Dune: Part Two: The Sand Warriors Strike Back

The follow up to "Dune" from March of 2024 exhilarates with audiences and critics. Which leaves one final review that fictional blue-blooded sandworms want to read: The Hundred Tomatoes synopsis

As the fourth highest grossing movie of 2024 to date, Denis Villenueve’s “Dune: Part Two” generated a box office buzz not often seen in the world of cinema in these trying times. The film follows the mythic journey of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Does Dune: Part Two hypnotically harness a giant sandworm through the high sands, or crash spectacularly? Before we decide on the messianic nature of this movie, let’s look at the thoughts of some random strangers that post at some foul-smelling place known as, “Rotten Tomatoes.” Here are their impressions:

Critic Score: 92% Certified Fresh

Critic Synopsis: Visually thrilling and narratively epic, Dune: Part Two continues Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the beloved sci-fi series in spectacular form.

Audience Score: 96% Certified Fresh

Audience Synopsis: Dune: Part Two is nearly three hours of exceptional sci-fi spectacle that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

Clearly, “Dune: Part Two” gets held up to a high standard by basically everyone. However, one important figure remains to determine whether this film reaches the status worthy of a messiah: Hundred Tomatoes.

Spoiler Alert: I will potentially discuss specific scenes from the movie that may unveil certain plot points. This movie came out well over six months ago, but on the off chance you have not seen it and would rather not have parts spoiled, you can quickly scroll to our “TL; DR” synopsis at the end, along with our official score out of, you guessed it, ONE HUNDRED TOMATOES.

Without further ado, let’s go to the full review:

A certain philosopher once told me that, “the best way to spread movie cheer, is quoting loud for all to hear.” In the case of “Dune: Part Two”, if I invested a nickel for every time I heard someone loudly proclaim, “LISAN-AL-GAIB”, especially within the first few months of the release, I could probably buy an Arizona Iced Tea (assuming they still go for 99 cents). Upon further reflection, maybe I heard this quote from none other than Christmas legend Buddy the Elf, and maybe I paraphrased it. But you get the idea: The Dune series penetrates through the cultural noise, to the point where people rely upon it as a bastion of stability when it comes to movie quality.

Aside from incessantly hearing that one phrase I just mentioned, something that immediately sticks out about “Dune: Part Two” are all the amazing aesthetic elements. This includes the costume design, the production design/setting, the cinematography, the sound, the score, and more.

Immediately, both the costumes and settings jump out at me. Location wise, the desert scenery creates a wide range of mountains and rolling hills of sand. There is something oddly beautiful about the endless rolling hills of sand, only to be interrupted occasionally by cliffs, mountains, and rock formations that gets contrasted nicely with the sun. The elaborate enemy ships breathtakingly contrast with the scenery on the planet as well.

Some of the costumes, while eccentric, present unique designs that look thoroughly conceptualized, with each main faction creating their own auras that permeate throughout the film. Some costume choices make me scratch my head, but the amount of thought put into every nook and cranny of the costumes boggles the mind, creating a lasting impression.

Cinematography wise, the way the film captures captivating moments that create an immersive environment that takes my breath away at times.  In a sense, I feel like I am alongside the characters in their universe. The camera shots give you a sense of the vastness of the planet. It also shoots the action scenes in a compelling way that allows for viewers to follow along easily, without fear of seizures.

Speaking of immersion, the score from Hans Zimmer beautifully creates dramatic tension from scene to scene. While nothing particularly iconic about it sticks out to me like some of the greatest scores, nor is it one I plan on listening to on Spotify, but it does its job in keeping viewers engaged with the universe. It also builds up some of the tension in a way that grips.

The immersive experiences trickle all the way down to the sound effects. The noises they need to create for the various creatures/spaceships come across as deceptively realistic. When creating a science fiction movie, the complications that can emerge for creating often gets overlooked. In this case, everything seemed surprisingly believable, with nothing sticking out that comes across as odd or worse yet, cringeworthy. That within itself is an accomplishment.

While the film undeniably brings an electric atmosphere, I cannot help but complain about one aspect: the color palette could use more variance at times. For 75% of the film, it feels like I am just starting at various shades of dull colors, which at times creates an aura of dreariness that induces depression. It borders on soulless in certain instances. With that said, they shake it up just enough to keep me on my toes.

Outside of aesthetics, both the writing and acting get the job done. Something I appreciate about the writing is that they do not try to reinvent the lore from the book too much. Or at least it gives off that appearance. As a result, the dialogue comes across as intelligent and natural. Too often, writers try to do too much to inject either their personal beliefs or get heavy handed with their message. Dune 2 avoids that trap nicely. They tell a compelling story in a way that does not condescend to its audience.

All the actors bring forward grounded, yet compelling performances. From a specific personality perspective, nobody stands out, because many of them show flashes of brilliance throughout the course of it. Everyone seems committed to their role, and understands the nature of their characters well, creating consistent brands throughout. Although the chemistry between Zendaya and Chalamet seems a touch artificial, their nonverbal messages they send throughout subtly showcase their various emotions in compelling ways.

The action scenes also deliver in a big way. The filmmakers include a wide variety of stunts that keep viewers on their toes. Between the final fight scene, and the battles in the first half all are well choreographed. The harnessing of the giant sandworm also jumps out as a memorable moment. One minor complaint, however, is that the worm looks like it weighs about a gazillion tons, and that’s a conservative estimate. Timothee Chalamet on the other hand, looks like he has never stepped foot into a gym in his entire life. Not even to report someone using the “lunk alarm” at a Planet Fitness. While I appreciate his acting chops, my BS alarms go off every time I see that scene play out.

Objectively speaking, this film features everything moviegoers would want and more. So then why for the life of me can I not generate the same personal excitement about it that others clearly can?

Put simply, the pacing drags. Dune 2 lasts nearly three hours, yet it feels like they could cut thirty plus minutes without skipping a beat. It seems that they take their time a little bit too much when shifting from scene to scene, to the point where I start to check out. I wish from an editing perspective, more pushback occurred on whether certain scene setting really needed to happen at different parts.

To illustrate my point: the first time I attempted to watch this in theaters, I nodded off for approximately ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe it was the dreary colors I mentioned earlier? Maybe I suffer from narcolepsy and need to get that checked out? Or maybe it’s a combo of both, who knows. But here’s the weirdest aspect of this: I fell asleep, yet when I woke up, I felt like I missed nothing from a plot perspective. The movie seems to go overboard on the world building exposition, to the point where someone can take periodic naps and still follow along with the main plot without issue.

Regardless of the reason for sleeping in a movie theater (I once had someone tell me on a plane that I was “just wonderful” whilst was sleeping in the seat next to them, so hopefully that was the case here?), the unfortunate fact that it happened means I need to deduct points from my score for Dune 2. With that said, when taking a step back, it is undeniable:  Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” delivers on all the important aspects of what make a film a success in the grander scheme of things. Its aesthetics, writing and acting all bring high quality ingredients to the table.  

HT Score: 81/100 Tomatoes

TL;DR Synopsis  - A technically excellent film across the board that can occasionally drag from a pacing perspective.

Oscar Watch

At this point, it seems likely that “Dune: Part Two” will land a nomination in the “Best Picture” category, unless members of the Academy decide to punish it for being a sequel. The odds of it taking home the grand prize however are extremely low, due to its lack of momentum at the various film festivals or other awards shows. With that in mind, as I mentioned above, “Dune: Part Two” thrives in its aesthetics, to the point where depending on the Academies tastes this year, could take home a ton of hardware on that front. I could foresee nominations coming in the following categories:

Best Director: While I highly doubt Denis Villeneuve will win, he needed to manage a lot to ensure this films success. He did so masterfully.

Best Costume Design: The amount of work they put into this shows, and their ability to contrast the factions sticks out, even if I wish they used a wider color palette.

Best Production Design:  The rolling hills, mountains, enemy spacecraft and more are all breathtaking.

Best Sound: So many new sounds need to be created for this, and they pulled it off beautifully.

Best Cinematography: The camera work creates an immersive environment that showcases the beauty of the universe.

Best Score: The only way this loses out on this nomination is if they consider it to be too “derivative” from the first movie. Which is entirely possible.

Best Visual Effects: The special effects for the action scenes and elsewhere are extremely well done and believable.

Best Hairstyling and Makeup: The amount of effort that went into all this as well should likely be noted, as they needed to create all kinds of unique characters through the makeup/hair department.

Best Editing: Personally, I blame the editing for the pacing, but it’s undeniable that they had a tough job to put all this footage together in a coherent way, yet did so without any real hiccups in the plot.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Dune book series is extremely complex and requires solid writers to separate the wheat from the chaff in it to craft strong dialogue. These writers did so without needing to inject ham-fisted dialogue or heavy-handed messages. My hat goes off to them.