Fantastic cinematography, impressive storytelling, and a noteworthy cast truly makes Dune part 2 the sequel of all sequels. Following the major success of Dune part 1, Dune part 2 debuted 2 and a half years later on March 1st 2024, and was definitely worth the wait. Although the movie was almost three hours long it didn’t have a dull moment and kept me entertained the entire time which is an impressive feat in itself. While I came in with doubts that the movie would be able to live up to both the book and the first movie, Dune part 2 surpassed my expectations and was in my opinion better than part 1.
The movie features Timothee Chalamet as main character Paul Atreides, a teenage boy who has been thrust a tremendous amount of power at the brink of a political war, Zendaya as Chani, Paul’s love interest and feisty warrier, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, an intelligent scholar and daughter to the emperor of the universe, and my personal favorite performance, Austin Butler as Feyd Raulfa a cruel and self serving villain set against Paul. While sometimes having too many really famous people in a cast can take people out of the movie for a majority of Dune I did not have this problem. The one exception to this was with Timothee Chalamet and Zendeya in my opinion they lacked the romantic chemistry needed to make it believable Paul and Chani were truly in love. Individually I think they both did great portrayals of their given characters but some of their scenes together felt forced and awkward. Notably this could also just be because the film did not do a great job showing the development of their relationship so the jump from strangers to love interests felt very sudden. Other than that pitfall I think the casting was very well thought out.
Although the cast is undoubtedly stacked this is far from the movie’s only selling point. As someone who has read the books, director Denis Villeneuve was able to make a very complex story come to life on screen in a way both casual viewers and book fans can both enjoy. Villeneuve was not only able to display the book’s important plot points in very action packed and visually exciting scenes but he was also able to make the audience feel some of the major undertones of the book without having to say them outright. So far the Dune movies have been some of the best book to film adaptations I have ever watched.
Where this movie truly stands out from other science fiction films is its cinematography. Although the movie takes place on Arrakis, a desert planet covered entirely in sand, the scenery doesn’t get boring despite being physically the same throughout the entire movie. From shots where you can see single grains of sand to shots where you can see miles of desert it is made clear the landscape is unforgiving to everyone living there but at the same time still very beautiful showing the bittersweet relationship the native people of Arrakis have for their home. Other than the physical scenery the fighting scenes also stood out. They were choreographed and shot in a way that was very entertaining and exciting to watch making them another one of the movies selling points.
Dune part 2 is a movie that hit the mark for me just about everywhere. It is not often a sequel movie adaptation is able to keep all the major plot points, remain entertaining to watch, and not lose sight of the purpose the story serves in the first place but for me Dune part 2 was a rare success. Even ignoring the adaptation aspect to the movie Dune part 2 is a truly incredible, wildly entertaining, and overall enjoyable film to watch. If the final movie Dune part 3 brings to the table what part 1 and part 2 did the Dune series will no doubt go down in history as one of the best created and executed science fiction franchises ever.
