With his new film, ‘Dune: Part Two’, writer/director Denis Villeneuve has fully realized his dream of bringing Frank Herbert’s heretofore unadaptable foundational sci-fi novel to the biggest screen. Based on the incredible work on display throughout his first foray into the world of Arrakis, 2021’s ‘Dune: Part One’, the success of this next part was all but inevitable. Signaled by the unusual art designs of that films’s ships, landscapes, and costumes, fueled by the performances of a stacked cast who understood the assignment, it certainly seemed that the very talented visual purveyor was “born for this”. Now joined by even more young talent like Florence Pugh and Austin Butler, and featuring more screen time for standouts Zendaya and Javier Bardem, ‘Part Two’s Fremen-focused narrative delivers the emotional heft along with the clinical precision of its predecessor.

Picking up literally where ‘Part One’ left off, the audience is thrust into the desert environs of the film’s title. Timothy Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and his mother, Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica are joined by Zendaya’s enigmatic Fremen warrior Chani in presiding over the tightly wrapped corpse of Jamis, who Paul defeated during the conclusion of the previous film. In the first of many bravura action set pieces, they are beset by Harkonnen soldiers garbed in less efficient and less mobile versions of the stillsuits needed for desert survival. The costuming and levitating effects here are an indication of the filmmakers’ continued attention to detail and dedication to presenting something fresh and new to viewers, characteristics which continue through the movie’s runtime.

The focus of ‘Part Two’ is the burgeoning relationship between Paul and the Fremen, the indigenous population of the desert planet Arrakis. In particular the film fleshes out the partnership between he and Chani, a character given much more agency than she has in previous adaptations as well as the original source material which was published in 1965. In the very capable hands of Zendaya, Chani emerges as a focal point for the audience, as she is at once drawn to the young Atreides and skeptical of the “prophecy” that surrounds him. By structuring the movie this way, it upends the familiar “hero’s journey” and foreign savior narrative. Chalamet’s work here starts with the typical reluctance to accept the stature thrust upon him. One can feel and understand through his performance his desire to be a true partner to these people and Chani, unlike most of these types of stories where the viewer can grow impatient with the protagonist’s journey to realization. In this case as well, the dangers of accepting his fate are real and convincing, juxtaposed with the comic zealotry of Bardem’s Stilgar and intense fanaticism of his mother, Lady Jessica (Ferguson is incredible in this role as she charts her character journey throughout the series).

Further into its runtime, ‘Dune: Part Two’ introduces more key players to bring the story along to its conclusion. An exquisitely costumed Pugh plays the Princess Irulan, daughter to the Emperor of the Known Universe, played by Christopher Walken in all his detached glory. The biggest standout this late in the story is Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, the psychotic nephew of the Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard in freak mode) a role famously inhabited by Sting in the 1984 David Lynch adaptation of “Dune”. Presented in glorious black and white (the Harkonnen home world is bathed in the monochrome light of a black sun), arena gladiator style, Feyd is a bloodthirsty miscreant who Butler portrays with relish. It’s these acting touches that keep ‘Dune’ from becoming overly self-serious, even as it maintains its wonderfully ponderous and operatic tone. Villeneuve doesn’t necessarily have to prove anything at this point with ‘Sicario’, ‘Arrival’, and ‘Blade Runner 2049’ on his resume, but with his ‘Dune’ saga he is showing his true mastery of the form. He continues to explore themes of corrupting power and the perversion of symbols, but with this second part in what will hopefully be at least a trilogy under his design, he has crafted a genre masterpiece for a generation in league with ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ . . .

Directed By: Denis Villeneuve

Written By: Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts

Runtime: 166 min.

Rated: PG-13

* * * * (out of 4 stars) -OR- A