Movies with Mees: Dune Part Two
Dune: Part Two released on March 1, 2024, a little less than two and a half years after the first movie. According to CNN Business, the movie made $82.5 million in domestic ticket sales. The movie was highly anticipated, and, in my opinion, it delivered fantastically.
Dune: Part Two begins by introducing the audience to Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, played by Christopher Walken, who is the man responsible for the fall of House Atreides at the hands of House Harkonnen. The audience is told that the Emperor felt he did what he had to, and his actions saddened him, as he had at one point regarded Duke Atreides as a son.
After the introduction of the Emperor, the story continues where Dune: Part One left off. Paul Atredies, played by Timothée Chalamet, and his mother, played by Rebecca Ferguson, are traveling with a group of Fremen, the native inhabitants of planet Arrakis, after escaping the destruction of their new home. The plot follows Paul and his newfound allies as he embarks on a journey of revenge against House Harkonnen and the Emperor, and as he fulfills the prophecy of an outsider who would liberate the Fremen from the control of the royal houses.
Dune: Part Two’s main strengths are its visuals, sound design, and storytelling. All actors play their parts to perfection. Javier Bardem is noteworthy as Stilgar, one of the Fremen leaders who believes strongly in the prophecy. Bardem’s character is one of the most important, and I feel Bardem embodies the strong leader archetype his character exemplifies, while showing the more zealous and frenetic side of his character.
Dune: Part Two’s visuals are awe-inspiring. Dune: Part Two contains many scenes which are strangely beautiful: a monochrome colosseum, a sun covered by twin moons, a cave with a seemingly-endless pool of water. Each scene in Dune: Part Two feels alive and alien, exactly how one would expect in a series set 18,000 years in the future. The visuals make the movie easy to enjoy by showing off ethereal and horrific scenes one after another.
Dune: Part Two’s sound design is likewise impressive. From the leitmotif of a single woman wailing into the emptiness of space or the endless desert, to the powerful explosions that shake the theater, to the character’s grand speeches, Dune: Part Two ensures that its audience will not doze off. I recommend seeing the movie in theatres for this reason, as without their sound systems you would not be able to experience the sense of scale the sound provides the movie with.
While the first Dune movie shared these strengths, it fell short when it came to storytelling. Dune: Part One was a movie made primarily of exposition and world-building with little payoff, especially since the single great action scene of the movie barely made use of any of the build-up. However, Dune: Part Two prevails here. The film uses the world-building provided by the first movie to craft a far more interesting and engaging story than its predecessor. One could argue that its story stands on its own, an impressive feat for a movie meant to be the second part of the adaptation of a book deemed too long to fit into a single movie.
Expecting mediocrity and with little knowledge on the source material, I was surprised to have left the theater amazed. I can confidently say that Dune: Part Two is one of the, if not the best, movie to have come out in the past few years. It makes the dull first movie worth the watch. Dune: Part Two is one of the greatest works of cinema I have ever seen, and it more than lives up to the book’s legendary reputation.
