I was invited to a recent media preview for Dune: Part Two. We watched the film in an IMAX theater at the Regal Opry Mills. That’s my home court commercial theater ever since I moved to Nashville’s east side in 2012. Reclining back in my chair with a cold bottle of water — it’s a three hour film set in a desert — I experienced a feeling I had as a child when I saw Star Wars (Episode IV) in a movie theater in Detroit in 1977. I had a hard time articulating the feeling, but the critics at Film Threat spoke to the same thing in the review on their YouTube channel. Dune: Part Two is the first science fiction film since the original Star Wars to bring the space opera to a definitive new level of visionary artistry and technical excellence. Science fiction movies weren’t the same after Star Wars and new films are all going held to a new standard of imagination and expertise in the vast shadow of this new Dune installment. I had to seek out some other reviews to be able to put all of that into words, because in the moment, in the spice strewn sands of Arrakis, wrenched in the throes of monarchy and prophecy, I was mostly just overwhelmed and thinking, “This is the Star Wars feeling.”
Dune: Part Two will crush everything in the technical awards categories throughout this year’s upcoming awards season. From VFX to sound and probably also score, nothing is going to best this film in the next 10 months. The hallucinatory water of life sequences were a disappointment here, but Paul’s (Timothée Chalamet) first ride on a sandworm is going to go down as one of the greatest action sequences in all of science fiction cinema. The greatest movie magic accomplishment is part of that “Star Wars feeling”: Dune: Part Two’s designs and costumes and all the various renderings of these vehicles, spaces and places feel both believably otherworldly and actually real. Just as Star Wars looked totally new and completely convincing, Dune: Part Two gives us visionary frames that feel fully inhabited and lived-in like no movie since George Lucas took us long ago and far away.
The Star Wars and Dune comparisons are well-deserved and important to note. But Star Wars is a movie about a hero saving a princess. The Dune saga is an epic that’s closer to Shakespeare than the Brothers Grimm. Dune is a movie about economics, politics, geography, monarchy, religion, revolution and family. For all of these films’ technical accomplishments, both of Dune’s chapters boast the best script in all of the attempts to bring Frank Herbert’s book to screens big and small. And the adaptation is brought to life by a great ensemble cast and multiple stand-out performances. Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica Atreides is the first great performance by an actress in 2024, and Chalamet’s transformation from a pubescent prince into a warrior messiah demonstrates a range and gravitas that puts him in the best-actor-of-his-generation conversation. Austin Butler’s heel turn from Elvis to the murderous Feyd-Rautha might make him the year’s best bad guy, and Florence Pugh is measured and luminous as Princess Irulan, daughter to the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV — an icy performance from Christopher Walken.
Zendaya’s Chani is the only character that doesn’t ring true. It’s partly due to Zendaya’s limited range and clichéd choices. Writer-Director Denis Villeneuve and writer Jon Spaihts script is probably the bigger problem. They need Chani to follow the storyline of the novel, but they also want her to embody the skepticism that will challenge Paul’s rise to power in the next film, Dune Messiah. The result is a passive aggressive confusion of actions all accompanied by the same emotionless scowl from the actress. That mute scowl gets the last shot in the film, but Villeneuve mostly let’s Chani and Dune’s love story fade into the background where they belong. We’re becoming a god here.
Dune: Part Two is playing now in theaters
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.