Chatter Box Film

This is a review for the IMAX screening of Dune: Part Two; directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Denis Villeneuve has built up a strong filmography throughout the years and now the director has managed to follow up with another high quality film.

Dune: Part Two is an epic sci-fi event, filled with intense levels of action, as well as delivering a captivating drama.

The film is colossal in scale and yet Denis has paced this well enough in order to sit through a lengthy runtime of 2 hours 46 minutes, much like the duration of Part One, except with a lot more substance to it. And it’s directly following on from the first film… adding another level of consistency.

Timothée Chalamet has really outdone himself with delivering an incredibly commanding performance as the lead character “Paul Atreides”. Chalamet has a wonderful and engaging screen presence as he takes on a tougher and more phsyically demanding part of the role.

This sequel delves much deeper into a biblical narrative that it began to set out during Part One; for developing Chalamet’s character. It’s brilliant and easy to follow albeit a lengthy set up! One of the prominent plot points also reminds me of Neo being seen as “The One” to save them all from control, in The Matrix franchise. Similar to how Paul Atreides is suppose to become the Messiah, and save people from Arrakis being controlled.

With a much a darker tone to this sequel story, it did end up falling into adding a few comedic moments to the script unlike the first film, where there was very little.

Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is a stand-out character for lightening the tone of some of the scenes, however this luckily didn’t undermine a majority of the serious moments and allowed the film to breathe before chaotic action started up again.

The humour being there somewhat also adds more depth to the culture of the Fremen on Arrakis, instead of them just being seen as feirce one-dimensional fighters in the sand.

Zendaya as Chani finally has more screentime in Dune: Part Two. And now there has been development for a slightly more interesting character to unfold; with Chani also becoming an anchor point for Paul Atreides.

Greig Fraser’s cinematography is brilliant in displaying the expansive worlds seen.

Compared to the vast open warm orange deserts, there’s a stark change in colour-grading when focusing on the Harkonnens.

An infrared view of Giedi Prime produces a cold, bleak and harsh setting, which emphasizes this being devoid of anything good among the creatures on that world. The wide shots of a chanting army in this view also gives an alarming and threatening impression, while also being reminiscent of WW2-esque archival footage.

The Harkonnen characters have become more vile to look at than ever before. It’s an excellent testament to the creative work by the prosthetics and make-up artists involved in making the appearances of these characters.

They are also more violent than previously seen before especially with the return of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), and Dave Bautista as Rabban, as well as the introduction of the long-awaited Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler).

Austin Butler jumps right into the role of Feyd-Rautha; delivering a very unhinged and terrifying physical performance. Although, I wish he had more to say in this film.

The aesthetics of the character are also matching with the current appearances of the Harkonnen since 2021, which was done differently compared to the 80’s Dune iteration played by Sting; with hair.

Besides the Harkonnen’s; Lady Jessica (Rebecca Furguson) feels like one of the most creepiest and unsettling characters to develop further in this film and Rebecca “steals the show” for her great performance. Also, the telepathic abilities are still so bizarre to hear!

Hans Zimmer’s striking compositions as well as the the work done by the sound department are such major parts to bringing these immersive worlds alive.

Especially the overwhelming bass sounds when sandworms appear; the bass rattled the life out of me in IMAX, which emphasizes how terrifying these sandworms are! There is some of the best sound editing in this film to date!

Final Thoughts

It is a grand cinematic experience, making it worthwhile to see on the biggest screen; visually stunning with rich, textured and immersive scenes.

Denis Villeneuve is a great filmmaker and there is still more of this story to come in a possible third film. Certainly looking forward to seeing how this continues after that monumental final act.

When is Dune: Part Two releasing

Dune: Part Two releases in cinemas, on March 1, 2024. See more 2024 cinema release dates here.

Watch the official trailer for Dune: Part Two here.

Also, check out our review for Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet.