“A boy becomes the Messiah of nomads on a desert planet that has giant worms that protect a commodity called Spice. Spice changes people into travelers, mystics and madmen. What price will he pay to become the new ruler of their universe?”
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Frank Herbert, Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve
Staring: Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Tim Blake Nelson, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson
Release Date: November 3, 2023
IMDB
I am on vacation, so I am catching up on some trailer reactions I never had the time to write. Next up, it’s Dune: Part Two (2023) and its third trailer! Now, since the second trailer came out, the release for Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic has been postponed till March 1, 2024. With a five month gap of expectations to fill, the marketing crew for Dune: Part Two gave us another glimpse at what to expect on Arrakis.
The first thing about this trailer that I recognized is the immediate audio trigger of Hans ZImmer’s unique and award score. Sure, there is a giant explosion on screen, but that isn’t the attention grabber.
Chani (Zendaya) and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) are an item now and she is consoling the Muad’Dib about a nightmarish dream he had. Paul is becoming an all-seeing powerful being. He is becoming the Kwisatz Haderach, much to the chagrin of the conniving Bene Gessirit organization.
If we fast forward in this trailer, we see Paul use The Voice on the Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling), and it is a remarkable sequence. We see literally two seconds of it, but it is a HOLY FUCK how powerful is Paul at this moment? It would appear that the Benne Gessirit doesn’t even know what he is capable of despite them trying to breed him for generations (upon generations).
There is a sense of balance in this trailer of Dune: Part II (2024). There is an idea of equality. The Atreides house is no more, and now both Paul and Lady Jessica are equal with the Fremen on Dune. The issue that Paul has to deal with is that he is learning he is not equal to anyone, and how can he balance his evolving power with the relationship he is growing with the native people.
Paul has the foresight to see the future and he acknowledges that in the majority of his visions, the Harkonnens and the Emperor are victorious. But Paul sees a path, a narrow path, to victory. The question is at what cost does this potential narrow victory come? This is something that may not be addressable in this movie, for the franchise of Dune and the story of the Atreides bloodline and the Fremen people changes multiple times as the generations pass by.
Now Paul has a ton of power as the Kwisatz Haderach and Muad’Dib, and Reverend Mother Mohiam makes sure to warn everyone of that. However, there is another power that needs to be addressed. The power of the desert. Desert Power.
WORMS, WE GOT SO MANY FUCKING WORMS! HOLY SHIT, WE HAVE THE FREMEN RIDING ON THE WORMS. THE SARDUAKAR ARE RUNNING SCARED!
It would appear that, both according to this trailer and words from the director, that there is going to more action in Dune: Part Two. We have guerrilla warfare, and grand battles with extensive dragon-like cavalry. Regardless of the type of violence, Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser are going to show jaw-dropping and balancing swaying scale. I think it’s safe to say that we may never see explosions as beautifully put together as this.
Speaking of violence, we can’t end the trailer without talking about Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. We have seem glimpses of him in each of the trailers thus far, and in each preview we get to know more about how dangerous and psychotic he is. This time around, we don’t get any look at Lady Margot (Léa Seydoux) who is meant to control him, but perhaps that’s on purpose because this trailer has him at his most unhinged. And for fans of the book, this building up of this deadly assassin only makes the anticipation for what’s to come even grander.
Do we think that all the technical awards for the 2025 Oscars are going to dolled out to either Dune: Part Two or Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). I’d say that’s safe to say, and I am not upset about it in the slightest.
Dune: Part Two releases in theaters on March 1, 2024.
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