The long-awaited sequel “Dune: Part Two” hit theaters March 1 and is already getting huge amounts of praise from critics and audiences alike, with many people considering it to be one of the best films of the past decade.
“‘Dune: Part Two’ is a breathtaking trip to another world, a fever dream from which we never want to wake,” wrote critic Candice McMillan via Seattle Refined.
But what makes “Dune: Part Two” so special in comparison to some other big releases of the past few years? In what ways does it shine the most?
For a long time, Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic “Dune” was considered to be “un-adaptable” on the big screen by many filmmakers due to its extremely demanding technical requirements at a time with little to no CGI. The novel was released in 1965 and quickly became one of the highest selling sci-fi novels of all time. Along with its commercial success, “Dune” went on to win the highly prestigious Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
It’s not shocking to hear that many studios were excited to get their hands on such a widespread novel in the hopes of creating an equally successful film adaptation.
The first attempt at an adaptation came in 1984 when David Lynch’s “Dune” officially hit theaters and was criticized heavily upon release.
“This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time,” wrote well-known critic Roger Ebert via Chicago Sun-Times.
Along with its negative critical response, “Dune” also bombed at the box office, grossing around $30 million throughout its run on a $40 million production budget. Keep in mind, films usually have to make around 2.5 times their production budget just to breakeven.
Needless to say, the failure of the 1984 adaptation of “Dune” meant that no production company was willing to risk taking on another interpretation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel on the big screen. This was true until 2021.
37 years after Lynch’s adaptation, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” hit theaters and Max. It’s extremely evident that Villeneuve had a strong passion for the story he was telling.
“I read it when I was 13 or 14 years old. The first ‘Dune’ book is tremendous,” explained Villeneuve via WIRED. “So, when people were saying, ‘Well, what would be your biggest dream?’ I would say, ‘Dune.’ I wanted to do it. It was a very fast project. It all fell into place.”
Villeneuve was able to simplify many of the messages Frank Herbert was trying to convey in 1965 without losing the overarching message of its story.
Described by Villeneuve as somewhat of a passion project, his interpretation of the novel was extremely well received by both critics and audiences. “Dune” went on to win six Academy Awards, the most of any film that year. “Dune: Part Two” got the green light shortly thereafter.
Three years later, “Part Two” currently has a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.6 out of 5 stars on the review platform Letterboxd, making it the sixth highest rated film of all time.
“Dune: Part Two” not only lives up to the high expectations set by its predecessor but exceeds them in every aspect. Villeneuve’s second installment of Frank Herbert’s novel is a masterclass in visual spectacle.
The film picks up right where the first part left off, seamlessly continuing the journey of Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet, as he integrates with the people of Arrakis, known as the Fremen. Paul attempts to navigate a complicated political landscape ignited by the eradication of his empire by a rival family, the Harkonnens. Using his new found title as “the messiah,” which was given to him by the Fremen, Paul attempts to regain power from the Harkonnens.
As far as performances go, Chalamet definitely delivers in the lead role. Chalamet is able to navigate around many of the “chosen one” tropes. Chalamet is given the most complex character narrative in the film with a lot of the story’s emotional stakes riding on him delivering a convincing portrayal of Paul, which he more than succeeded in doing.
Along with Chalamet, the film features the likes of Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Josh Bolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista and Javier Bardem.
Out of all the performances in this film, Butler is the one that stands out the most. Butler plays the character Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the psychotic nephew of Baron Harkonnen, head of the Harkonnen empire. Butler gave a chilling performance as Feyd-Rautha, providing the film with a much needed boost of energy in every appearance he had on screen.
Greg Fraiser returned as director of photography for “Part Two” and was better than ever, and that’s a big claim considering Fraiser won an Academy Award for “Dune.” “Dune: Part Two” features some of the most technically impressive camera shots we’ve ever seen brought to the medium. Every single shot feels grand-scale and world-consuming for the audience.
“Visually, this movie is incredibly stunning,” wrote critic Michael Cook via KLRT-TV.
The cinematography of “Dune: Part Two” never fails to feel fresh. From the intensity of its up close and personal point of view of Paul Atreides riding a thousand foot sandworm to the fully black and white world of the Harkonnen empire, the visuals are always engaging in a way that never detracts from the story being told.
The visual effects of “Dune: Part Two” are second to none. In a time where VFX are often seen as an afterthought, “We’ll fix it in post” has continued to haunt VFX artists for decades now. “Dune: Part Two” shows the power of filming a movie with VFX in mind.
“Denis (Villeneuve) wanted everything to be as grounded and as photoreal as possible,” explained VFX supervisor Paul Lambert via Curzon. “It meant coming up with techniques to make the best of the visual effects. It’s very easy to put an actor in a blue box and then figure everything out in post-production and that tends to happen.”
“Dune: Part Two” also features an original score from the legendary composer, Hans Zimmer, which really enriches every scene it’s featured in.
Lastly, the aspect in which “Dune: Part Two” shines the brightest is its world-building. Every set featured throughout the film feels authentic, like you could reach through the screen and really touch it. Every landscape, cave or mound of sand further enriches you in its story in a way not many films have done. That’s because much of the film was shot on location.
The cast and crew of “Dune: Part Two” spent a large amount of time deep in the Abu Dhabi desert to provide more realistic visuals for the film.
“We had a network of 18 miles of road leading us to different locations where we had tents, catering, construction cranes, telehandlers and everything,” explained producer Tanya Lapointe via Variety. “It was a huge endeavor, but it was spectacular.”
All in all, “Dune: Part Two” is a breathtaking, must-see experience for all audiences. It’s one of the most exciting, thrilling and head spinning science fiction films that has ever been released. It will no doubt go down in history as one of the most monumental films of its time.
Unfortunately, Frank Herbert passed away in 1986, therefore he was unable to see many of the adaptations of his work. Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert and long-time writer in the Dune franchise, did share his opinion on “Part Two.”
“It is gratifying to see my father’s story told with such great care,” Herbert noted.
Not too bad for an “un-adaptable” story.
