HERE WE GO AGAIN, AND AGAIN
There’s no getting around the fact that this is one very long movie. Like its predecessor, Part One.
The book, on which the two new movies are based, as well as the first attempt by Director David Lynch, is a science fiction saga of warring families in a far-off corner of interplanetary space.
And it is one of the world’s best-selling novels.
Of course, that means it had to be made for the big screen.
Lynch’s 1984 version was a fever dream that starred, improbably, Sting. And a young Kyle MacLachlan as the hero Paul Atreides.
Paul’s family accepts control of the planet Arrakis, a desert wasteland, but the key source of mélange, or “Spice,” a drug that sharpens the brain, promises an extension of youth, and is also necessary for space navigation.
(Key to the plot, though, is that It’s protected by ferocious sandworms, which are the size of tall buildings.)
This means that the House Atreides is constantly defending its control of Arrakis, made possible when the Atreides Duke Leto is assigned to be the planet’s protector by a calculating Emperor.
Leto proves worthy of the assignment, but the duke's growing popularity angers the Emperor, so he conspires with the Harkonnen, the original stewards of Arrakis and sworn enemies of House Atreides, to kill Leto and his family.
However, Paul, in the new films played by Timothee Chalamet, and his mother, Jessica, Leto’s concubine, escape into the desert and join the Fremen, an indigenous people who at first are suspicious of the pair.
The initial plotting of the story made up the bulk of Dune: Part One.
Part Two concerns the efforts of Paul and his mother to join forces with the Emperor’s enemies, including the Bene Gesserit, a group of religious women with mystical powers and mysterious political aims, to kill the Emperor and his troops and secure for all time the control and manufacture of Spice for House Atreides.
The plotting is far more complicated than I care to relate here. So, it’s no wonder director Denis Villeneuve chose to split the saga into two movies.
The effort mostly works, but be warned each film runs more than three hours. And, yes, you can appreciate Part Two without having seen Part One.
The cinematography is spectacular and Chalamet is effective as a reluctant hero who wears the mantle of a warrior like a second skin.