The Tartan

By Lily Stern

This review will be spoiler-free so I can convince you to see Denis Villenueve’s “Dune: Part Two” on the hugest screen possible. It’s gearing up to be a classic of our time. 

Funnily enough, I didn’t see “Dune: Part One” when it came out, and I was uninterested for years. I’m lukewarm on space operas, I’ve never read Frank Herbert, and I heard about the bait of Zendaya being a main character when she was actually only in the film for five minutes — then I got turned off from the franchise. I also have family trauma from David Lynch’s 1984 original “Dune,” a frequently cited clown show in the Stern household. Overall? Not for me.

But when my entire Twitter feed after March 1 was overrun with “Dune” promotions and 100 percent rave reviews, I wanted to see it immediately and join the conversation. (Shoutout to Zendaya again, who has never missed on a premiere carpet.) So I watched “Dune: Part One,” only half paying attention, to glean the gist of the story before dragging my mother to a movie theater the next day. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. (Edit: I have now seen it a second time, this time in IMAX. It gets better.)

Adapting a philosophical science fiction franchise of these proportions (896 pages in the first book alone), one that’s actually often been labeled “unfilmable” until Villeneuve, is a hefty task for anyone. Yet “Dune: Part Two” is decently book-accurate and performs masterful cinematic worldbuilding. Nearly every frame is a work of art — Villeneuve is a director who understands color, sound/silence, and SCALE. The sheer size of this movie, metaphorically and literally, continues to awe me as I click through frame after frame on social media.

Additionally, a fine to fantastic performance was drawn out of each actor involved. Dave Bautista’s potential is surprisingly unlocked, Rebecca Ferguson is captivating, Florence Pugh is underutilized but good as always, and Javier Bardem is equally hilarious and astonishing. Austin Butler commands the audience in his minimal screen time and inhabits his character. As for Zendaya, she continues to make her case for one of Hollywood’s current stars. I’m biased, but I thought this movie was a triumph for her.

And Timothée Chalamet? He becomes Paul Atreides. I was stunned at several moments from his delivery alone, and I think the third act is a near career-high performance, an impressive claim given his already insane filmography. I can’t say much else at risk of writing a whole separate ode to this casting, but he is a force — unquestionably the best in the film.

Above all, it’s just a really, really cool movie. Massive sandworms, confronting religious fundamentalism, intergalactic dynastic warfare, and the promise of one of the most visually stunning trilogies in genre history. Once you see “Dune,” you understand just how many popular franchises have borrowed from the rich worldbuilding and complex characters for their own universes.

It’s not without its problematic or offensive elements, and it’s not a perfect movie by any means. It also leaves out several plot points from the novel, presumably to bring up in the next installment, and it suffers from Hollywood’s blockbuster casting fallacy. (Christopher Walken was not needed in this movie.) All that criticism could be discussed in a more in-depth review that actually unravels the plot and characters, and I look forward to engaging with more of it as the film is seen by a wider audience.

However, I don’t think a film has to be perfect to be worth seeing, which this one certainly is. I hope kids today get “Dune” as their “Star Wars,” because it’s a deeply intelligent story and fantastic filmmaking. I’m already planning when I can see it again, and I hope to see you there.