Dune : part II

Year of release : 2024

 

Run time : 2h46min

 

Genre : Adventure / Sci Fi

 

Cast : Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling

 

 

The movie is based on the book series of the same name by Frank Herbert, and is the second movie of the series.

 

The movie starts where the first one ended, and after overcoming a Harkonnen ambush, Paul with his mother, who joined the Fremen, reach Sietch Tabr , on Arrakis.

 

Some of the Fremen at the Sietch suspect the mother and son are spies, so Stilgar tells Jessica that their Reverend Mother is dying and she can take her place,drinking the 'Water of life', a water that can show the one who drinks it all the memories of the past,and a water which kills males who drink it.

 

Jessica transmutes the poison and gains the memories of all the female ancestors in the lineage. She can also communicate with her unborn daughter, as the water awoken her mind.

 

Paul leaves with the Fremen,asking Stilgar,who believes him to be their Messiah, to teach him the Fremen ways, to harness the power of the desert,in order to defeat the Harkonnen.

He and Chani fall in love, and he learns their ways, riding the biggest sandworm.

Becoming a Fredaykin, he joins the other Fremen on raids against the Harkonnen, destroying their spice harvesters.

 

It goes so bad for the Harkonnen,that Rabban is replaced by the psychotic Feyd-Rautha,baron Harkonnen promising him the emperor's throne if he succeeds in killing the Fremen .

 

Jessica travels South to the fundamentalists who believe Paul to be their Messiah .Paul fears to go, as his visions warn him of a holy war.

Most of the Fremen believe he's the one, because what he says and does was written in the prophecies, his biggest fan being Stilgar himself. Chani doesn't believe him to be the one, but signs reveal him to be just that.

 

Although he fears going to the South, Paul realizes he needs to drink the 'Water of life' the way his mother told him,in order to see the path,and know how to take action.

 

The universe created was again amazing( for example the Harkonnen planet was all black and white,there were no colors.They were all pale,dressed in black), the costumes changed from planet to planet and house to house, the visual effects were great.

The Harkonnen are not as strong and powerful as they seem to be. On their planet, we see how they drug the fighters who they force to fight them, in order to win,and probably to fool the audience everybody but them is weak,and an unworthy adversary. Rabban is defeated easily by Gurney. Even Feyd-Rautha,the psychopath, is defeated,(true,not that easily), by Paul, who is 15 or 16,at the time!

 

The emperor Shaddam looks more like a weak, frail man, who doesn't have the energy to fight anyone let alone start wars due to envy. We then find out he did everything because the Reverend Mother told him to, so she could have used the voice on him,just like Jessica uses the voice on the Fremen to do her bidding.

 

Paul doesn't have as many visions as in the first movie. But his power grows after he drinks the water / poison from the sandworm (which changes him. He goes from saying he's not the Messiah to telling the disbelievers that he is Messiah), and he even puts the great Reverend Mother in her place, who shakes and almost falls,calling him a "monstrosity",because I guess,everyone feared her, no one was more powerful than her, and she was finally put in her place.

 

The actors were great. The trailers give the impression some actors would have more air time, but the leads are Timothee, Zendaya, Javier, and after, all the rest,more or less. For example, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler don't have that much air time,Austin probably appears for 10-15 minutes,while Florence for 5-10 minutes. Jessica also appears for probably 15 minutes in the whole movie. Christopher Walken again,appears for only 5-10 minutes.

 

Dune is half in English and half in the Fremen language,which is mostly Arabic. The actors had to study for weeks and came to set fluent,quoting the director, Denis Villeneuve, Timothee Chalamet giving whole speeches in Chakobsa .

 

The soundtrack was just as beautiful and epic as the soundtrack of the first Dune.

 

The movie is out in cinemas worldwide.

 

Rating : The stuff dreams are made of!