If you enjoyed part one from director Denis Villeneuve, you’ll
love part two. Epically beautiful and
sweeping, it continues the story with flair.
There are still a ton of characters to try to keep straight, and this
part adds several that did not yet appear in the first one. Young Paul Atreides is meandering the desert
with his Freman friends after his whole family except for his mother Jessica
was killed when the Harkonnen clan launched an attack on the planet Arakis
after the Emperor gave stewardship of it to the Atreides. The plot is thick and heavy here, and if you
haven’t read any of the books, it can be a little tough to keep all the folks straight
and figure out why Paul is at first claiming to not be the desert messiah and
then by the end decides being the desert messiah is exactly what he needs to be
to harness ‘desert power’ (sandworms) to take on his enemies.
Everyone in the movie does a great job, and it really does
look fantastic. Personally, I may have
enjoyed this one a little bit more than the previous entry – even if it is a
little too long for me and a little plot-heavy. I think that is a good thing
though, in that it seems to be faithfully adapting the source material. I particularly enjoy Javier Bardem as Stilgar
– convincing Paul to take up his own mantel and use his legend-in-the-making
status. Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya are
just fine as the two leads and Josh Brolin continues to be entertaining. I also really enjoyed Rebecca Ferguson as
Jessica as she manipulates almost everyone to get what she wants. I could have
used a little more fun here and there. I enjoyed the bits of Paul learning how
to desert properly, and those sequences added a little levity in an otherwise somber
story.
Overall – beautiful to look at, a little long, a little bit
pretentious, but still entertaining. 6 out of 10.
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