"No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a hero." The "hero," in this case, is Timothée Chalamet's young Paul Atreides who holds the vast world of Dune: Part Two in his mind. However, the quote belongs to the late Washingtonian author of the Dune series, Frank Herbert. Born in Tacoma in 1920, Herbert would go on to craft one of the most foundational sci-fi novels. Amid all the sandworms, Dune is also a skeptical parable. The author, a man of many contradictions who worked in both journalism and politics, grew disillusioned with the leaders who govern the world. Of the many ideas in his writing, a central one concerns the danger of false prophets.
The question has always been whether a film adaptation could capture this. With Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve not only comes about as close as one could hope to doing so, but he also surpasses the already significant achievement of the first film. This sequel, which covers the latter half of the book, picks up with Paul on the run in the vast deserts of the planet Arrakis as the forces of House Harkonnen attempt to destroy the Fremen and mine the valuable spice melange. An effective early action scene reveals the Harkonnen are no match for the warriors that have made the inhospitable desert their home. As the bodies fall and pile up on the sand, more death is soon to follow.
For Paul, his life has become defined by death. His father was murdered, and he has just recently taken the life of another for the first time. Simultaneously, his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), is pregnant with his sister and begins to use her abilities as a Bene Gesserit to convince the Fremen that Paul is their messiah. Where some like the longtime Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem with a delightful yet tragically humorous disposition) are willing to do anything to have this be true, others are not so sure. Chani (Zendaya, in her best film performance to date) is wary of the way the Fremen are being led by Paul even as she also develops a fraught affection for him while they fight the Harkonnen.
The film is then about this march toward what may be the immense destruction wrought by a supposed savior. Many other players are trying to direct the battle on Arrakis, but the core of it remains the descent of Paul. For all the awe the film creates with the scope of its world and the magnificent visual effects, all of it is being increasingly poisoned by the dark path the characters are going down. Paul is aware of this, initially saying he does not want to lead because he knows what will happen, but still he does so — which is the point. What could feel like a sudden about-face is a haunting demonstration of how little a push it takes for those with power to throw all their supposed morals away.
There are brief parts of this that prove a little blunt in hammering home how Paul is becoming lost, yet there is also something authentically terrifying to seeing how the more and more a figure is rallied around, the worse he gets. Just as Zendaya delicately captures Chani becoming the film's moral conscience, there is little her character can do to stop the coming storm. The film boasts breathtaking visuals — from a gladiatorial fight commanded by Austin Butler's Feyd-Rautha (the film's antagonist of sorts) to the climactic battle for the future of Arrakis — but Chani gives the film its emotional heft.
If it wasn't already clear, a more open-ended conclusion shows Villeneuve is hungering to make at least one more film to complete what has become his feel-bad sci-fi trilogy. Regardless of whether there is more to come, this latest chapter emerges as one of the most well-crafted works of cinema you'll see this year. With both spectacle and soul, it is a work that puts all other projects of this scale to absolute shame. It's faithful to Herbert's ideas while remaining refreshingly willing to reshape the story.
Dune's world falls into the hands of its "hero." What a grim sight it is to see.
DUNE: PART TWO
