Dune: Part Two 2024 ( Moviex lap )

‘Dune: Part Two’ Review:

In the 'Dune' sequel starring Timothée Chalamet, director Denis Villeneuve continues his modern masterpiece with smart changes to the book.

Additional Info

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Drama

Release Date: March 1, 2024

Languages: English, Spanish

Captions: English, Spanish

DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve

WRITERS: Frank Herbert , Jon Spaihts , Denis Villeneuve

CAST: imothee Chalamet , Stellan Skarsgård , Florence Pugh , Zendaya , Rebecca Ferguson , Javier Bardem

RUNTIME :166 minutes

REVIEW

After three years of waiting (atop a mountain of sand, a thumper desperately calling into the void), audiences are finally witnessing the monstrous Dune: Part Two come riding into theaters. The movie, which covers the second half of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi epic, has been in the works since Dune: Part One's overwhelming success in 2021. Since a wary Warner Bros. had only opted to greenlight Part Two if Part One made money, however, Part Two, with its expansive scope, took time get off the ground. Part Two (like its predecessor during the pandemic) was further delayed by the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, meaning that only now are we returning to the sandy, dehydrated surface of Arrakis. The trip, however, was well worth the wait. 

Part Two of Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece picks up shortly after the events of the first film with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), hiding in exile among the native, desert-dwelling Fremen after their noble house was usurped by the ruthless (and eyebrowless) Harkonnens. As with the novel, Paul spends the first half of Part Two bebopping through the desert as he learns to become a Freman, a ruler and a man. He is of course aided in this mission by true believer Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and colleague/fwb Chani (Zendaya upgraded from her brief five minutes of screen time in Part One.) While Paul is learning how to ride giant sand worms and raid Harkonnenian spice mines, Jessica is riling up religious fervor, snagging the role of Reverend Mother (aka Pope meets witch doctor with a chicer wardrobe and face tattoos) and using her Bene Gesserit skills to convince the malleable Fremen that Paul is actually a messiah called "Maud'Dib." (Yes, this is high science-fiction so there are a lot of made up words.)

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy, the evil (Nazi-coded) Harkonnen leader Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgård in a floating fat suit) is ordering his pair of nephews to get the ecological rape of Arrakis back on track and squelch the Fremen uprising. The brutish Glossu Rabban (a pale Dave Bautista) doesn't seem quite up to the task, and so the blood-thirsty (and "psychotic") Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler doing the MOST) is sent to clean things up. 

In a third interstellar plotline, the doddering Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken in need of a quick trim at the barber) attempts to play a masterful game of chess with the noble houses of the universe, not realizing that he's being manipulated by Bene Gesserit Gaius Helen Mohiam (veiled Charlotte Rampling). His daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh dressed as Joan of Arc), however, is thankfully the brighter than him.

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