A continuation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic, Paul Atreides must learn the ways of the revolutionary anarchists on Arrakis in an effort to reclaim his family’s power…

Dune: Part Two is what cinema is about, an unparalleled theatrical experience combining high fantasy/science fiction with emotional gravitas, explorative visuals, and groundbreaking effects. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune duology is event cinema coalescing every art form to blend into an adaptation of one of the best science fiction novels of all time.

Where Dune: Part One was the promise, the setup that showcased Villeneuve’s reverence for the project and his artistic merit in achieving his vision for it, Dune: Part Two is the payoff giving the audience every ounce of spectacle and character stakes that they could have possibly conceived of. As of fan of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece, I hesitate to embrace every change in this mostly faithful adaptation.

My bias toward Gurney’s character demotion here (removing my favorite scene in the entire book in the process) or the omission of Thufir Hawat is enough to make me bristle, but Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts delicately earn the good faith of nerds like me scene by carefully curated scene.

Paul’s rise to Fremen idol is not only gradually and subtly engineered as in the novel, but now it is fully pronounced in a scene so captivating it feels as though the ghost of Frank Herbert himself crafted it. It is a crime against humanity that Han Zimmer’s masterful score has been marked ineligible for contention at the Oscars considering his theme notes that carry over from Dune: Part One are only a fraction of the propulsive, otherworldly musical composition that elevates every scene in this film (the Harkonnen arena piece should be enough to preemptively win an Academy Award for the next 3 years let alone this year).

Cinematographer Greg Fraser continues to be an absolute madman at the height of his craft framing each of the technically flawless visual effects with such mastery, but taking special care to keep the intimate scenes just as thrilling (and once again, the Harkonnen arena scene…there are simply no words to string together that can properly praise filmmakers like this for inventing a visual aesthetic so unique, alien, and visceral).

Editor Joe Walker will surely be a name called on Oscar night, stringing this epic together with such delicate mastery that compliments all of the other pieces at play. Perhaps my only controversial take removed from my adoration of Dune is to say there are some performances that I am not as captivated by as the proverbial streets of Twitter seem to be (I find certain actors forcing elements of the narrative without taking better care of the character work that gets them from scene to scene), but I should take very special care to say that Austin Butler is magnificent.

Feyd Rautha is given the added bonus of being the most interesting character in Villeneuve’s adaptation, but Butler’s work here is transformative in crafting a villain so fixated on violence and physical dominance that he runs the risk of politically overhauling the course of the pre-destined narrative. 

Dune at its very best is a political science fiction thriller. The script takes care to lay bare the manoeuvrable pieces for the uninitiated and certainly crafts a more digestible narrative than Herbert’s vision is credited with.

That being said, some things can come across as jarring by proxy (i.e. don’t be alarmed when you discover they have nukes just…siting there). But the pieces are all there. And if you find yourself sitting next to a Dune fanatic in sharing this experience, don’t be afraid to ask them for clarification because—speaking from experience—it will be the best part of their day.

Movies should be a conversation between all art forms, and the better they work in tandem with each other, the better the final product of the film. If that is the thesis, Dune: Part Two should be the definition’s example. 9.3/10