Fair use from Warner Bros

As a person who grew up reading all books, I’ve always been excited about the release of new Dune content — however, most of the time the content fails to meet expectations. “Dune: Part Two” was released in theaters Mar. 1. In these two movies the story is ultimately a revenge plot between Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Baron Harkonnen (Ian McNeice). With Paul seeking revenge in many ways, it succeeds the goal even with the problems the film experiences.

The main issue with the revenge-style plot is that, even with the long and expectant rest of the film, the ending of the movie feels so rushed and forced. Even though Atreides takes his revenge, because of how fast the end was, it leaves the viewer unsatisfied. Ultimately, I feel if the movie spent more time in the exposition explaining what happened after Paul succeeded it would have left the viewer feeling better about the film. If the movie hadn’t had other issues the film would’ve been fantastic in my eyes, but unfortunately, it has other issues that pop up. Characters are very inconsistent between the movies and the plot is left majorly unexplained in areas.

Characters in this film are inconsistent with how they showed up compared to the first part of the Dune movies. For example, in “Dune: Part One,” Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) appears weak, counter to her backstory. Whereas she appears really influential and powerful when she becomes a Reverend Mother. The portrayal of the character is fine. I love the idea of character growth, but the change was like whiplash. She suddenly changed with no foreshadowing given to the moment, making the change feel really weak. Another such character is Paul’s romantic interest, Chani. In the first film, she is shown to be a devout follower of Shai-Hulud from the Freman religion. However, in the second film she takes on the role of the atheist fighting back against any influence of her native religion and the influences Paul tries to inspire in her. This is fine, and her showing atheism as a fold strengthens the story. It would’ve been nice to have a bit more consistency shown in the film however.

Alongside the previously stated issues, the Dune universe is extremely complex and every movie that has been made thus far has failed to explain the actual scope of the setting. Even with the almost three-hour runtime, the movie fails to explain even the most vital things. For instance, why is it that everything in the series is done by a human, and why is none of it automated by a computer? That is something that is universally accepted by sci-fi to be important and Dune just skips past that. Also, the pair of movies don’t take the time to explain what spice is. Spice is a drug that is so vital to the condition of society that if it were to be destroyed, billions would die due to the effects of withdrawal; and for those that would live, almost everything, such as space travel, would become impossible. While it’s proclaimed in the movie that control over spice equates to dominion over the universe, the films fail to convey the depth of its importance. Even with these other big things, they all pale in comparison to one another. When Paul immediately goes to war with all the great houses at the end. It just happens without an explanation and ultimately makes the ending feel rushed compared to the slow pace of the rest of the movie.

While I understand that the movie is already pushed to three hours, there are many times in this movie where exposition can occur in place of the many shots of the desert so that any plot hole can be explained for those who haven’t read the books.

The movie wasn’t worth it for me, unfortunately, as a person who grew up reading the books. The Dune movies fail to do what the books do in building a world. Instead of spending time and money on watching the films, pick up a copy of at least the first book. The books may be dry like Arrakis, but when compared to these movies they are like the oceans of Caladan.

“Dune: Part Two:” ★☆☆☆☆