In DUNE: PART TWO, Paul Atreides struggles both to find his place among the Fremen fighters resisting the Harkonnen occupation of Dune and his own apparent destiny as both Dune’s messiah and the Kwisatz Haderach, a super-being. This is pure spectacle, beautiful world-building, and a model for how to adapt a complex classic novel.
The end result is Denis Villeneueve gave me a reason to go back to the movie theater.
DUNE has a complex story, but it’s not terribly difficult to follow. The galaxy is ruled by great houses that in turn serve the emperor. A strategically vital planet is Dune, where a spice is harvested that enables faster-than-light space travel. The Atreides family is given control, though it’s a trap set by the Harkonnen family that results in a wipe-out. Paul is a major target, as a mystical order has been manipulating bloodlines to produce a super-being that can access his ancestral memories and see the future, and his mother disobeyed orders by bearing Duke Atreides a son instead of a daughter, risking a dangerous aberration. After the massacre, only Paul is left along with his mother, now living among the Fremen natives who dream of a messiah to lead them to holy war and independence–a myth the mystical order themselves created and that Paul’s mother now manipulates to benefit her son.
The second movie begins with Paul trying to find his place among the Fremen, some of whom worship him while others don’t trust him as a foreigner. He doesn’t want to be the messiah, as he believes it will lead to mass death across the galaxy. But events keep pushing him to realize his inevitable destiny.
Pretty much everything worked for me with this movie, from the gorgeous aesthetics, scenery, and costumes to the strange cultures to the solid acting performances to the breathtaking action. The movie feels epic, something I haven’t seen in a movie in quite a while. It feels even bigger than the first movie. The only blemish might be the human drama element feels a bit trim and distant, though this didn’t really bother me. Overall, I consider DUNE: PART TWO a masterpiece and highly recommend it. Fingers crossed Villeneueve gets funded to make it a trilogy.
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