Part Two Review – ‘Another epic helping of sci-fi wildness’

You sense that Denis Villeneuve has been having Spice-fuelled visions his complete life. The filmmaker has spoken a lot of how studying Frank Herbert’s Dune at an early age cracked his thoughts vast open. Bringing the sci-fi tome’s heady mixture of warring homes, psychedelic reveries, anti-colonialist themes and intergalactic motion to the display screen is, in a really possible way, his life’s work. And as soon as once more, in Dune: Half Two, it appears the pictures Herbert conjured in Villeneuve’s head all these years in the past are being ripped straight from synapse to display screen.

That Half Two arrives in any respect is one thing of a miracle. The filmmaker gambled on a two-part adaptation of the guide, regardless of a sequel not being assured — and the astonishing first half (by Villeneuve’s personal admission, a place-setter to be paid off in later instalments) arrived within the midst of Covid. Half Two, as promised, is the conflict epic: a weightier, extra muscular chapter with much less world-building to do, however knottier narrative beats to untangle.

It picks up shortly after Half One’s finish (a rewatch is suggested, although Florence Pugh’s incoming Princess Irulan capabilities largely as a recap-voiceover), with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his pregnant mom Girl Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) being accepted into the Fremen, the native folks of bone-dry Arrakis. Paul, having escaped the bloodbath of Home Atreides by the brutal Harkonnens — as machinated by Emperor Shaddam IV, a disappointingly well-behaved Christopher Walken — wishes revenge on all who wronged him. Many Fremen — together with chief Stilgar (Javier Bardem) — assume Paul may very well be the ‘Lisan al-Gaib’, a prophet of their faith; besides, these prophecies had been deliberately laid down by space-witch meddlers the Bene Gesserit (of which Paul’s mom Jessica is one), and Paul’s Spice-visions present him attainable futures the place leaning into his engineered messianic ‘future’ leads to infinite bloodshed. In the meantime, Paul falls for Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya, right here given actual screentime after her fleeting flip in Half One), their budding romance sophisticated by… nicely, all of the above components.

Briefly, there are many plates spinning — and for essentially the most half, Villeneuve shows outstanding management over all of them. Past that, he marshals staggering sequences to blow you to the again of your seat: a gap assault from gravity-defying Harkonnen warriors is hair-raising stuff; a ragtag rocket-launch mission with Paul and Chani taking down enemy ornithopters is breathlessly thrilling; Paul’s long-awaited first sandworm trip is an amazing feat of sound and imaginative and prescient, with thunderous bass that’ll flip any common cinema right into a seat-shaking 4DX expertise. And Austin Butler is the MVP of the newbies, his Harkonnen warrior-boy Feyd-Rautha (in each sense the Anti-Paul) a hairless embodiment of utter inhumanity. His stark area battle on a distant planet — rendered fully monochrome below a black solar that leeches all color, the sky exploding in Rorschach blotches — is a welcome reprieve from the largely Arrakis-set motion.

In case Half One didn’t make it clear sufficient, that is Center-earthian in ambition, Nolan-esque within the dramatic depth of its execution. If something, Half Two is sort of epic to a fault. It’s a gigantic movie, and for all of the character work Villeneuve beds in (Paul’s naming ceremony; essentially the most sand-based flirting in an area opera since, nicely, one other well-known Episode II), there’s some extent the place continuous immensity takes over. It reaches a terminal velocity of grandiosity, a crucial massiveness — and simply retains going. Regardless of the two-film break up, there’s appreciable floor to cowl, with mystical plot-points that even Villeneuve struggles to wrangle. The character throughlines are pressured to reckon with central figures who — by narrative necessity — turn out to be much less human because the movie progresses. Those that haven’t totally imbibed the Water Of Life would possibly really feel overcome by ‘epic fatigue’ come the credit.

Even then, the story isn’t over. Whereas Half Two reaches the conclusion of Herbert’s first guide, that is decidedly not the tip of Villeneuve’s adaptation. Ought to the mooted Half Three — overlaying sequel novel Dune Messiah — be greenlit, it gained’t be an non-compulsory coda, however a correct trilogy-closer. As such, that is firmly a center chapter, with main threads but to resolve.

It feels churlish to complain, given the unbelievable achievements on show right here — uninhibited ambition from Villeneuve, extra eye-melting cinematography from Greig Fraser, recent Hans Zimmer jams (a darkish inversion of Paul’s theme; a booming anthem for Feyd-Rautha), and a plot thread involving a psychic foetus. Oh, and sure, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) will get a quick Baliset banger (pattern lyric: “His stillsuit is filled with piss…”). You would possibly really feel considerably sandblasted by the tip — however total, it stays a outstanding show of desert energy.