Review: 'Dune: Part Two' is a feast for the eyes and ears

By Peter Travers

Maybe you're eager to see "Dune: Part Two" for the multiplex-shaking spectacle and thunderous sound that remain spectacular in every sense of the word. Or maybe you think costars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are just the cutest coolest screen couple in, like, ever.

Either way, you'll get your money's worth from director Denis Villeneuve's sequel to his futuristic 2021 blockbuster, based on Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel. Not since David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" have we seen a desert vibrate with such mesmerizing beauty and terror. There's not an ounce of hack work in it.

There's also a dynamite new villain in Feyd-Rautha, played by a brilliant and scarily hairless Austin Butler, and battle scenes to die for that demand to be experienced on the biggest screen. That should be easy since unlike "Part One," released during the pandemic, there won't be a streaming option for quite some time. Expect a "Barbenheimer"-level rush on the box office.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/AP

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet in a scene from "Dune: Part Two."

Setbacks? There are a few worth a mention. At nearly three hours, all that shifting, swirling sand can be a dreary drag on the pacing. And Herbert's timeless themes of colonialist economic, political and racial persecution suffer from a dispiriting lack of development. Subtexts tend to go out the window in the face of thrilling attacks from giant sandworms.

And yet the narrative, constructed by Villeneuve and cowriter Jon Spaihts, exerts a gravitational pull that cannot be denied. Add a propulsive Hans Zimmer score and camera miracles from Graig Fraser -- both won Oscars for the first "Dune" -- and it's a feast for the eyes and ears.

The plot picks up exactly where "Part One" left off. Chalamet is still a skinny marink as Paul Atreides, the young duke and maybe future messiah, but his father's murder has beefed up Paul's resolve for revenge against freaky Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his two psycho nephews, Butler's cunning Feyd-Rautha and Dave Bautista's beastly Glossu Rabban.

The prize for all this in-fighting -- provoked by the Emperor, played by the emperor of weird, Christopher Walken -- is found on the desert planet of Arrakis (Dune to you) in the form of a spice that can expand consciousness and life. Everyone wants a hit off this wonder drug.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/AP

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Zendaya in a scene from "Dune: Part Two."

This leads Paul and his pregnant, widowed mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), to form an alliance with the Fremen, an indigenous tribe of desert guerilla warriors led by Stilgar, played by Javier Bardem with a sense of humor this movie needs more than any spice. Bardem is a riot.

Stilgar thinks Paul is the messiah, though his chief soldier Chani (the incandescent Zendaya seizing a richer, better written role than she had in "Part One") is not so sure. But her hot love thing for Paul comes through as legit, giving "Part Two" the romantic rooting interest it needs amid all the mystical mumbo-jumbo that script keeps laying on us.

Zendaya and Chalamet need to be captivating, and they most assuredly are, bringing flesh-and-blood to the film's high-minded reach toward destiny.

Is "Part Two" really the end of the "Dune" story? Don't bet on it. Hollywood rarely lets go of a franchise as long as it keeps laying golden eggs. Villeneuve has already hinted he's up for another go. And he's gifted enough to make that sound less like a threat than an exhilarating promise that we ain't seen nothing yet.