# Dune: Part Two (2024) Review: Spectacle With a Warning > Dune: Part Two is Denis Villeneuve's towering desert war epic, and a sharper film than Part One because it treats its chosen-one hero as a warning. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/dune-part-two-2024-review/ Published: 2026-07-23 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4.5/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is blockbuster science fiction at its most confident. Watch Dune (2021) first, then see this on the biggest screen you can find. ## Is Dune: Part Two worth watching? **Yes. Dune: Part Two is one of the finest large-scale science fiction films of the decade, and it improves on Part One by giving its enormous spectacle a clear, unsettling point of view.** Denis Villeneuve turns the second half of Frank Herbert's novel into a desert war film that is also a study of how a saviour gets made. The main reservation is a final stretch that moves much faster than the patient hours before it, and this is not a standalone film: you need to have seen the first one. ## What is Dune: Part Two about? [Dune: Part Two](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/dune-part-two-2024/) picks up directly where the 2021 film stopped. House Atreides has been destroyed on the desert planet Arrakis, and young Paul Atreides ([Timothée Chalamet](https://celluloidscore.com/stars/americas/united-states/timothee-chalamet/)) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), are sheltering with the Fremen, the desert people who have watched off-world powers strip their home for its spice. Paul learns to live and fight as they do, grows close to the young warrior Chani ([Zendaya](https://celluloidscore.com/stars/americas/united-states/zendaya/)), and plans his revenge on the Harkonnens who killed his family. The complication is faith. Some Fremen, led by the devout Stilgar (Javier Bardem), are convinced Paul is the saviour their prophecy promised. Chani is not. Paul himself is haunted by visions of a holy war fought in his name, and the film is built around his attempt to avoid a future he can already see. Villeneuve directs from a screenplay he wrote with Jon Spaihts. It is an American production in English, and it runs 167 minutes. ## Villeneuve's scale has a point of view Plenty of blockbusters are big. This one uses size as an argument. Greig Fraser's photography keeps setting human figures against dunes, rock walls and the vast shapes of the sandworms, and when crowds gather around Paul, the frame makes them look less like an audience and more like a tide. Paul's first attempt to ride a worm is a showpiece of physical filmmaking, cut so the danger reads before the wonder does. The film's boldest image comes from the other side of the war. The Harkonnen homeworld of Giedi Prime is shot in bleached infrared black and white, a world of arenas under a black sun, and it is where Austin Butler's Feyd-Rautha makes his entrance. Butler plays the Baron's heir as something close to a reptile, his line readings echoing Stellan Skarsgård's Baron, and the sequence tells you more about Harkonnen rule than any exposition could. Hans Zimmer's score and the sound design do much of the storytelling. The low, grinding textures of the desert and the choral surges around Paul push the film toward something liturgical. Its Academy Awards for sound and visual effects feel earned rather than routine. ## Zendaya's Chani keeps the epic honest What lifts Part Two above Part One is that it finally has a dramatic engine. Chalamet plays Paul's change gradually, from a guarded refugee to someone who is starting to understand what belief can do for him. Zendaya, far more central here than in the first film, makes Chani the audience's sceptic: she loves Paul and distrusts the prophecy around him, and her reaction shots carry much of the film's meaning. Bardem gives Stilgar a fervour that is funny at first and uneasy later, a clever way of showing how easily devotion spreads. Rebecca Ferguson makes Jessica quietly unnerving, and Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista add weight in smaller roles. ## Where the epic runs short of time For all its length, the film rushes its final movement. Relationships and political manoeuvres that the middle hour develops patiently are resolved in a handful of scenes, and viewers new to the story may feel the ground shift under them. Florence Pugh's Princess Irulan and Christopher Walken's Emperor are both well cast and both underwritten, more placeholders for a larger story than full characters. None of this sinks the film, but it is the difference between a great adaptation and a flawless one. ## Who should watch Dune: Part Two? It is essential for anyone who liked the first film and for viewers who want science fiction on a grand, serious scale rather than a quippy one. Set aside close to three hours and, if possible, a large screen with strong sound; this is a film designed for both. The violence includes battle scenes, executions and arena combat, though it is rarely graphic. The religious and political themes will interest older teenagers more than younger children. If it works for you, three natural next steps: - [Dune](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/dune-2021/) (2021), which is required viewing first rather than an optional prequel. - [Blade Runner 2049](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/blade-runner-2049-2017/), Villeneuve's other science fiction sequel, which shares the same patient, monumental style. - [The Empire Strikes Back](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-empire-strikes-back-1980-review/), the classic example of a second chapter that darkens and deepens its saga. ## The verdict Dune: Part Two is a rare blockbuster that is both overwhelming and thoughtful, a desert war epic that asks the audience to be wary of the hero it is cheering. The rushed last act and thin supporting roles keep it just short of perfect, but its images, sound and central performances make it one of the defining big-screen films of recent years. **Rating: 4.5/5** ## Related title - [Dune: Part Two (2024)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/dune-part-two-2024/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)