Movie Review // Dune: Part Two

I saw Dune Part 2 at Jordan’s Furniture Store IMAX in Reading. It is essentially a theme park inside of a furniture store. It’s wild and I highly recommend watching a movie on their IMAX screen, they even have amplifiers under each seat so every time “The Voice” was used in the film I felt a jolt in my derriére. I can’t imagine watching Dune on a smaller screen, it was quite literally meant for IMAX. The sound quality was remarkable, not just due to the vibrations–but they did add an element of a theme park ride to the whole affair.

Dune 2 is a war movie. In a time when the news is saturated with images of war and genocide, seeing manufactured images of death and destruction in a big Hollywood production rang a little hollow. By now I’m so used to seeing colonized people in the desert crying and covered in blood, explosions, and crumbling infrastructure everywhere—it’s so common that despite my best efforts I’ve started to grow numb to it.

Only the stories of the most outrageous suffering catch my attention these days because there’s such a glut of images of suffering masses of humanity. Watching Dune made me think of those people who are undergoing so much horror while I pay $18 for a bucket of popcorn and sit in a vibrating chair while images of fake bloodshed made with corn syrup and dye flash across the screen. I don’t think director Denis Villeneuve meant for his film to put people in mind of the conflict in Palestine, but it is certainly timely.

One thing about Dune is that you can watch and appreciate the films without having to read the notoriously dense source material. Will you get more out of it if you read Frank Herbert, sure—but it’s not a requirement. After the film, there were plenty of nerds happily explaining to their dates and friends the differences between the latest film adaptation and the books.

Most people seemed happy with the movie. I didn’t hear anyone saying they wished they had their 3 hours back. But I also noted that I didn’t hear anyone saying it was the best movie of all time and comparing it to The Godfather as I’ve seen claimed quite a few times on social media.

Dune 2 picks up exactly where Dune left off, with Paul Atreidies in the desert of Arrakis with the fremen and his mother after his father and his father’s army have been betrayed and slaughtered. Paul must learn the ways of the desert and learn to lead the people in a revolution against the feudal overlords while grappling with prophecies that may be about him and his future.

Timothee Chalamet does a great job as Paul, it’s a role he was born to play. If this were not sci-fi I would suspect he might be an Oscar nominee for this role in 2025. Zendaya is the heart of the film as Chani, a fierce fremen warrior who does not believe the prophecies about Paul. Rebecca Ferguson plays Paul’s mother, Jessica, a Bene Gesserit true believer.

It was mostly an enjoyable film, the black and white fight sequence that was filmed with infrared cameras was otherworldly and strange, something new and unique. There were a few straight up goofy scenes, Dune 2 relied too heavily on Javier Bardem as Stilgar to provide the comic relief. The audience’s laughter every time he came on screen seemed at odds with the direction of the film.

The sand walking was too reminiscent of Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch to be believable. It felt like something I will be seeing soon on Tik Tok as a dance craze. I’m sure people online have already set it to music. I am going to give Dune 2 a solid B rating and look forward to the next installment which is apparently in pre production.

Movies are meant to be an escape, but there’s no escaping the reality of the genocide in Palestine. Dune 2 made me wonder what films are going to look like in the future about this atrocity. When will we get a Schindler’s List or a The Zone of Interest that focuses on how so much of the world continued going about their daily life while people were starving to death in Gaza?

Will there be a movie about the people who lined up to see Dune 2 while desperate people across the planet were lining up for aid, risking their very lives just to be there, to try to survive? People like to wonder “what would I have done during slavery or the Holocaust?” They tell themselves they would not have been complicit. We are all complicit in the United States as long as this country sends material support to Israel. Use your voice. Put pressure on the politicians to demand a ceasefire now.