Dune Part Two: The Return of the Space Epic

The sci-fi genre is a type of movie that has consistently seen success ever since its explosion in popularity in the 1960s and 70s. In recent years, however, these types of movies have had a string of troubled releases that cast a shadow on the genre. Mainly these consisted of the new Star Wars that while financially successful, were also critically maligned for their poor character and world writing. In 2021 the release of Dune succeeded in many ways where Star Wars failed. The film was praised for its excellent performances, grand scope, and faithful adaptation of the famous novel and I am happy to report Dune Part Two continues this trend of quality. 

Dune Part Two’s plot continues immediately where the first movie left off so anyone interested in this film must have watched the first one beforehand. The film follows Paul Atredias (Timothee Chalamet) as he attempts to rally the help of the native Fremen on the planet Arrakis in the hopes of getting revenge against house Atreides. The story follows a familiar “destroy the evil empire plot line” with a lot of the trademarks of such a story such as bringing rebels together and political intrigue. This familiarity is not negative as the story does a lot to deliver unique moments alongside the usual story beats. Throughout the film, I was swept up by the amount of history for the world and the characters that are presented. The writing does a fantastic job of compelling me to pick up the original novel just so I can learn more about its world. 

My only major complaint with this movie is I felt its length and pacing were not as solid as the first film. The first movie had a slower pace which built up to very climactic moments in the film. There is a very important moment towards the end of the first film that does a great job of setting up the ending. Its sequel has a lot more of these types of moments that lessened the emotional weight of these scenes since there were so many like it. While this more bombastic form of pacing serves to add to its epic proportions it left me feeling slightly less invested compared to its previous installment Overall, Dune Part Two is a breath of fresh air for sci-fi movies. It’s also refreshing to see a story that trusts its audience to be willingly invested in the extensive lore that is presented. For those of you looking for an intense political/ war drama you absolutely can’t go wrong with this sci-fi spectacle.