What Critics Are Saying About Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve is on one heck of a winning streak these days — a "heater," as the kids might say. The director behind jaw-dropping films like "Enemy" and "Sicario" followed up his early success by turning himself into a household name, first making 2016's "Arrival" into an Academy Awards darling before unleashing "Blade Runner 2049" on the masses. Now, the filmmaker who once made a feature-length thriller about Hugh Jackman punching Paul Dano into a pulp has graduated to the blockbuster big leagues. With 2021's "Dune," Villeneuve and co-writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth took a classic sci-fi novel long considered to be "unadaptable" and somehow delivered a crowd-pleasing hit, one that has had audiences hungry for the sequel ever since.
Now that delays caused by the pandemic and then the writers' and actors' strikes are behind us, it's finally time for fans to inhale a handful of spice and make the trek out to theaters for "Dune: Part Two." There are plenty of reasons to expect an even bigger pop-culture phenomenon among mainstream viewers this time around, from a proper theatrical release (unlike "Part One," which had to settle for a hybrid model split between theaters and the streaming service then known as HBO Max) to an ensemble packed with practically every big name in Hollywood right now. Most of all, however, early reactions among critics who saw the highly-anticipated film weeks ago have set expectations sky-high. That sound you hear off in the distance is Warner Bros. executives and stockholders alike throwing champagne parties over the advance-ticket numbers rolling in.
With the Rotten Tomatoes score sitting pretty at a robust 97%, let's dive deeper into what the critics are saying about "Dune: Part Two" ahead of its release later this week.
Sandworm-sized spectacle
Fear might be the mind-killer, but nobody involved in "Dune: Part Two" has reason to be afraid of poor reviews. It's safe to say that the reaction to Denis Villeneuve's latest epic has been almost universally rapturous. /Film's own Chris Evangelista published one of the many positive reviews, even if he was a bit more reserved in his praise than most others. Cautioning viewers to prepare themselves for "one of the bleakest blockbusters ever made" and noting that the script feels "aimless" at times, he went on to herald the sequel as:
"[...] a grand, overwhelming sensory experience. Villeneuve has a great grasp on scale, and everything here feels appropriately huge. A shot of those giant sandworms bursting forth through a sandstorm is genuinely frightening because we can sense how massive these things are. The costumes pop, the scenery stuns, and Hans Zimmer's score booms and drones until you can feel it rattling your ribcage. If nothing else, 'Dune: Part Two' is a triumph of production design."
Others, however, were blown away to even greater heights. Former /Film editor and current Inverse critic Hoai-Tran Bui dropped a pull quote that will surely reverberate among fans in her review, describing the plot of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his grappling with his own destiny as:
"A sci-fi epic for the ages: a sweeping tragedy of mythic proportions, a cautionary tale of the perils of zealotry. It's a towering feat of sci-fi cinema that will put 'Dune: Part Two' in contention for the pantheon of greatest sequels ever."
io9's Germain Lussier (another /Film alum!) echoed those thoughts, calling the film:
"[...] more than a mere sequel. It's a continuation, culmination, and ultimately a fantastic elevation of everything you already loved about director Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film 'Dune: Part One.'"
Near-universal acclaim
In short, those who enjoyed our first trip to Arrakis in 2021 will almost assuredly find themselves fully on board the sandworm ride this time around as well. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com makes the case for the sequel as a "superior follow-up," saying that:
"'Dune: Part Two' locates significantly higher stakes on Arrakis, while injecting just enough humor and nuanced themes about power and fanaticism to flavor the old-fashioned storytelling. More than a simple savior or chosen one story, '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."
Matt Singer of Screen Crush highlights the more personal flavor of storytelling in "Part Two," lauding the film for focusing on character even amid the VFX-fueled spectacle. As he puts it:
"'Dune' also stands in stark contrast to so many other shallow tentpoles of recent years in also investing an enormous amount of time and energy into treating its characters as fully realized and deeply flawed people, not merely props to be scanned and programmed into computers so they can do cool-looking but physically-impossible things onscreen."
Not everyone came away from the experience with their brain chemistry completely altered by spice, however. IndieWire's David Ehrlich praised the blockbuster's world-building and technical prowess but noted that the characters are often swallowed up by Villeneuve's ambition:
"If 'Dune: Part Two' is more nuanced and action-packed than the previous installment, and Chalamet's twiggy princeling a far less passive hero than he was the first time around, the relative density of the drama that Villenueve has packed into this movie is deflated by a similar uptick in the grandiosity of the spectacle that surrounds it."
But what will audiences think? "Dune: Part Two" roars into theaters March 1, 2024.