Dune: Part Two review – Heartthrob Timothee Chalamet leads an all-star cast in this sci-fi marathon sequel – just don’t forget your sandwiches, writes BRIAN VINER

DUNE: PART TWO (12A, 166 min.)

Judgement:

Verdict: A sand spectacle

Dune burst onto Leicester Square a few weeks ago at its world premiere. I’ve been to many big openings there over the years, but never one so flamboyant, with as much fanfare, that caused so much frenzy.

Probably not in the sixty years since the heyday of The Beatles has that patch of central London reverberated with the kind of vociferous adoration directed (this time) at the star of the Dune films, 28-year-old Timothee Chalamet. And there were at least four Beatles to share the spotlight. The young American star gets ‘Chalamania’, as it is called, all to himself.

The bigger problem, though, was this: Would Denis Villeneuve’s epic sequel justify the razzamatazz, not to mention the investment of an entire evening? Dune: Part Two lasts almost three hours. It’s even longer than the first movie, which seemed like forever.

Fortunately. The 2021 film tackled many of the plot complexities that fueled years of belief that Frank Herbert’s mighty 1965 sci-fi novel was “unfilmable” (claims not exactly punctured by David Lynch’s 1984 stinker). It was wonderful, but exhausting, laboriously introducing us to the interplanetary empire Herbert imagined, and the various dynasties that struggled for power or simply for survival.

The sequel has a mercifully simpler story. On the barren planet Arrakis, where most of his own kin have been wiped out, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) prepares to lead the beleaguered, disenfranchised Fremen tribe against him and their mortal enemies, the formidably evil House Harkonnen.

Paul (Chalamet) who has a truly gripping duel with the rising champion of the House of Harkonnen (a shaved head Austin Butler)

Zendaya (pictured) stars as Chani, Paul’s Fremen lover. Paul’s goal is to disrupt spice production, but unlike our own Just Stop Oil brigade, he has to do more than lie on the highway

Ruled by the grotesque Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard in a rickety fat suit), to whom they swear allegiance during hair-raising Nuremberg-style rallies, the Harkonnen owe their political and military supremacy to their control over “spices” – the most valuable commodity in this world. universe, which Dune enthusiasts widely assume is a metaphor for oil.

Paul’s goal is to disrupt spice production, but unlike our own Just Stop Oil brigade, he has to do more than lie on the highway. Anyway, Arrakis has no highways. It is a vast desert, in which he must prove himself to the Fremen by undergoing various challenges, such as sand surfing behind a worm about the size of a superyacht.

Paul has a useful ally in the Fremen chief, Stilgar (Javier Bardem), not to mention a Fremen lover, the smoldering and beautiful Chani (Zendaya).

But there are others who distrust him. Is he a false prophet or their true ‘mahdi’, their messiah? His modesty completes it. “The Mahdi is too modest to say he is the Mahdi,” someone says approvingly, which reminded me strongly of the scene in The Life Of Brian, in which Brian’s attempts to convince his followers that he is a completely ordinary man counterproductive, because only the true messiah would deny his divinity.

I hope Villeneuve also had Monty Python in mind, because other than that there isn’t much obvious humor or fun in this film.

But it’s supremely stylish, with a piercing Hans Zimmer score and beautiful work from cinematographer Greig Fraser.

Mostly, the action unfolds in subtle shades of brown and beige, as if the set designers were told to confine themselves to the edges of the Farrow & Ball color chart. This makes Paul’s eyes appear even bluer, a bit like Peter O’Toole’s in Lawrence of Arabia. As Noel Coward said at that premiere, if it had been more beautiful it could have been called Florence of Arabia. The same goes for Chalamet. Even more delicious and they should have called it June.

Rebecca Ferguson (photo) reprises the role of Paul’s mother: Lady Jessica. There are stars everywhere you look, in a film that is exuberant in every way and demands to be seen on a big screen

Florence Pugh (pictured) is a newcomer to the franchise. She stars as Princess Irulan, the emperor’s scheming daughter

Paul (Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya) share a kiss on the sand dunes of Arrakis. Mostly, the action unfolds in subtle shades of brown and beige, as if the set designers were told to confine themselves to the edges of the Farrow & Ball color chart.

Paul (Chalamet) walking through the arid landscape of Arrakis. Probably not in sixty years, since the heyday of The Beatles, has Leicester Square resounded with the kind of raucous adoration directed (this time) at the star of the Dune films, 28-year-old Timothee at the Leicester Square premiere.

But Paul is first and foremost a fierce warrior, who wages a truly harrowing duel with the rising champion of the Harkonnen (a shaven-headed Austin Butler), and whose muscular beauty destroys Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the Emperor’s scheming daughter ( Christopher Walken).

Butler, Pugh and Walken are all new additions to the cast, along with Lea Seydoux and, in a cameo, Anya Taylor-Joy. Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Rampling also return from the first film. There are stars everywhere you look, in a film that is exuberant in every way and demands to be seen on a big screen.

It’s really spectacular. But take sandwiches.

Red Island (12A, 117 minutes)

Judgement:

Verdict: Believe in Madagascar

This captivatingly quirky (and visually stunning) French-language drama is set on a French air base in Madagascar in the early 1970s, where the former colonizers continue to exert their control over the now independent countries.

Writer-director Robin Campillo immerses us in the daily lives of one family: the moody father of an aviator, his volatile wife, their marital problems and those of their friends.

But the main focus is on their impossibly adorable eight-year-old son Thomas (Charlie Vauselle), whose superhero fantasies are brought to life in strangely seductive little interludes as he seeks refuge in the strange world of adults.

Red Island is now in cinemas, as well as on Curzon Home Cinema.