Our blockbuster drought is over, due to a superb sequel set on a sweltering desert planet.
movie review
DUNE: PART TWO
Running time: 166 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and transient strong language). In theaters March 1.
That’s “Dune: Part Two,” the fascinating and sophisticated followup to director Denis Villeneuve’s grand 2021 film a few young duke who may or is probably not an embattled world’s long-awaited messiah.
Paul Atreides’ true role for the people of Arrakis — a k a Dune — becomes clearer on this more propulsive second chapter. But, when the end credits roll, there isn’t a query that “Dune” is the savior Hollywood needs.
Villeneuve’s even better movie starts with a seamless transition from the last one. Paul (Timothée Chalamet), whose father was murdered, joins up with the Fremen, Arrakis natives who’ve been ruthlessly culled by House Harkonnen.
Their house is enormously priceless since it’s the only place in the universe to carry spice, a substance that powers spaceships, gives users unnaturally long life and — uh oh — is extremely addictive.
A few of the Fremen, like the funny Stilgar (Javier Bardem), consider that Paul is the prophesied hero who will cause them to victory against their tormentors. Others, ehhhh, aren’t so sure. It’s that tricky debate, each between the characters and in our own mind, that grippingly drives “Part Two.”
One other balancing addition is a touch of romance, in the type of Zendaya’s Chani, a talented Fremen fighter who falls for Paul. Reservedly, I should add. Heart-tugging orchestral music doesn’t swell as they make out and viewers don’t reach for the tissues here.
Speaking of completely happy tears, Villeneuve is careful — actually, rather more careful than the last director to tackle this story, David Lynch — to avoid “Dune” becoming a “Star Wars” or an “Avatar.” Although those in a different way excellent movies would surely not exist without Frank Herbert’s seminal novel “Dune,” this can be a way more complicated tale of geopolitics and religion. Good and evil aren’t so clear-cut.
It’s also a hell of so much weirder.
As an example, Paul’s terrifying mother Jessica (Rebecca Fergusson), who’s a part of an all-powerful group with supernatural abilities called the Bene Gesserit, becomes the Fremen’s spiritual leader after drinking a blue, poisonous liquid extracted from a dead baby sand worm. Adding to the madness, her unborn daughter Alia speaks to her in-utero.
Why not?
Those strange quirks, all stunningly visualized, make Arrakis into a very believable place that’s all the more price saving.
There are delectably odd details in all the characters.
That freaky floating fatso Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) is back, and is now joined by the even creepier Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). Feyd’s a violent Darth Maul type, who looks like a hairless gerbil got an Equinox membership. Butler surrenders Elvis’ charms to unquenchable bloodlust.
Christopher Walken also shows up intermittently as the Emperor. As famously distinctive an actor as he’s (a Super Bowl industrial just mocked that fact), Walken is a natural, regal addition to “Dune.”
But the series’ grounding force continues to be Chalamet. After singing and wisecracking as Willy Wonka, he’s back to his bread and butter: brooding and stoic contemplation.
It’s on this second chapter, nonetheless, that we realize how perfect the actor is for Paul. His European looks and indie angst that brought him fast fame in “Lady Bird” and “Call Me By Your Name” are key to bringing this uniquely troubled central figure to life.
Paul Atreides will not be, and mustn’t be, a puppydog Luke Skywalker.
And if Villeneuve follows through on making “Dune: Part Three,” as he’s said he hopes to, audiences will soon learn the perils of risking your life and planet on a latest hope.