Dune: Part Two May Be Too Epic For Its Own Good

Warner Bros. Pictures

3.5/5 stars

Dune rests comfortably in the pantheon of great novels that have seen multiple attempts at adaptation to varying degrees of success, from David Lynch's flawed but ambitious epic (which gave us the truly wild image of Patrick Stewart charging into battle while holding a pug), to Alejandro Jodorowsky's unrealized fever dream. But it is Denis Villeneuve who has been most successful at bringing Frank Herbert's vision to the big screen through two epic and beautiful films. Now Dune: Part Two has brought the first book to its conclusion, and much like the first movie, it is a huge, gorgeous, and truly original blockbuster whose pure scope may be too much to handle.

After the fall of his house, young Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is living amongst the Fremen of Arakkis. As he learns their ways and falls in love with Chani (Zendaya), he also plans to organize the Fremen to fight his dreaded nemeses the Harkonnens. But this path may turn Paul into a messiah and drive the universe into holy war.

Villeneuve tries to tackle all the ideas in the novel and, even with the film's immense runtime, it becomes overwhelming. Herbert's main theme (a subversion of the "Chosen One" narrative) is front and center and it is very fascinating, but other subplots feel undercooked. That said, the film is a literal feast for the senses with some of the most awe-inspiring imagery ever put to film. I don't want to criticize it too harshly because it's rare to see big budget filmmaking this ambitious and imaginative, but these ambitions are still better presented on page. Now let's see if Villeneuve has it in him to get us an adaptation of Dune: Messiah.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve // Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts // based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert // Starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lea Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling, and Christopher Walken // 166 minutes // Warner Bros. Pictures // Rated 'PG-13'