OSCARS 2025: Dune: Part Two (2024)

There was a time when science fiction, horror, and fantasy were considered “low” genres, unworthy of serious critical consideration. It was the stuff of penny pulp novels, children's comic books, campy B-movies, and Republic serials. We have sort of, kind of moved past such prejudice, if only because this same material has long since been the grist for the hyper-popular blockbuster grinder. Some printed classics of these genres have become so respected, they are now consider pieces of serious literature. Which means cinematic adaptations of them have gotten award season attention, assuming they are epic enough. After “Return of the King” won Best Picture, it's easier to accept that a “Dune” movie could wrack up Oscar nominations and not only in the technical categories. Denis Villeneuve's “Dune: Part One” was so well received that the second half of this adaptation of Frank Herbert's sprawling sci-fi saga, “Dune: Part Two,” was more or less a shoe-in for a Best Picture nominee. I, on the other hand, am painfully indifferent – perhaps even a little hostile – to “Dune” in all its forms. But I like to review all the Best Picture nominees which means I'm shipping my ass back to Arrakis for completist's sake. 

And so we return to that desert planet, with its giant worms that poop the mind-expanding space cocaine the universe's economy depends on. Exiled prince Paul Atreides and his mom have been living with the Freman, the desert dwelling natives of Arrakis. They assist them in their war against House Harkonnen, the depraved noblemen who massacred Paul's family to consolidate control of the planet. The mystical conspiracy that resulted in Paul's birth rolls forward, the prophecy of him prompting a cosmic jihad against the empire beginning to take shape. Paul himself is uncertain about his destiny but desires revenge against the Harkonnens and the Empire backing them. Him and his mother rise through the ranks of the Freman, quickly becoming revered figures. A dangerous new threat, the psychotic Feyd-Rautha, is sent to Arrakis to crush the rebellion before it's too late. There's a lot more stuff happening but that's the gist. 

One of the reoccurring plot points of fantastical fiction is the idea of a prophesied "chosen one," a hero that will rise to defeat the evil empire and birth a golden age. Herbert's "Dune" is one of the stories that made this premise so archetypal. Which is funny, as "Dune" now plays like a deconstruction of this idea. Paul is indeed The Chosen One, the one the Fremen call "Lisan al-Gaib," an outsider that will master their ways and lead them out of oppression. To the faithful, everything he says and does is weighed with importance. When he picks a Freman name for himself, it's the humble desert mouse... Before Stilgar points that "M'uad'Dib" also means "He Who Points the Way." What makes Paul Atreides different from Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker is that he's all too aware of his great destiny. Paul's birth is the result of hundreds of years of engineering and planning by an arcane order of witches, who are so complete in their scheming that Paul is not their only candidate for a messiah. By choosing to accept his fate, Paul is also aware of how his words are going to launch a bloody Holy War across the galaxy. In other words, "Dune: Part Two" shows that the following of a great hero is exactly the same as a fanatical cult. That the changing tide history usually happens from detailed planning and not mythic fairy tales of good guys overcoming bad guys through plucky determination. 

A story that deconstructs the Hero's Journey while also appearing to be a standard example of it is very interesting. Or it would be, if "Dune: Part Two" wasn't so fucking boring. The second half of Villeneuve's adaptation doubles down on everything I found intolerable about the first one. Namely, a sense of crushing ponderousness. The weird religious rituals of the Freman and the Bene Gesserit are given a lot of focus here. Paul's mom drinks a magic potion to make her a holy leader, while Paul has psychic dreams and visions. The space witches scheme and scheme while arguing amongst themselves. Some lady does Tai-Chi with a baby sandworm, in a sequence that I am sure is of some importance to something. When not lingering on the rites of magical orders, the plot follows Space Politicians considering their options on how to manipulate events to grant them the most power. These two tendencies crossbreed in a last third twist that would surely be upsetting if these characters were anything but shallowly developed pawns in this game of epic chess. I know for the people invested in this universe and its centuries of convoluted history, all of this is absolutely fascinating. I, for one, am unable to get on-board with a work so concerned with its own importance that it drowns any recognizable human emotions in reams of ideas and concepts. 

That denseness is exactly what kept Herbert's book from being successfully adapted for decades, defeating great artists like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Denis Villeneuve – not the kind of artist either of those guys are, in my opinion, though I do like him – defeats this in two ways: Meeting the source material on its own level, treating the epic legacies and power struggles of "Dune" with the seriousness the words demand. Secondly, he makes concessions to blockbuster filmmaking whenever he can. Paul and Chani's romance resembles an actual love story here, the two having chemistry and an emotional bond. Chani is giving a lot more agency in the story, challenging her lover's own plans. Focus is definitely given over to exciting action sequences too. While the Freman are attacking some Harkonnen vehicles and soldiers, there's a moment involving a rocket launcher that could be out of any military movie. The final boss of the first novel, Feyd, is introduced rather drolly on the page. Here, his first major scene is one of visceral gladiatorial combat. In general, there's a much more conscious effort made to include dazzling special effects and exciting action scenes, in order to alleviate the desert-like dryness of the writing. 

Ultimately, "Dune: Part Two" is most successful for me when paired with performers who understand how to work with material like this. Timothee Chalamet has brief flashes of humanity but mostly plays Paul's universe-rendering angst as petulant teenage whining. Javier Bardem had a twinkle or two in his eye as Stilgar, the leader of the Freman, but is also stuck in a role weighed down with all the pseudo-religious stuff. Zendaya approaches it exactly the same as the earthly drama of "Euphoria" or "Challengers," creating a visible disconnect her acting style and everything happening around her. Talented performers like Rebecca Ferguson, Leá Seydoux, and Florence Pugh are completely flattened by the mythic grandness of it all. 

Some people, however, emphasize the second word in the phrase "space opera." Christopher Walken plays the Emperor of the Universe like it's Shakespeare, theatrical but as lively as ever. Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista bring some blustering action movie toughness to their roles, a much needed relief. Lastly, we have Austin Butler. Looking like a Cenobite Billy Corgan and affecting the weirdest Stellan Skarsgård impression I've ever heard, Butler makes an absolute meal of every line or turn of the head he's given. He makes Feyd a hedonistic, unhinged, animal of a man and is without a doubt the single most entertaining thing in "Dune: Part Two's" nearly three hours runtime. 

Devoting so much of that belabored runtime to people whispering in hidden chambers or debating the balance of fate and power is why "Dune: Part Two" crushes me down to a material very much like sand by the time it's over. My ability to care is exhausted long before the end. That's a bummer, as an incredible amount of skill and artistry was put into this film. The special effects are fantastic, the floating space ships and massive earth-movers being properly alien feeling. The production design, make-up effects, and costumes all create an absorbing world on-screen. Any of the scenes set on the Harkonnen's home world, an entire planet of pasty goth bondage freaks it seems, are perhaps the most striking. Everything in this world is either pale and smooth like the resident's unsettling skin or black and cold like the material around them. Meanwhile, Greg Fraser ensures that the grand desert vistas of Arrakis are exactly as wide, sweeping, and striking as they should be. In other words, everyone involved in this film was determined to make this sci-fi world feel as real to the viewer as it is to the characters. 

I do admire that skill. Really, I do. If I had picked Herbert's books up as a self-serious teenage nerd, maybe I'd be as hooked on this world as all the Dune-heads out there. Alas, I used up all of those autism points on H.P. Lovecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, monster movies and comic books. I'm tempted to say "Dune: Part Two" is too nerdy for me but the truth is I'm the wrong kind of nerdy for it. Congrats on everyone who worked on this movie. You did a great job and I'm sure some of you will receive some well-earned statues when Oscar night comes. Much like cocaine and the boundless light of Islam, it's just not for me. But, hey, we'll always have that hilarious popcorn bucket, won't we?  Look forward to hearing me make all these same gripes again when "Dune Messiah" is nominated for a shit ton of stuff in a few years. [5/10]