A Brief History
On March 1, 2024, American sci-fi movie fans will be treated to the opening of the latest of the movies based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune. After the highly successful Denis Villeneuve 2021 reboot of the Dune story, the 2024 film, Dune: Part Two, is a sequel also brought to us by Villeneuve and with the same main cast.
Digging Deeper
Casting is indeed great, with Timothée Chalamet returning as the main character, Paul, and his frenemy/love interest Chani played by Zendaya. The all-star cast includes Christopher Walken, David Bautista, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson, and Stellan Skarsgård. Dialogue and acting were both great.
Back in 2021 we compared the three major cinematic versions of Dune and concluded that the 2021 version was indeed a worthy entrant to the franchise. The 2024 sequel is no disappointment either, as we remained transfixed to the screen during the entire 167 minute running time. We saw an early screening on a huge, curved screen that made the epic film achieve its potential, and we strongly recommend you look for the film on such a screen if available. Of course, we were sure to re-watch the 2021 film before attending the advance screening of Dune: Part Two to remind us of where we were in the sequence of events.
We expect a blockbuster sci-fi film to be eye candy of the first order, and indeed it was. Without any gimmicky spectacular stuff, the giant sand worms, incredible landscapes, space scenes, explosions, and battle scenes were so lifelike and realistic that we never thought about the CGI or other FX effects that went into making the film. The film is truly a triumph of film making technical expertise. Individual fights were choreographed to perfection, with no blatant missed blows or phony looking movements. Again, the action was so believable that we never felt as if we were watching fiction instead of real action.
Dune: Part Two earns our approval also by being a nice, bright, clear movie without any of the dark, dimly lit scenes that we can barely make out that infects so many other films.
The 2021 Dune cost $165 million and earned $434+ million at the box office, while this year’s sequel put the producers back at least $190 million, and we believe it will easily turn a profit. Other reviews of Dune: Part Two have been consistently positive, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting 97% of critics approving of the film.
Without providing spoilers as to the details of the plot, suffice to say that Dune: Part Two ends with a blatant implication of another film in the series to wrap up the journey of Paul Atreides and his adventures, possibly based on the novel, Dune Messiah. We say, Go For It!
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite screen adaptation of Dune? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Macmillan Audio, 2006.
Herbert, Frank. Frank Herbert’s Dune Saga 3-Book Boxed Set: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune. Ace, 2020.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Dr. Zar with promotional items for Dune: Part Two after having attended an advance screening of this film, was taken by his mother and is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
