Review | Dune: Part Two movie review – Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya return in Denis Villeneuve’s masterful sci-fi spectacle
- Dune: Part Two is everything you would hope for and a more-than-worthy successor to its 2021 predecessor
- The acting is an embarrassment of riches – watch out for Austin Butler – while the set pieces, stunning cinematography and music leave you open-mouthed
5/5 stars
A vast and far-reaching spectacle, Denis Villeneuve’s masterful take on Frank Herbert’s Dune continues, arriving with all the energy of an express train.
No longer the callow youth of the earlier film, Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, the exiled Duke of the now-decimated House Atreides. Alongside his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), he begins learning the ways of the desert people, the Freman, with enthusiastic tribe leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) believing he is the prophet who will bring victory.
Enchanted still by young Freman warrior Chani (Zendaya), Paul is initially reluctant to lead, haunted by dreams that billions will die because of him. But gradually, he comes to realise it is his destiny to defeat House Harkonnen, the aggressors led by Stellan Skargard’s corpulent Baron that destroyed his family and currently control Arrakis.
Once again scripted by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part Two truly embraces the galaxy-wide power struggle that Herbert so eloquently wrote about.
