Movie Review – Dune: Part Two, a tale of prophecy, spice and desert colonialism
Back to Arrakis…
You’d have been given galactically long odds on Dune: Part Two being a stinker. Sure, it is a sequel and they are traditionally tricky customers, but with the six Oscar wins and box office blitz of the opening entry, the almost universally praised performance of its cast, the saga being led by a director who is widely regarded as one of the modern greats – and the fact that this follow up is taken from the same source material as the first… Dune: Part Two had the implied dynastic security of a royal heirdom.
But it still would have been a brave soul insisting ahead of time, that this sequel would dramatically improve upon the first. And yet here we stand, at the ornate gates of a science fiction masterpiece. With the run time-consuming chores of backstory building and character establishing swept into the sands of Arrakis, director Denis Villeneuve has two hours and 46 minutes to burrow, giant-worm-like, into the spice-laden narrative dunes of Frank Herbert’s opus.
There’s space to go deep and lock swords with musings on prophecy and destiny, revenge and freedom, colonialism, hegemony, and rebellion. There are, if you choose to see them, religious overtures and many discernable references to Middle Eastern culture (not least in the language, taking an example from the book – the word ‘Jihad’ is frequently used in describing the Fremen’s struggles with their oppressors). And on a more intimate level, we are invited to grapple with the frailties of love, familial favouritism, harmony with nature, utilitarianism ad absurdum, and faith relationships with pariah messiahs. It’s all set against the haunting beauty of a wild desert planet, much of it filmed right here, amongst Liwa’s own shifting sandscape.
He shall know your ways as though born to them
This movie begins where the last one left us – following the almost-wholesale decimation of his family, our protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has found sanctuary with the marginalised indigenous population of Arrakian ‘Fremen’. The more time Paul spends with his hosts, the more he seems to fit the Messianic mould of their prophesied liberator, Lisan al Gaib. At least for a certain contingent of them.
The prophecy, whether Paul truly believes in it or not (mentally queueing up Life of Brian quotes), provides him an opportunity to exact revenge on the Harkonnens, who so nearly extinguished his entire bloodline. And should he choose to use the prophecy for his own selfish ends, his ultimate goal would mean the incidental fulfilment of the prophecy – freedom, and the vanquishing of tyranny. A deliberate humanising of the Messiah.
Choose your Messiah carefully
Villeneuve is often praised for his grand-scale cinematography, but this movie demonstrates his skill at manipulating the other end of the spectrum too. In literature, it’s relatively straightforward to communicate the inner workings of a character to an audience. You can just spell out their thoughts, right there on the paper, which may of course be contrary to what they say, and the way they behave. It’s difficult to replicate in cinema without it emerging as contrived. Instead, filmmakers and actors have to rely on subtle facial gestures, conversations with confidants and the vacuum of inaction.
Credit must go to Timothée Chalamet for this too, he puts down a (what seems unfair, at 28, to say) career-defining performance. Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem all contribute magnificently, but it’s an unrecognisable Austin Butler who steals the support crown with his layered portrayal of a nepobaby sociopath. Multiple Oscar nominations are once again all but assured.
The exterior scenes are nothing short of sublime visual art, and combined with the Hans Zimmer score, worthy of their own private standing ovation. The battle sequences are right up there with Lord of the Rings, for all-time top fantasy fracas. And for those incredible sandworm surfing shots, which play such a powerful part in building the drama, Villeneuve had to completely invent the performance method for the film as it was not detailed in the books.
Fighting for Fremen
There’s something else too. I was in the rare and extremely fortunate position of being able to share, what I took out of the movie with its director. I asked Denis whether his own beliefs around “free will, flavoured the movie’s dealing with prophecy and destiny”. Because those were the subjects playing on my mind long after the credits rolled. His answer suggested a focus shift.
“If you look at the movie, you can absolutely view it from a scientific point of view where you can explain almost everything. It was more important for me that it’s characters struggling with the impact of colonialism than anything else.”
Yes. Colonialism in the desert. For those watching in this region and beyond, it’ll be almost impossible not to draw certain parallels with what’s going on in a galaxy not so far far away. Of course, it’s a pattern that repeats itself infinitely in the human story, as long as there has been power to weald, it has been abused. Power is our most corrosive solvent, and why would it not be so in a hypothetical distant future.
Verdict: when it comes to sci-fi sequels, this is right up there amongst the very brightest stars.
Dune: Part Two will hit cinemas across the UAE from Thursday, February 29.
Images: Provided