Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s massive science-fiction follow-up, is an impressive visual extravaganza that devotes a significant amount of its attention to the amazing sight of enormous worms racing over the desert at breakneck speeds. In pivotal scenes, these enormous, legless monsters become the center of attention, raising concerns about how they move.
Magnificent Dune Worms and Visual Display
The way they move raises heads as they speed across the terrain at the speed of bullet trains. Worms, which aren’t usually thought of as fast-moving animals, defy popular perceptions about them. Nevertheless, the movie exhorts audiences to welcome these surreal aspects, asking them to suspend disbelief and lose themselves in an art-house psychedelic experience that is uncommon for big studios.
It becomes clear at the one-hour mark that Dune: Part Two puts more emphasis on creative expression than on logical consistency. The plot deviates from traditional narrative conventions, but in doing so, it gives the spectator a chance to enjoy one of the strangest and most fantastical art-house experiences ever created by a big studio.
The story begins with Paul and his mother, played by Rebecca Ferguson, fleeing to the native tribespeople of Arrakis known as the Fremen. One of them, portrayed by Javier Bardem, is a strong leader who gives the movie much-needed earthiness. Zendaya plays the youthful warrior Chani, who has a way with serious facial expressions.
With a variety of subplots supporting Paul’s desert adventure as the main plot, Dune: Part Two features a distinctive narrative structure. Layers to the plot include eerie conversations about the blue “water of life,” which looks like toilet cleaner, mystic visions, dream sequences, and arguments regarding Paul’s messianic destiny in relation to Fremen predictions. Concurrently, on a different world, Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh play the space emperor and his daughter, respectively, with Léa Seydoux serving as their stylish sidekick. Austin Butler is introduced as a new Harkonnen adversary on yet another planet.
Stellar Cast with Butler’s Dune Spotlight
The movie features a stellar cast that includes well-known performers like Bardem, Zendaya, and Ferguson, but Butler’s portrayal of a vampiric sadist is the standout performance. His portrayal of the rock’n’roll seductiveness that is evocative of his position in Elvis makes him, in my opinion, a more interesting protagonist than Paul.
The movie fails to give unique, fully realized characters, even with the characters’ elaborate clothes and visual appeal. Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts give the characters 166 minutes of screen time, but they don’t provide them enough compelling dialogue or action.
The romance between Paul and Chani is said to be at the center of the movie. The underdeveloped nature of this narrative thread, however, makes viewers uninterested in the possibility of their future together. In addition, the ending of Dune: Part Two, which is based on Frank Herbert’s first Dune novel, leaves several story threads hanging and raises the possibility of a resolution in Dune: Part Three, the next episode.
