Dune 2 is the sequel to Dune, picking up with Paul Atreides having joined the Fremen in a war for Arrakis against the Harkonnen and other forces. With most of the phenomenal cast returning and incredible performances from the newcomers Austin Butler and Florence Pugh, Denis Villenueva has crafted one of the best sequels ever made.
I want to focus on acting first because Timothee Chalamet is legitimately perfect as Paul. In preparation for the sequel, I rewatched Dune and his arc is incredibly engaging. It’s the prodigal son who has a destiny he’s afraid of but has to rise to be the champion of an outcasted race, yet he is kept original and engaging. He has to bring justice to those who killed his father and tried to end his bloodline. In Chalamet’s performance here, he builds off it and becomes much more developed.
He has visions of his future and sees a bloody Holy War that will take place if he seizes power. He runs from it but he knows that he can’t keep running, and he can make the most change if he faces his destiny head-on.
He wasn’t a shy character by any means in the first movie, but Paul exudes strength and power as he gains the Fremen’s trust as the prophet. He is always humble, respecting the Fremen’s leaders like Stilgar (Javier Bardem) while leading them victorious multiple times in battle. The second half of the movie just showcases how powerful he is.
When he spoke, the entire audience was entranced by him. When he gave his speech about being the prophet, not a single person even sniffled. When he delivered empowering speeches before the big battle, I had goosebumps on top of my goosebumps. In my mind, this is the best performance he’s given.
Now I have not read any of the Dune books yet, so I don’t know where Paul’s story goes or ends. Yet, I can’t help but think we see a heel turn. The entire time after he embraced his fate, I had a gut feeling that he would live out his nightmares. With Rebecca Ferguson’s entrancing and unsettling performance as his mom and the Fremen’s new Reverend Mother pulling the strings, it felt like he was fated to indulge in the power he was resisting to embrace.Â
Dune 2 not only establishes the relationship between Paul and Chani but also creates a massive divide between them and I am beyond fascinated to see how it plays out in the finale.
There is no better companion to go with Paul than Zendaya’s Chani. As a Fremen, she understands the prophecy but remains adamantly skeptical. She fears that it will lead them back to being enslaved and while she cares for Paul, she never fully trusts him. This is proven as he promised he just wanted to fight alongside them but he ends up speaking to them as their new leader.
 Zendaya is also perfect here. Her chemistry with Chalamet is what sets them above. She balances her love of her people with her respect for Paul very well. She also brings a ton of power and strength to her performance as she is a badass with her swords and with any weapon she gets to use in their fights.Â
She does a fantastic job showing her emotions through her eyes. While everyone else bends the knee to Paul, she can show her distrust without saying a single word. Even when she talks to her friend or to Gurney, her eyes still tell the truth of her disappointment growing.
Everyone else really was great in their own way but I just want to spotlight Austin Butler for his role as Feyd-Rautha, Vlad Harkonnen’s younger nephew. He is meant to be a foil to Paul, he also has a destiny that interests the Bene Gesserit, yet he is chaotic. When his hand is put in the pain box, he’s said to have loved it. He murders for his pleasure and brings a new level of viciousness to the Harkonnen’s rule on Arrakis.Â
Of no fault of his own, I couldn’t get his Elvis voice out of my head so every line he said just sounded so odd.Â
That aside, he was truly great. His physicality in his fights stood out to me. A lot of the action in the movie is long shots of hand-to-hand combat with knives so he and Timothee deserve a lot of credit for the fight choreography and training they put in for these scenes.
Speaking of action, this is the movie that made me feel everything I felt when I first day Top Gun: Maverick. Every set piece was gorgeous, and the cinematography was excellent. The battle scenes are so incredibly well done. We’ve come a long way from fight scenes that are so heavily cut, that you never know who’s fighting who or where they are. The battles here are great because everyone has their unique style.Â
The Fremens are excellent stealthy fighters, popping out of the sand to catch soldiers off guard. They are also skilled at hand-to-hand combat as they can mow through waves and waves of soldiers. I believe in the first movie, Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho says that fighting a Fremen was the closest he’s ever come to dying.Â
On the other hand, Raban Harkonnen (Dave Bautista) and Feyd-Rautha have similar attack styles with different degrees of involvement. Raban comes off as more emotional and less confident, so he stays back while his soldiers are picked off and run to escape when things get bad. Rautha on the other hand just blows up the Fremen’s base and is eager to kill every last survivor he sees there.
I said it earlier but the emotions when watching this movie were incredible. Even scenes that were used in the trailers like the worm riding scene, the big final battle, and the fight between Feyd-Rautha and Paul were so impactful to the story it didn’t matter if they had been seen already. This is a movie that I know I’ll find myself thinking about nonstop.
On more of a technical look, the sound design here is, once again, perfect. While the big battles and emotional scenes were scored exactly like I felt, the movie also knew when to let the movie speak for itself. One scene at the end does this perfectly and I was so entranced by it.
Along the same lines, the movie wastes no screen time. Something I’ve subconsciously started taking note of is when movies add fluff that means nothing to the overarching story or adds anything to any character. Villenueva’s script is airtight and there’s not a single scene or shot I can recall where I thought maybe this doesn’t need to be here.
The story of Dune has always been complex, as the lore runs incredibly deep, but the gist of it is easier to catch on the second installment. I think at times the movie had too many things going on and too many moving parts, but they all get resolved meaningfully in a way that ties back to the larger story at hand. It’s a really bad comparison but it’s very much like Game of Thrones in the sense that it’s a political game of who owns what and ends up in the throne. The main story ends in a way that is extremely satisfying while also setting up an epic ending to this story.
The only negative thing I can say is there are way too many scenes that go from a dark cave or room immediately to the brightest day ever recorded. There’s nothing thematically wrong with it but I felt blinded so many times. Greig Fraser is back as the cinematographer, and he builds off his immaculate work from the original.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I think the best thing that could’ve happened for Dune 2 was for it to be pushed back to 2024. While this movie is incredible, I’m so happy it gets to have all the spotlight on it instead of having people debate it against the Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon of last year. Not that it can’t stack up, but 2024 needs its champion of the cinema and that title firmly rests in Villenueva’s hands. Dune 2 is easily the best movie of the year so far (and will probably end like that as well) and it is a movie you need to see on a big screen, more than once.
