With Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve was able to complete his two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi cult novel for the cinema. Similar to Dune: Part One, the sequel left me conflicted. In my opinion, Dune 2 suffers from similar problems as its predecessor, but one particular section stood out above the rest of the scenes for me.
Although shadows predominate on the trip to a special planet, it was Giedi Prime excursion in Dune 2 a rare ray of hope. The remaining two and a half hours of the sci-fi spectacle seem strangely pale in comparison.
The Harkonnen Passage in Dune 2 feels like a different, more exciting film
When Dune: Part Two introduces the completely unleashed Austin Butler in the role of the evil Harkonnen nephew Feyd-Rautha, the film temporarily switches to the planet Giedi Prime. A black sun shines here, enveloping every scene in a strange black and white.
In Feyd-Rautha’s first appearance, Harkonnen’s nephew is allowed to celebrate his birthday by slaughtering several opponents in a gladiator arena. Next to the martial, crazy frenzy from Elvis star Butler in the role, the (far too) short Giedi Prime excursion also revolves around the Bene Gesserit Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux).
She is supposed to test Feyd-Rautha as a possible Kwisatz Haderach, i.e. chosen superhuman, similar to how Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) was tested by Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) in the first part.
The scenes with Seydoux in the role stand out Nightmarish Harkonnen chambers filled with disturbing cannibal followers the nephew’s moves, Dune 2 almost turns into a sequel to David Cronenberg’s latest feature film Crimes of the Future for a few scenes.
Warner Bros.
Léa Seydoux in Dune: Part Two
In this section, which lasts barely more than 10 minutes, Dune 2 finally becomes the idiosyncratic, fascinatingly profound and visually hypnotizing vision that the rest of Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of the book material only hints at.
Overall, Dune 2 falls short of Harkonnen Delirium
When the film returns to the desert landscapes of the Fremen after this Harkonnen interlude, watching Dune 2 feels like as if you had just woken up from a bizarre nightmare and back to the brittle, banal reality. Similar to the first part, Dune: Part Two otherwise lacks the daring ingenuity of the Giedi Prime sequences.
Instead, there are visually monotonous scenes that explain the world of the Dune cosmos via dialogue full of exposition. The narrative tone of the sequel is familiar drawling, distant and strangely cold therefore, which allows me to experience Dune 2 without any emotional attachment to the events and everything just sort of happens.
It doesn’t help much when the sci-fi blockbuster unleashes a big battle in the finale and the main character finally becomes a morally depraved leader. Until the end of Dune 2, my thoughts were stuck on the bizarre Harkonnen planet, which I would have liked to see much more of. Only here did the Dune universe become for me the powerful science fiction vision that large parts of the other films could only partially deliver.
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