Dune: Part Two – The Way of Dune

*cut to shot of the sun above the desert.*

At times, watching the continuation of Dune feels like you are experiencing foreign ideology, and that you are witnessing cinematic history being made. You can almost feel the winds that move over the sandy planet breeze across your skin or want to reach out to feel the sandworms move beneath your feet. Where Part Two struggles would be in balancing these awesome moments with a compelling story that keeps you engaged the whole time.

“Part Two” is definitely an appropriate title, beginning moments after the first one ends. Paul Arteties and his mother are trying to hide in the wastelessness of the planet Arrakis while being hunted by the Harkonnens, who annihilated the House of Arteties at the end of the last one overnight. Scattered throughout the almost 3-hour runtime, there are seeds of what could be the start of the next great Sifi epic, akin to Blade Runner or Star Wars. When the story works, it works really well and is fantastic at further creating a new universe.

One of the highest praises to give would be the way it presents different cultures. You can understand how each House is unique from the others. It takes time to develop these new ways of life, where you truly feel like you are watching true events far, far, away. Well, maybe not quite that far away. The political nature of the story feels very similar to The Phantom Menace but with more depth. You can see how each faction relates to another in the ways they entertain themselves and even trade.

Every technical aspect of the film is years beyond most blockbusters. The special effects are incredible, with the highlight definitely being the sandworms. The sequence in which Paul learns to ride a sandworm is simply amazing. An element that lifts the whole film up would be the score by Hans Zimmer. Yes everyone, he still knows how to make excellent music. In some ways, this feels like Avatar: The Way of Water in the Desert, in that regard.

Easily, the most shocking element of the film is finding out Zendaya can actually act. I had no idea. She gives an emotional and raw performance as Chani, and is a great contrast to Timothée Chalamet as Paul, as she finds her place as a member of her tribe and learns to accept Paul as an outsider. Another interesting element of their dynamic would be how Paul begins to see he can use the very religious sides of the tribes native to Arrakis by projecting himself as their messiah, while she thinks the prophecy is nothing more than a myth.

None of the characters introduced in this film are given time to fully develop. The way they “develop” is by having a character say, “Ooooh that guy’s scaryyyyy” and then it cuts to a scene in which said character is acting scary. We only learn about these new characters through forced exposition, they rarely have moments to do anything other than read lines from the script. The most notable example of this would be Austin Bulter as Feyd. He’s talked about as this bruting force of nature, an almost unstoppable machine. In reality, we get one scene in which we see him fighting people, and he’s just not intimidating whatsoever.

Though the film is directed with impeccable touch and style, the action is truly, truly awful. More than once Part Two cuts away from action scenes because it’s clear director Denis Villeneuve, can’t direct a good action film to save his life. These moments feel boring and stale. A hand-on-hand combat sequence near the end in which you feel some tension would be the closest thing to an exception.

The runtime of the film is wasted. The movie is two hours and forty-six minutes long, it doesn’t need to be this long. It spends a lot of time on things that don’t matter with lame and uninteresting payoffs. It definitely has more of an ending than Dune (that film ended by literally cutting to black in the middle of a scene) yet, It’s still a cliffhanger, and this time, it’s not super investing where the story will most likely lead. The final action scene was truly a waste of time, there’s so much setup for what should be an epic fight, it feels unearned.

Dune: Part Two is a really solid attempt at remaking The Empire Strikes Back. Around 65% of the film is super engaging, fun, and emotional, while the other 45% is the rest of the movie you wish was cut out. Overall, it has more substance than its predecessor and improves many aspects that movie struggled with. The new parts of this next chapter on Arrakis, unfortunately (frowning face emoji) mean more problems. These problems hide what potentially, could have been a true masterpiece in the science fiction genre, and keep them buried in the sand.