Zendaya Takes Center Stage in the Cleverly Adapted 'Dune: Part Two'

After three years of waiting (atop a mountain of sand, a thumper desperately calling into the void), audiences are finally witnessing the monstrous Dune: Part Two come riding into theaters. The movie, which covers the second half of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi epic, has been in the works since Dune: Part One's overwhelming success in 2021. Since a wary Warner Bros. had only opted to greenlight Part Two if Part One made money, however, Part Two, with its expansive scope, took time get off the ground. Part Two (like its predecessor during the pandemic) was further delayed by the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, meaning that only now are we returning to the sandy, dehydrated surface of Arrakis. The trip, however, was well worth the wait.

Part Two of Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece picks up shortly after the events of the first film with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), hiding in exile among the native, desert-dwelling Fremen after their noble house was usurped by the ruthless (and eyebrowless) Harkonnens. As with the novel, Paul spends the first half of Part Two bebopping through the desert as he learns to become a Freman, a ruler and a man. He is of course aided in this mission by true believer Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and colleague/fwb Chani (Zendaya upgraded from her brief five minutes of screen time in Part One.) While Paul is learning how to ride giant sand worms and raid Harkonnenian spice mines, Jessica is riling up religious fervor, snagging the role of Reverend Mother (aka Pope meets witch doctor with a chicer wardrobe and face tattoos) and using her Bene Gesserit skills to convince the malleable Fremen that Paul is actually a messiah called "Maud'Dib." (Yes, this is high science-fiction so there are a lot of made up words.)

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy, the evil (Nazi-coded) Harkonnen leader Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgård in a floating fat suit) is ordering his pair of nephews to get the ecological rape of Arrakis back on track and squelch the Fremen uprising. The brutish Glossu Rabban (a pale Dave Bautista) doesn't seem quite up to the task, and so the blood-thirsty (and "psychotic") Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler doing the MOST) is sent to clean things up.

In a third interstellar plotline, the doddering Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken in need of a quick trim at the barber) attempts to play a masterful game of chess with the noble houses of the universe, not realizing that he's being manipulated by Bene Gesserit Gaius Helen Mohiam (veiled Charlotte Rampling). His daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh dressed as Joan of Arc), however, is thankfully the brighter than him.

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Following the plot of the book, Part Two watches this trio of forces circle one another with an inevitable war growing ever closer.

From a technical point (and this basically goes without saying), Part Two, like its predecessor, is flawless. It seems highly likely that the epic will snatch at least the same 10 Oscar noms as the first installment if not more, and other studios aught to consider bumping their movies to 2025 if they'd like a chance at the technical prizes. The visual effects are world class and beg the question, "How is Marvel spending their budget?" Rebecca Ferguson's costumes are yet again jaw-dropping at every turn and the sound design and score are perhaps even stronger than the visuals. Nowhere is this more apparent than during Paul's first ride atop a sandworm, which builds from the clicking of the thumper, through the end-of-your-seat tussle to mount the worm (which you know was just Timmy rolling around on some green blocks), to the triumphant moment when Part One's iconic bellowing score blasts in for the first time. Trying to critique the crafts here is a useless endeavor, and the film demands to be watched on the biggest, most state-of-the-art screen you can find.

What's perhaps more surprising is the deft handling of subject matter by Villeneuve and his co-writer Jon Spaihts. While the first half of the novel focuses on an intricate assassination and coup, the second half is largely spent on skirmishes and training that lead to an ultimate war. A lesser director would have crafted a stunning action movie and called it a day. Part Two, however, pulls heavily from the warnings in Herbert's follow-up Dune Messiah (which Villeneuve is preparing to adapt into Part Three), warnings regarding the dangers of organized religion, messianic figures and nationalism.

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Rather than taking the standard good vs. evil route of many fantasy epics, Part Two demands that viewers examine the gradient of evil. Just because Paul and his Fremen are more just than the Harkonnens and justified in their expulsion of them from Arrakis does not make them role models. Instead, it hopefully sets off alarm bells, forcing audiences to question how willing they are to enter battles on behalf of powerful leaders who bring harm to themselves and others. Set against a backdrop of environmental politics and the threat of atomic war (two things very much alive and well in the modern era), Part Two feels incredibly timely in its questioning of how blind loyalty (to political parties and religions) can lead to mutual destruction. Images of the war torn and sand-strewn masses, of course, also bring current events to mind within this moral interrogation.

One of Villeneuve's most useful tools in this enriching of the story is the expansion of Zendaya's character Chani. In the novel, Chani, a Fremen warrior, falls in love with Paul, but fades to the background in the later parts of the novel before eventually becoming his concubine. In Part Two, Chani questions Jessica's plan to turn Paul into a messiah and actively pushes back against Paul's accepting of this mantle. It's Chani, not Paul, who stands out as the hero and audience surrogate while the great houses throttle towards war. Much of this is injected into the film through Zendaya's subtle observation and facial expressions. While Chalamet prattles about and Ferguson moves between trances and cryptic mutterings, Zendaya provides Part Two with warmth and humanity, proving to be the film's greatest asset both on screen and on the red carpet. There aren't really bad performances in Part Two (a bland Chalamet is the closest thing to a weak link in the cast), but even among giants, Zendaya proves her worth.

Dune: Part Two is a masterpiece that surpasses the high expectations set by Part One, a movie so good, it will make you forget the horror of its popcorn bucket.

Grade: A

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