Dune: Part Two First Reviews: ‘A Towering Feat of Sci-Fi Cinema,’ Critics Say

It’s been an extended three years since Dune hit theaters and the await the sequel’s premiere is almost over. Critics who’ve seen Dune: Half Two are raving that it’s much more epic than the primary installment. The visible results are jaw-dropping, the world-building is enthralling, and the directing work by Denis Villeneuve units a brand new bar for cinematic storytelling. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya‘s chemistry leads the way in which on this second installment, with franchise newcomers Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken leaving an influence. Some audiences could also be swayed by the 166 minute operating time, whereas others will see this launch as a brand new customary in sci-fi leisure. You’ll uncover the place your opinion lies when the film hits theaters in all places on March 1.

Right here’s what critics are saying about Dune: Half Two.

How does it evaluate to the primary film?

(Photograph by Warner Bros. Footage)

A bonafide masterpiece that delivers on the promise of the primary film, whereas including a lot extra when it comes to layers and depth.
— Edward Douglas, Above the Line

In the event you just like the aesthetic of Dune up to now, and you want cinematic spectacle, the film ought to scratch that itch on a primary degree. However relating to totally delivering on the promise of the primary, effectively, as soon as once more we’re left hanging.
— Luke Y. Thompson, SuperHeroHype

A sci-fi epic for the ages: a sweeping tragedy of mythic proportions, a cautionary story of the perils of zealotry. It’s a towering feat of sci-fi cinema that can put Dune: Half Two in competition for the pantheon of biggest sequels ever.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

Dune: Half Two is greater than a mere sequel. It’s a continuation, fruits, and finally a implausible elevation of the whole lot you already beloved about director Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 movie Dune: Half One.
— Germain Lussier, io9.com

Dune: Half Two is as enormous an enchancment upon its predecessor as The Darkish Knight was to Batman Begins.
— Reuben Baron, Looper.com

How are the visible results and motion sequences?

(Photograph by Warner Bros. Footage)

Immersive, spectacular, and wildly exhilarating, it’s an adrenaline rush to the pinnacle and coronary heart, hovering in its breathtaking motion sequences as a lot because it sings in its refined, evocative stillness.
— Courtney Howard, Recent Fiction

A masterpiece of breath-taking landscapes, unbelievable particular results and awe-inspiring motion. Dune: Half Two is a fancy and gorgeously layered manufacturing that might effectively be Villeneuve’s finest work to this point.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys

Half Two picks up the place the primary instalment left off, actually and figuratively, delivering one other beautiful set of beautiful visuals and distinctive motion sequences.
— Tim Grierson, Display screen Worldwide

Denis Villeneuve’s movie, like its predecessor, gives an object lesson within the visible splendor made attainable by meticulously storyboarded minimalist maximalism.
— Jake Cole, Slant Journal

Villeneuve has learnt tips on how to out-Dune Dune. That is sharper, slicker, extra resonant than the primary installment.
— Nick Howells, London Night Normal

Dune: Half Two’s most rousing motion sequences are people who perceive Dune is at its most enjoyable when it embraces the epic in addition to the bizarre. Right here, that takes the form of an prolonged keep on the Harkonnens’ house planet of Giedi Prime, the place a darkish solar renders the whole lot in stark black and white, and the place structure bulges and bends in ways in which recall bugs and bodily organs alike.
— Belen Edwards, Mashable

How is the writing and directing?

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Dune: Half Two is Denis Villeneuve’s Empire Strikes Again & Lawrence of Arabia. It’s a sci-fi opera that’s grand in scale with a hypnotizing and emotionally devastating story.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

With this movie, Villeneuve extra totally realizes his overarching intent, and Dune turns into what it was meant to be just about all alongside — the Lawrence of Arabia of science fiction.
— Roger Moore, Film Nation

However the script, by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, is just too aimless for a big chunk of time. It wanders across the desert, sometimes selecting up indicators of life right here and there. It is a steadily awe-inspiring film that can also’t fairly inform a compelling narrative. A part of the issue, I believe, lies in the truth that like the primary movie, this isn’t a whole story — it’s solely a part of one.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

The story could by no means break freed from its extra dated tropes, however the Dune motion pictures characterize a outstanding assortment of expertise coming collectively to, if nothing else, remind us of the facility of epic storytelling on an enormous display screen.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

[Boasting] an bold and exhilarating story that matches its model, it’s the best factor Villeneuve has helmed and the 2024 movie to beat for outsized sci-fi showmanship.
— Nick Schager, The Day by day Beast

Like Christopher Nolan, the director is working on the biggest attainable scale, pushing the medium to accommodate his imaginative and prescient. Additionally like Nolan, he has composer Hans Zimmer’s assist in making the whole lot sound as beautiful because it appears.
— Peter Debruge, Selection

What in regards to the pacing?

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Channeling the austerity of Andrei Tarkovsky at occasions, the director takes practically 5 hours to cowl what David Lynch did in simply barely greater than two (although iconic in some respects, the now badly dated 1984 model barely scratched the floor of Herbert’s issues). If Half Two feels sluggish in locations, it’s as a result of Villeneuve takes time to develop the connection between characters, as in a handful of scenes devoted to Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) and Paul, aka Muad’Dib (or Usul), whose plain attraction doesn’t align with Jessica’s plans for her son.
— Peter Debruge, Selection

Those that haven’t totally imbibed the Water Of Life would possibly really feel overcome by “epic fatigue” come the credit.
— Ben Travis, Empire Journal

Once more: that is deep stuff, however Dune: Half Two solely flirts with it for many of its size. Consequently, the movie begins to develop repetitive.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

How are Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya?

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With Paul, we really feel the entrancing push-pull of his frequently unfolding arc. It’s electrifying – as is Chalamet’s charming efficiency, depicted in sequences the place Paul instructions consideration because the charismatic chief everybody has instructed him he might be, and in different scenes the place he honors his father’s legacy, as soon as a burden however now a blessing.
— Courtney Howard, Recent Fiction

Zendaya provides the efficiency of her profession right here, and is a transparent standout amongst a sea of spectacular turns.
— Mark Cassidy, ComicBookMovie.com

Whereas Chalamet dips deeper into Paul’s darker aspect, Zendaya layers Chani’s stoic warrior countenance with wounded betrayal. If there was ever any doubt that Paul shouldn’t be a hero, all it takes is one have a look at Zendaya’s troubled face in the course of the movie’s climax to understand we’re witnessing tragedy in movement.
— Belen Edwards, Mashable

Chalamet has at all times been an knowledgeable yearner (see: Name Me by Your Title and Little Ladies), however his chemistry with Zendaya manages to instantly promote a romance that’s primarily on fast-forward.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

What about the remainder of the solid?

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There’s the introduction of the Emperor (Christopher Walken) and his daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), in addition to the Baron’s sociopathic nephew Feyd (a superb Austin Butler). By means of these characters, Villeneuve builds our understanding of the political and private ties at work, and units up Paul’s absorbing vengeance narrative.
— Journalist, Hollywood Reporter

Nevertheless, the introduction of Austin Butler as Skarsgård’s son is when your tongue will dangle to the ground in gob-gibbering awe. That is really subsequent degree über-cinema.
— Nick Howells, London Night Normal

Austin Butler is seductively unhinged, taking part in the Baron’s nephew Feyd-Rautha, who’s introduced from Giedi Prime’s black and white world to unleash his brutality on Arrakis. His scenes with Léa Seydoux, who performs the Bene Gesserit’s Woman Margot Fenring, are deviously horny. They ignite the display screen, making us want these sequences have been longer. Although used sparingly, Florence Pugh, who performs Reverend Mom Mohiam’s (Charlotte Rampling) pupil Princess Irulan, turns in profession finest work.
— Courtney Howard, Recent Fiction

Neither Walken nor Pugh has a complete lot to do right here, but it surely’s a deal with to observe Walken work — he exhibits up, delivers his ominous strains with a whisper, and wipes the ground with anybody he’s appearing in opposition to. Present ’em the way it’s carried out, Christopher Walken.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

Any last ideas?

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Villeneuve’s immersive cinematic nirvana is a sci-fi masterpiece.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

Dune: Half Two leaves a promising franchise with extra questions than solutions as as to if that is the kind of blockbuster we wish made going ahead: rocky consideration to element with the sensation of being rushed matched with an exhausted runtime.
— Ryan McQuade, AwardsWatch

Dune: Half 2 is the proper filmmaking tapestry the place each fiber is meticulously woven to create the proper movie. It’s an epic masterful cinematic expertise.
— Rosa Parra, The Latino Slant

Villeneuve’s daring, brash presentation can typically really feel bereft of character, but it surely’s not brief on imaginative and prescient, which it has in spades.
— Clint Worthington, The Spool

2024’s first Finest Image contender.
— Kyle Pinion, Display screen Rex

Made for repeat viewings, its daring, daring, and epic scale should be skilled on the biggest display screen attainable.
— Courtney Howard, Recent Fiction

It’s a towering feat of sci-fi cinema that can put Dune: Half Two in competition for the pantheon of biggest sequels ever.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

Thumbnail picture by Warner Bros.
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