Director: Denis Villeneuve

Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pug, Christopher Walken, Dave Bautista, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård

The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 science fiction novel picks up the pace and lightens the tone a little following its ponderous predecessor.

Like David Lynch’s inspired/bonkers/incomprehensible 1984 version, it begins with an introduction by Princess Irulan, played this time around by (an underused) Florence Pugh. Irulan recounts how the Atreides family of the planet Caladan were awarded custodianship of the desert planet Arrakis aka Dune by Irulan’s father, Emperor Shaddam IV (Walken, also underused). While the Atreides were getting acquainted with the unruly, desert-dwelling Arrakis natives, the Fremen, the planet was attacked by the wicked Harkonnen family, headed by the disgusting, decadent Baron Harkonnen (Skarsgård). This, all at the Emperor’s bidding in an attempt to dispose of the Atreides family.

We catch up with young Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Ferguson), the latter a member of the secretive psychic Bene Gesserit order, as they are trying to win over the trust of the suspicious natives while offering their hosts help in fighting off the occupying Harkonnen army and avenging the death of Paul’s father in the process. Some of the Fremen are deeply suspicious of the new arrivals. The bluff, lusty Stilgar (Bardem) however is starting to believe that Paul is a messiah come to save his people.

Meanwhile on the Harkonnen home planet Geidi Prime, the psychotic Feyd-Rutha (a hairless, marble-complexioned Butler), nephew of Baron Harkonnen, is being groomed to replace Paul as the chosen one to lead Arrakis. In what is maybe a riposte to critics of Villeneuve’s penchant for desaturated colour schemes the Geidi Prime scenes are rendered in almost black and white, but they are undeniably impressive with their brutalist gladiatorial stadia and fireworks that resemble inkblot explosions.

Despite a script that feels perfunctory at times, Paul and Jessica’s developing trust with the Fremen is nicely conveyed, as is Paul’s romance with Fremen woman Chani (Zendaya) thanks in no small part to the chemistry between the leads. A silent sequence showing Paul and Chani sandwalking erratically but in unison in order to avoid attracting Arrakis’s ginormous sandworms, plays sweetly like a silent dance sequence. The treatment of Paul’s possible divinity feels less sure-footed and broader, due to some ‘Life of Brian’-style proclamations from Bardem.

As with the first instalment, the picture features awesome, monumental production design from Patrice Vermette and a gallery of sweeping David Lean-style vistas from cinematographer Greig Fraser, while Hans Zimmer’s score is suitably unearthly. But Villeneuve is frustratingly coy in his rationing of giant sandworm money shots and in a rushed climactic battle sequence as if action scenes and towering monsters are too vulgar for such elevated sci-fi fare. Consequently, there is a slight feeling of anti-climax at the abrupt conclusion which is clearly setting the scene for another picture.

Dune: Part Two is released 1st March

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm