Dune: Part Two (2024)

Plot of Dune: Part Two: Paul Atreides is the sole survivor of the house of Atreides, formerly the administrators of the planet Arrakis, sometimes known as “Dune”, and now under the control of Baron Harkonnen. Paul joins the rebel Fremen tribe, becomes enamoured of one of their fighters, Chani, and they take on the Baron’s forces. Meanwhile the Baron discards one of his nephews Rabban in favour of the evil Feyd-Rautha, in the hope of maintaining control of the planet, but the Fremen with the assistance of the Paul continue to harass the spice collectors. In the background is the Bene Gesserit a monastic order of women, which includes Paul’s mother who is pregnant with his sister and communicates with the unborn child. The Bene Gesserit manipulate the bloodlines of the Great Houses, and it all comes to a head when the Emperor and his daughter descend to the surface of Arrakis to deal with the upstart Paul, who is now seen by the Fremen as their messiah.

Content: There is no nudity and just a bit if implied sex. Some spice and a blue liquid which is said to look like toilet cleaner is also consumed. The capability of the consumers is enhanced in various ways. There is a lot of sand and at various times the sand worms appear which are vast living tubes with gaping orifices at the end, you would hardly call them mouths. Paul is required to ride a sand worm as part of his initiation into the Fremen which he does, and it turns out that the worms are used as transport. There are many fire fights. Aircraft are shot down, the vast spice collecting machines are destroyed and there is a lot of hand to hand combat. There are meeting of the Fremen, when Paul is rejected and then accepted. Feyd-Rautha fights a duel in the arena as a sort of birthday present.

A View: What can I say. Straight in at Number 11 in the IMDb hall of fame , and despite its vast cost, looks likely to make money. Well, if you’ve seen the first one, obviously you would have to see this one as well. As one of the critics said, “bigger, bolder and wormier”. But I have memories of Baron Harkonnen and his nephew in the first Dune who was wonderfully evil, in ways not achieved in this film. It was extremely sandy and for the first fifteen minutes or so I really went along with it. But then it was a bit unremitting, sand an more sand, and the asides more difficult to understand. Dare I use the word “tiresome”. The one thing I would advise is that you bone up on the story before going to the cinema.

Fun Fact: It has been assessed that the two hours and forty-six minutes of this film were covered by thirty-nine minutes of the first one.