Dune: Part Two Is More Important Than We Think for Cinema Today

Long Live the Fighters.

Watching Dune: Part Two in theaters was one of the first times in a long while when I truly felt blown away by a movie-going experience. I wasn’t just impressed. I wasn’t just appreciative of all the monumental effort put into the movie. I was straight-up awestruck.

That’s the highest praise that a film can receive, and a filmmaker like Denis Villeneuve earns that praise consistently with the likes of Arrival, Blade Runner: 2049, and Dune: Part One.

I’ve been a pretty enthusiastic Dune fan for years. I read all of the Frank Herbert books, I listen to podcast episodes about Dune, and I watched a number of films both adapting and speaking about adapting the book(s) (check out Jodorowsky’s Dune. It’s fantastic).

The Dune series is not flawless in my eyes, but it does rightfully earn the recognition of being one of the most, if not the most, influential science fiction work of the 20th century. With its extensive world-building, engrossing take on its themes, its gargantuan timeline, and its consistent bigger-picture storytelling, Dune is a story that will remain timelessly relevant. And of course, there are the quotable elements of the series: I’ll occasionally break into the Litany Against Fear if my nerves ask for it.

I’m thankful that Dune exists as a two-part filmic adaptation by a director who I can safely consider to be a passionate expert on science fiction in particular. Yet after watching Dune: Part Two in the theaters for the first time, I got a little bit reflective on cinema as a whole — both the good and bad state that it’s in.

I thought strongly about Avatar: The Way of Water and how the general public seemed to respond to that particular experience. The Way of Water is a good comparison to look at because of how recent it was, how much hype the film received by also being a blockbuster sci-fi sequel (one that was 13 years in the making, no less), and how impressive its visuals and technological filmmaking are. Also, it seems to be particularly influenced by Dune — how much James Cameron was consciously influenced by Dune is beside the point. I’ll note that I will avoid comparing the writing quality of these two movies because one is an original screenplay and another is an adaptation — one can have their own opinions about these scripts, but their respective writers treated the process undeniably differently.

Like Dune, the Avatar franchise has strong political and ecological themes, incredibly detailed world-building (just look at how extensive the film’s Na’vi language is), a morally complex savior type complete with a “native” significant other, planetary creatures that characters will connect with to literally “ride,” a high-demand resource found nowhere else in the Universe, and even a tangible kind of vast, transcendent spiritual network (think of Dune’s Water of Life ritual and Avatar’s Eywa and Tree of Souls).

Yet despite this, I find that Dune: Part Two is the superior movie overall. Setting my connection to the source material aside, Dune: Part Two feels like a more effective movie.

Cinema is still recovering from its serious pandemic slump, plus the Hollywood strikes from last year. Dune: Part Two is not going to singlehandedly be saving cinema, but it still tells me a few things after experiencing Avatar: The Way of Water. For Dune: Part Two to blow such a wide audience away in an age inundated with technology and CGI, all with a relatively constant color palette to boot, tells me what CGI-fest blockbusters have felt lacking in over the years: more creative, intentional artistry. Not more passion, mind you. More soul.

As undeniably impressive as Avatar: The Way of Water is visually, it still didn’t do enough to differentiate itself from superhero films, action movies, monster fighting films, and the like. Of course, The Way of Water’s visuals are far superior than pretty much any superhero/action film. For example, Avatar: The Way of Water’s underwater filmmaking hasn’t been nearly as appreciated by the general public as I think it should be. But visuals alone aren’t the driving point of a film.

To tangent for a moment, it’s partly why Toy Story to this day is still culturally relevant, while movies like Avatar will get its millions or even billions of box office dollars and take a step back from the public consciousness. Toy Story is a cinematic landmark for being the first feature-length computer-generated film, but why do audiences continue to go back to it despite its now dated look? The movie’s heart. Its characters. Its plot. Its…toy story.

Cinema is a visual medium, but like all art, the visual aspects aren’t independent of the story it’s telling. All Hollywood filmmakers of course know this, but Dune: Part Two knows how to actually convey this well enough to audiences. It makes every element of the experience feel vital. Dune 2 knows that the story of the film shouldn’t take second place to the visuals. They are connected.

All said, this is what really drove me to a state of actual awe while watching Dune: Part Two. The movie was concerned first and foremost about how to use its visuals, sound design, artistic choices, and writing to tell its story in the most effective way. From there, the filmmakers trusted that the “wow” factor would come naturally. In doing so, the experience became all the more incredible.

Film budgets are nowadays expected to be in the hundreds of millions. For this reason, box office returns need to be increasingly more substantial, to the point that reaching nearly a billion dollars worldwide is becoming a studio expectation to make profit. Hollywood knows that it desperately needs to find a solution to its cinema crisis, but Dune: Part Two is pretty strongly hinting at an answer.

Dune: Part Two succeeds not just because it’s a sequel film in a beloved sci-fi franchise. It doesn’t succeed just because of Timothée Chalamet, or the beautiful visuals, or even just the writing. In fact, it’s not succeeding just because of a combination of all of those elements.

Dune: Part Two works so well because of the amount of intention in its artistry. Hollywood: support creativity more. It’s well worth the investment.