My Corner

March 2024

Dune: Part Two is the best sequel I have ever seen.

On the surface, it might seem like sequels should be easy to get right. If the first film was successful enough to warrant a second, then the monetary resources, returning cast, and built-in audience should make for something even greater. But history proves otherwise. Most sequels struggle to live up to their originals. Batman & Robin, Grease 2, Wonder Woman 1984 to name a few.

Thus, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is revelatory. Both visually and narratively, the film aims miles high, and the result is an experience that feels less like science fiction and more like modern myth. The world of Arrakis is no slow burn; in fact, it erupts from the opening scenes and never lets up.

Where the first film felt distant and often cold, this second chapter pulls the audience in with more emotion, more urgency, and, *blessedly*, more action. And not just your typical fight sequences either. Villeneuve knows how to stage chaos, but more importantly, he knows how to give it meaning.

Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides and, by the end defines his identity as the character. Is he a leader, a prophet, or just another outsider with too much power? The beauty of Dune: Part Two is that it lets you sit in that discomfort.

Zendaya, who barely had time to speak in the first film, takes a central role here as Chani. She brings a grounded realism that challenges Paul’s rise. Their chemistry is subdued, but perhaps that is intentional. This is not a love story, after all.

Rebecca Ferguson, as Lady Jessica, slithers through the film with menace. Her performance is hypnotic, and the way the film leans into the idea of religion as strategy makes her character all the more fascinating. Javier Bardem brings unexpected warmth and humor, while Austin Butler chews the scenery with much delight as a villain who finds suspicious joy in terror.

There is something deeply satisfying about how Dune: Part Two handles colonization. Without disgusing as fantasy, the film beckons to the place of an outsider who arrives with prophecy in hand and leaves with control. These questions are not rhetorical either. The film seemingly wants you to wrestle with them.

Visually, this is a work of beauty. The cinematography by Greig Fraser finds unexpected beauty in the harshness of the desert. Every color feels intentional, every silhouette composed like a painting. Hans Zimmer’s score, less overwhelming than last time, works in service of mood and culture. His sounds are weapons in themselves.

Villeneuve has made a film that feels timeless and timely. Both high art and accessible entertainment, he has successfully bridged and expanded audience opportunity. This is science fiction at its most thoughtful, its most visceral, and its most human.