The Perks of Being a Messiah or, The Dune Part Two Review

When it comes to stories that are considered “epics'' and “sagas,” there’s power in feeling just as exhausted or aged as the protagonists of these tales do. Some movies can capture this feeling in a single entry such as Lawrence  of Arabia; others can do this with multiple entries like the Harry Potter series; and some use the filmmaker’s own filmography in a meta sense, such as Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman – which brings closure to his filmography of gangsters and that of the film’s main character, Frank Sheeran.

In the literature realm, the Dune series from Frank Hebert also captures this feeling. Apparently, the book series goes beyond the usual tropes that pop up in “space operas”, becoming something weirder and more obtuse with each new entry. At one point, a character allegedly turns into a sand worm. Star Wars, the Dune series isn’t. People-turned-sandworms or not, one certainty is that modern filmmaking giant, Denis Villeneuve continues his quest to admirably and efficiently churn these adaptations out. With Dune Part Two, the story begins to meet those promises of weirdness by expanding into true otherworldliness that goes beyond bickering galactic families and the usual bout of wars occurring over planet resources. There are not many big blockbusters that has talented performer Rebecca Ferguson conspire Shakespearean takeovers with an unborn child, but in moments like those, Part Two begins to spread its bizarre wings.

Through its first act though, Part Two follows the same flow of space houses vying for control over a planet that started in Part One. Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Ferguson), are now deeply enmeshed in the plight of the Fremen, the native people of Arrakis. From all sides, the planet faces violence. The Harkonnens, that persistent planet full of pale, bald, and grotesque people that seemingly only thrive off talking in gravelly voices and stabbing anything they can find, is on one side. On the other side, or more accurately, from above the power structure, emerges The Emperor (Christopher Walken, baby). He’s been backing the Harkonnens’ bid for conquering Arrakis, but as they continue to be stumped by those pesky Fremen, he begins to look for other ways to take down the unruly subjects. That emerges in the appearance of Hound Dog, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler, gravelly now in place  of the Elvis drawl), the psychotic nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård, continuing to be wonderfully grotesque).

As all this happens, Paul begins to face the battle of whether or not he wants to become the fabled messiah of Arrakis. Since the first entry, visions and sayings from others around him have continued to haunt the banished prince of the Atreides house, and in Part Two Paul faces an inflection point that will determine the course of the war and his own agency. It’s in these moments when Paul fights this fabled destiny that Villeneuve’s script (co-written with Jon Spaihts) uncovers interesting terrain that’s hardly explored in other space operas where the ideas of “saviors” and “prophecies” come into play. 

 Here, we have a prophecy that might be more problematic for the people it’s supposed to save, and a projected savior that tries to do everything to avoid that outcome. Chalamet, as he did in Part One, still struggles to bite into the gravelly whispers of his character’s stoic and angry side, coming across as more of a try-hard wannabe avenger. However, once the second half of the film kicks into gear, and Paul finally decides where he stands on the prophecy, the actor absolutely takes hold of the more bombastic and determined evolution his character experiences. How the story has him shift from one spectrum to the other is powered by a pretty noticeable plot device, leaving little room for a feeling of natural development towards his final choice. However, Villeneuve and his main star nonetheless sell the emotion of a tide turning for the story and the character at the center of it all.

The second half of Part Two  follows a more interesting route and atmosphere. Firstly, more characters enter the picture—The Emperor, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux), Feyd, just to name a few. Not all of them get much to do besides enter the picture and get their introduction. For a few moments, one wonders how Villeneuve will fit all these characters in a story that continues to barrel towards a conclusion. It’s moments like these where it becomes hard to really criticize certain areas of a story that feel underwritten; after all, there’s supposed to be a third entry, so it makes sense that not everything will be explained or expanded upon in this movie. Still, certain moments and characters in Part Two feel like a checklist for the filmmaker to simply introduce and come back to later.

But again, in this second half, Part Two takes hold of its fresh take on the “white savior” story, with Paul teetering between acceptance and defiance all while the Fremen themselves bicker over whether to let this privileged white guy lead their people to supposed freedom. This conflict personifies in the characters of Stilgar (Javier Bardem), who evolves from the introductory gatekeeper of the Fremen in Part One to a more fanatical fanboy chomping at the bit for Paul’s destiny to come true. Meanwhile, Paul’s close ally, Chani (Zendaya), shows more resistance to the concept of him leading her people in a war that begins to option phrases like “holy war.” 

This growing unrest between the Fremen is told in a plain way by Villeneuve: there’s a scene where a group of fundamentalists literally stand on one side of the screen and bicker with those less certain of the prophecy standing on the other. For a filmmaker that usually finds power in more subtle explorations of his stories’ themes - Enemy, for example, douses itself in the metaphorical imagery of two Jake Gyllenhaals and giant spiders while minimizing the presence of any dialogue that would get the film’s point across - Part Two feels surprisingly amateur in its obviousness. Still though, just taking on this tired cliché found in many movies outside of the sci-fi genre is refreshing enough, subtlety be damned.

Sadly, a major component of the whole struggle that Paul faces is on how far he’s willing to go to win the war for the Fremen, and how that affects the people he cares for. The film develops his relationship with Chani to go beyond friendship, but a major roadblock in this is the low chemistry between Chalamet and Zendaya, resulting in a third act twist that fails to capture the weight of betrayal that the script seems to want to hit on. As a whole, Chani feels a bit underwhelming even as her character is set up to take on a more important role in this movie and beyond. Even in Part One, Zendaya’s performance has hovered around “fine,” and for this entry, that remains the case as  Zendaya feels less ingrained into the world than her co-stars. Where everyone else is hewing towards a more classical bombast, Zendaya comes across as a more modern performance that’s much lower on the energy scale. On a similar note, the relationship between Paul and his mother feels like it gets the short end of the stick, despite both characters going through interesting changes on their ends. As mentioned before, Lady Jessica starts talking to a fetus, plotting a more sinister route to protect her family, but despite these large changes coming on, Paul himself doesn’t seem too bothered by it. To her credit, Ferguson seems to relish getting a little goofy in these scenes talking to herself, but it’s a shame that the film can’t bring her and Chalamet together to work off one another.

Still, even if not all the performances click at the same level, and even when some of the new characters feel cramped up against one another, Part Two continues the tradition set by its predecessor by being an absolutely awe-inspiring visual feast. Villeneuve and his production team from cinematographer Greig Fraser all the way down to costume designers deserve praise for expanding the look and scope of the world they’ve taken on. Arrakis, despite being a planet of sand, glistens and expands out in lush oranges. Meanwhile, the world of the Harkonnens stands out with its brutal, dead monochromatic world; a place of only death and a lust for violence. A lot of sci-fi worlds find power and constriction in hewing to certain aspects to our world. The main power of Part Two, its Sand Power if you will, is how adept Villeneuve and Co. are at bringing to life worlds that truly feel beyond our galaxies.

While this entry still feels like baby steps towards some truly bonkers sci-fi shenanigans (let’s see where those conniving talks between Ferguson and her fetus lead), they’re steps nonetheless in the right direction. Like all the best Part Two’s, Dune’s begins to develop some of its important characters, while also expanding its world and setting the stakes. Not everything comes together, but that’s a bit of the appeal of long sagas such as these; we become beholden to the creators of such stories, waiting and craving to see if and how they stick the landing.