Hey, how you DUNE (Part II)?

Denis Villeneuve’s sequel is 2024’s first great film.

When I wrote about Dune: Part I back in 2021, what impressed me most was how Denis Villeneuve took a novel that many felt was unfilmable and managed to make it coherent and accessible without dulling its weirder aspects. As someone who hasn’t read Frank Herbert’s Dune novels or seen David Lynch’s movie, and who was intimidated by Villeneuve’s movie because of those warnings from its fans, I was relieved to have a film that was still relatively simple to follow, even if I couldn’t tell you the differences between the Harkonnens and House Atreides. 

Dune: Part II impressed me even more, holding my interest and captivating me even as it plunged deeper into the weirdness and psychedelia of Herbert’s world. It advances on its predecessor to incorporate more mystic visions, more sandworms, more fragile allegiances and what I believe is a psychic fetus, and yet I never felt confused or held at arm’s lengths from the story’s emotional core. This is a big, bold and deeply strange movie, and under Villeneuve’s craftsmanship, it’s the first great movie of 2024 and one of the best blockbusters of the last 10 years. 

Picking up right where the first film left off, Dune: Part II finds Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), taking up with the tribe of Fremen, the natives of the sand planet Arrakis. Paul and Jessica are the last of House Atreides, left for dead after an uprising by the Harkonnens. They’ve been accepted because Paul has killed one of the Fremen in a standoff, and he now hopes to join the tribe – and possibly get a bit closer to his literal dream girl, Chani (Zendaya). But a Fremen elder (Javier Bardem) believes Paul is a messiah sent to lead the Fremen to victory. Paul downplays it, and his troubling visions seem to suggest that any messianic actions would lead to mass tragedy, but it doesn’t help that Jessica assumes the role of Reverend Mother for the tribe, and has her own ambitions for getting her son in a leadership position. Complicating matters are a religious sect of space witches known as the Bene Gesserit, which counts Jessica among its numbers and has its own hopes for manipulating the galaxy’s alliances – much to the concern of the Emperor (Christopher Walken).

That’s a lot for a paragraph – and it’s, admittedly, a lot for a movie. It’s easy to see why Villeneuve felt it necessary to break this epic up into two films, allowing the first to ease us into a world of strange religious prophecies, psychedelic spice, sandworms and political factions, and then use the second to run wild with those ideas. While I’m sure I screwed up some of the world-building details in the preceding paragraphs – and I’m still not sure of the role of the psychic baby or magic water – Villeneuve manages to tell the film with the focus and confidence that ensures I never felt lost; the big beats are easy to follow, even if the details might be fuzzy to the uninitiated. 

I’ll admit that when Dune: Part I ended, I was a little concerned about where the sequel would head, as it seemed to be building to the typical hero’s journey, in which Paul would claim his place as the chosen one and be the (white) savior to lead the Fremen to their victory. But the film is more thoughtful than that, diving into the dangers posed by so-called messiahs and the tradeoffs for leading with the head instead of compassion and heart. Paul resists any ascent to power because his visions have warned him of the cost; but what’s the cost of not rising up to take a place or leadership? Is it better to sacrifice and suffer now than to prevail and give way to unending bloodshed? It’s a complex topic for a multimillion-dollar tentpole, one that feels subversive in an age of one-dimensional superheroes and white saviors. 

This all unfolds inside a world like nothing I’ve seen before on screen. Villeneuve’s Arrakis is tactile and immersive, benefitting from the decision to shoot not on soundstages but in actual desert locations. The wind whips and the sand whirls, the sun beating down creating a harsh, lethal environment. Even more of this film takes place outdoors than the first, and I can’t imagine how brutal it was to shoot in these elements. Villeneuve also doubles down on creating futuristic equipment, transportation and weaponry that looks practical and used; I was particularly intrigued by the tools that the Fremen use to drain the moisture from dead bodies as well as the giant machines that the Harkonnen use to harvest spice. 

While some dinged the first film for being a little plodding – a criticism I disagree with – there should be no such complaints about Dune: Part II. Villeneuve ups the action, but it never feels gratuitous or empty. The Fremen attacks on the Harkonnen harvesters are fast-paced and exciting, the large-scale battles with giant, dragonfly-inspired helicopters are big and exciting. A scene where Paul commandeers a sandstorm is thrillingly visceral. There’s an entire sequence dealing with a Harkonnen warrior (Austin Butler) taking part in a gladiator match that is filmed in black and white, and it’s a brutal and scary bit of business. Villeneuve ladles on the visuals; he dips his toes into mysticism and surreal imagery in the sequences where Jessica talks to her unborn daughter or when Paul has his apocalyptic visions of the future. It’s all backed up by a concussive sound design; the film rattles and overwhelms, particularly in IMAX.

Villeneuve has, perhaps rightfully (and perhaps by me), been criticized in the past for detachedness, and there was certainly a bit of that in Dune: Part I. But the sequel benefits immensely from centering the story on Paul’s integration with the Fremen, giving it a warmth and camaraderie that helps enliven the human story. Bardem brings not only warmth but much-needed gentle humor, and I particularly liked the reappearance of Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck, who reminds Paul of where he came from but also might be misguided in his guidance toward the conflicted young messiah. 

The cast elevates material that could be a bit too austere or strange for general audiences. In addition to Brolin and Bardem, Dave Bautista returns as a Harkonnen soldier who’s a bundle of blundering rage, and Stellan Skarsgard relishes being gross and conniving as the evil Baron Harkonnen, who seems to aspire to Jabba the Hutt-ness. Ferguson is strong at taking Jessica in new directions here, manifesting a ferocity and possibly insidiousness that makes even her son wary. Butler is terrifying as the film’s big new threat, quietly menacing until the scenes where he needs to become a physical danger. Walken and Florence Pugh, as the emperor’s daughter, have a bit less to do in the stacked cast, but they convey power and importance by shorthand. 

I might knock the film down a peg because the central romance between Paul and Chani never quite resonates. Maybe it’s just a thread I’ve seen too many times before or maybe the two actors just can’t quite compete with their more accomplished peers. But the puppy-love that develops between the two never feels particularly rich or convincing. I also don’t know that Chalamet has the gravitas to take Paul where he needs to go in the movie’s final stretch, although that might be by design; his naïve confidence may be his undoing. Zendaya is largely left to be a fawning love interest, although there’s a strength to her in the back 15 minutes that she plays out in largely quiet glowers that really works. 

It’s a lot. And while Dune: Part II closes off the story to make it feel much more complete than its predecessor, it still ends on a note that suggests we’re just seeing the beginning of tales for this world. I’m down for it. As long as Villeneuve and this cast want to keep returning to Arrakis, I’ll show up. These movies are like nothing else being made by Hollywood.