No new movie of its size, scale, or hoped-for profit bears more potential than Dune: Part Two, which finds Denis Villeneuve adapting the (more or less) second half of Frank Herbert’s sprawling, totemic novel that formed Dune, or which we might now call Part One. Tempting as it is to note David Lynch covered the same ground in less than 50% of the time with a sui generis zeal these new films aren’t quite able to exhibit––at least its maudit status is exceedingly overplayed (not least by Lynch himself)––Villeneuve and co. captured the text’s titanic, ornate qualities in a way that felt somewhat landmark. If it was also a perfect Herbert distillation for alternating such awe with the interminable, good fortune that Dune‘s second half is more fun. (And being shot stem-to-stern in IMAX doesn’t hurt.)
Part Two reunites much of the who’s-who cast (Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling) but maybe excites more for its newcomers: Léa Seydoux, Christopher Walken (!), Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and Tim Blake Nelson in an undisclosed role one can only hope is Alia. Needless to say the Instagram promotion of this thing’s going to be intense.
Ahead of a November 3 release, watch the preview below:
