Dune: Part 2 Explores Power in All its Forms

Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's visually immersive world tour is a thrilling and weird sci-fi ride

Listen to my review of Dune: Part 2 on CBC Radio Information Morning Saint John

The Internet’s rabbit hole into the world of Dune is a massive beast. 

Attempting to wrap your head around the complex webs of power – political, religious, familial and personal – that encircle the fictional planet of Arrakis will lead you down many weird digital alleys. Trust me, I’ve been there. 

This is what makes Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of author Frank Herbert’s galactic novel so impressive. He was able to take a complex source material and winnow it down to its essential parts so that I, someone who hasn’t read the books, was able to follow and enjoy the saga of Paul Atreides, Chani and the fight for survival against the ruthless House Harkonnen. 

This is epic sci-fi filmmaking, and Villeneuve is a cinematic cartographer, slowly unfurling these strange and mysterious places, never moving too quickly through any of these imagined landscapes. 

Villeneuve likes to linger, as he did in Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), which makes the battles in Dune: Part 2 all that more propulsive and epic. 

He is assisted by a cast of A-list stars who are game to play, each inhabiting their characters. Among the best is Austin Butler, last seen as Elvis, who commands every scene he enters as the killer Feyd-Rautha, supported by Villeneuve’s choice to film the Harkonnens in a supersaturated monochromatic style to emphasize the darkness they represent. 

Is Dune: Part 2 long? Yes, clocking in at two hours and 45 minutes, it is longer than Part 1, which came out in 2021 and introduced us to the primary themes and characters in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. 

Here’s what non-readers need to know: Somewhere in the universe, an intergalactic power struggle between imperial houses is waging over control of that special something that bestows ultimate power upon whoever possesses it.  

In Game of Thrones, it’s the Iron Throne. In Lord of the Rings, it’s the One Ring of Power. In Dune, it’s spice, a psychedelic drug that gives the user a longer life span, heightened awareness and a form of precognition (an ability to see into the future) that makes space travel possible.  

The only place to harvest spice is on the desert planet Arrakis, home to the Indigenous Freman, deadly sandstorms and some, really, gigantic killer sandworms. 

In Part 1, the Emperor orders Duke Leto, head of House Atreides, to lead his troops and replace Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as ruler of Arrakis. However, it proves to be a trap, and Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) slaughters House of Atreides, secretly aided by the Emperor’s troops. 

The Duke’s son, Paul (Timothée Chalamet), escapes with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the Bene Gesserit, a religious sisterhood with special powers. They take refuge with a group of Freman warriors led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem). The young warrior Chani (Zendaya) is equal parts suspicious and intrigued by the young aristocrat and begins to train him. 

Part 2 picks up where the story left off with Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, hunkered down with the Freman troops, but there is a disturbance in the force. 

The Freman’s Bene Gesserit faith has prophesied that a mother and son from the outer world will one day arrive to lead the Freman to freedom, and some, most notably Stilgar, believe Paul is their promised saviour. 

Chani isn’t a believer, and her doubt is as strong as Stilgar’s faith, setting up one of the three storylines that weave through Part 2. 

With the religious power struggle established, Villeneuve moves onto the political power struggle through the introduction of three new characters: Emperor Shaddam IV, head of House Corrino (Christopher Walken), his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) and the Baron’s nephew and heir Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler). 

In this trio, Villeneuve gives us three types of political leadership. The Emperor is too accustomed to power and fails to see the threat of revolution brewing; Irulan, also a member of the Bene Gesserit, is the political pragmatist, and Feyd-Rautha is the sociopathic tyrant-in-training. 

Overlaying all of this is the third power struggle: the one within Paul. 

Does he seek revenge for his father’s death, control of Arrakis, a peaceful life with Chani, or to inhabit the messianic mantle of the prophecy? 

It’s a lot, but Villeneuve and his cast deliver, with 2024’s first big-screen blockbuster, that should satisfy fans of the book while bringing a new audience into the world of Dune.