Dune: Part 2 - Review

I don’t usually do one-off blog posts, but rather than wait a month for another monthly review I thought, what the hell; I’ll do a review now whilst the movie remains fresh in my mind.

I was in Belfast for the weekend to meet a friend, and as we’d both loved the first instalment, we booked an afternoon trip to see ‘Dune - Part 2’. There was no way I was leaving this to the small screen.

I suffer from tinnitus, so I usually like a talky movie, something with no loud bangs. ‘The Holdovers’ was a recent fave but I’ve mostly avoided the cinema in recent months. But I had a set of earplugs to help with the noise and I was really looking forward to this viewing (I love matinees. You get the rest of the evening for food and drinks and to discuss the movie. They’re also mostly sparsely attended, so less annoying behaviour.)

Lean

The first thing I have to say is that this movie is incredibly lean. It’s pure story and each scene or piece of dialogue moves the narrative forwards. And at such a long running time, you’d think there’d be a bit of flab. Not a bit of it - tight as a drum.

There’s little-to-no exposition, at best a couple of diary entries that you’d hardly notice, to give a bit of context. It’s very much blast on and show the story unfolding. I was waiting for a quiet bit so I could nip to the loo - it never came (the quiet bit, that is). It’s long but it needs to be to give the story the necessary breathing space.

The landscapes are truly stunning, the drifting sand and dunes giving it a really distinctive feel. It has an inhospitable beauty, mesmerising vistas that are familiar at times and then incredibly strange. The light and shadow combine beautifully. I still have images from the film imprinted in my mind.

Worms

The worms. I said to my friend before we arrived that I wanted more worm. For me, some of the most breathless scenes were those featuring the colossal creatures. I loved how they were hinted at in the first movie - here we get them in all their glory. There’s one scene that I’ve read took three months to film. You’ll know it when you see it.

This is a visual feast, with some wonderful set pieces, a superb score by Hans Zimmer, great sound effects (even with the earplugs) and everyone acting out of their skin. Austin butler has a gleeful malevolence that I loved, definitely seemed to love playing the role. Javier Bardem is the wise head that keeps things from spilling over early on and gives the story context. Though at one stage he says to Paul Atreides (Chalamet) that ‘…he must be the messiah; see how he denies it, as has been prophesied.’ I wanted to shout out ‘he’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy’.

Saying that there’s not much naughtiness in the movie, though he does get together as expected with the always magnetic kick ass Zandaya, who also does vulnerability so well. Those two share a a couple of super set pieces, guerrilla style. Rebecca Fergusons pregnant character takes on a degree of menace, as she does her bit to have her son anointed. Walken does a good Walken, an old emperor manipulating loyalties, trying to ensure his family line is extended.

I don’t like endless fight scenes, so I appreciated how some of the characters are dispatched quickly and with relish. Extended scenes have a balletic quality that don’t over stay their welcome. The villains are proper villains and yeah, there’s plenty of violence in this film. Hey - there’s a lot at stake.

Geopolitics

This time there’s a religious fervour to the war, a ‘win-at -all-costs, lead the people to the promised land’ quality. Again, as with the precious commodity of spice, it’s easy to draw parallels with the current conflicts on our own planet. The power struggles, with the lust for power and righteousness, are familiar to us.

A minor quibble is that I was expecting to see more of some of the actors, such as Florence Pugh, but I think she will come to the fore in the third part. And like I said previously, Christopher Walken is being Christopher Walken. But perhaps we’ll see more of them in the next part, because just as ‘Dune 1’ set us up for part 2, this film does the same, whilst being a mighty film in its own right.

I have to say for all the action and narrative drive, the savagery and fights, there’s also an emotional underbelly to it, no doubt helped by the visual beauty of the desert and Zimmers score. And there’s no doubting that Zandaya is the heart of the movie (she just keeps getting better I think). I was always involved with the characters, something that doesn't always happen with science fiction epics. It was also straightforward in terms of the story - there are subplots, characters coming and going, but I never felt confused.

Summary

‘Dune part 2’ was a glorious feast for the senses, with a satisfying story that delivered on all fronts. Mighty interplanetary squabbles as nature intended for the big screen, Villeneuve has delivered an epic film that I found wonderfully exhilarating. It shows that you can have a complex sci-fi film with wonderful special effects that doesn’t obscure the story. A masterclass in film making, this is a wonderful cinematic experience that I was completely immersed in.