belief of a true believer and the film uses his devotion as both comedy and warning. Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux join the expanded cast with precision.
Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser create images that belong in a museum. The sandworm riding sequences are breathtaking. The black-and-white Giedi Prime sequences are a visual masterstroke. The scale is enormous and every frame justifies it. Hans Zimmer’s score is overwhelming in the way the desert is overwhelming. The sound design makes you feel the sand in your teeth. This is cinema at its most technically ambitious.
The film earns its nearly three-hour runtime. The political machinations are clear. The personal stakes are felt. The ending is not triumphant. It is an apocalypse wearing the mask of liberation. Villeneuve has made a blockbuster about why you should not trust blockbuster narratives. That contradiction is the point and it makes the film unforgettable.