Denis Villeneuve's follow-up to the massively successful first Dune film, Dune: Part Two, is currently rated at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with 113 reviews.
Early previews have given the film overwhelmingly positive reactions. And now critics seem suitably impressed with Villeneuve's sprawling sci-fi film. Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson said, “Heavy with spectacle and theme as it is, Part Two is often surprisingly nimble. As a filmmaker, Villeneuve has long had trouble balancing plot with picture, but here he almost gets the calibration exactly right.”
Dune: Part Two technology is magic
Associated Press' Jake Coyle wrote, “Villeneuve’s great talent lies, I think, in invocation. He may be less perfect when it comes to conclusions but he’s brilliant at summoning — a sense of doom, a suddenly appeared spacecraft, a sandworm.”
The consensus among the critics is that the filmmaker has nearly perfected the craft of melding the mega scale of a big-budget blockbuster with that of an epic narrative without sacrificing the art of character and world building.
Robbie Colin of the UK's Daily Telegraphy agreed, writing, “The technology here is magic: something to be felt in your soul, not puzzled out in your head.”
So does RT top critic Perri Nemiroff. She said on her YouTube channel, “Blockbuster and IP filmmaking at its finest. Dune: Part Two rocks a script that doesn’t shy away from character complexities, and does a shockingly solid job of reacquainting viewers with the Dune chessboard while adding more pieces to it.”
RogerEbert.com's Brian Tallerico also said, “Dune: Part Two” is a robust piece of filmmaking, a reminder that this kind of broad-scale blockbuster can be done with artistry and flair.”
Denis Villeneuve's real epic
Peter Bradshaw of Guardian agreed as well, and wrote, “This is a real epic and it is exhilarating to find a film-maker thinking as big as this.”
The heart of the film is really Paul Atreides' (Timothée Chalamet) struggle with his perceived duties as the Duke of House Atreides, his hunger to avenge the death of his father Leto (Oscar Isaac) versus what his mother the Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) wants.
As Brian Truitt of USA Today wrote, “Part Two rights the cosmic battleship with plenty of staggering visuals, all the gigantic sandworms you'd ever want, plus a deeper thematic exploration of power, colonialism and religion.”
Lady Jessica's schemes of being acknowledged as the Fremen's Reverend Mother come into conflict with what Paul wants. He's not sure if they (meaning the Atreides nobles) should lead the indigenous Fremen since they're outsiders.
However, The Hollywood Reporter's Lovia Gyarkye noted how Jessica's acceptance of that role meant inheriting the Fremen's memories, “It’s here that Villeneuve’s film could have seized the opportunity to interrogate the implications of Paul and Jessica, two outsiders connected to the imperial regime, inheriting the secrets and traditions of the indigenous Arrakis. That transference, a fellow critic noted after the press screening, is its own kind of colonial violence.”
No film is perfect, but it seems Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two comes close.
Rolling Stone's David Fear stated, “Villeneuve has outdone himself. More importantly, he's done justice to the scope and scale and sheer weirdness of a stoner-lit touchstone’s back half without, pun intended, sanding away its edges.”
Even Joshua Rothkopf of the Los Angeles Times proclaimed the movie as “an instant landmark of its genre.” And Variety's Peter Debruge agreed with,”Whatever you do, don’t mistake this follow-up for a sequel. It’s the second half of a saga…”
Dune: Part Two will be released in cinemas March 1.
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