“Dune: Part Two” evaporated from my memory 10 minutes after I walked out of the screening room. It just simply disappeared, like one of the film’s massive sandworms burrowing into the ground. Like those famous creatures from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, writer-director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic made a lot of noise. Then it retreated back to from whence it came, leaving no trace in my mind.
I did not like “Dune: Part One” (2021), but I begrudgingly gave Villeneuve credit for taking a chance on a nearly-60-year-old novel whose first disastrous adaptation was made 40 years ago by David Lynch. Unsure of whether the second half would even get made, Warner Bros. and its director kept the faith and proceeded with the first half of the story. The gamble paid off: “Dune: Part One” received 10 Oscar nods, including one for best picture, and it won six.
More importantly, the first film was a financial success ($433,796,625 worldwide) and earned Herbert’s universe a lot of new fans. The audience I saw it with at Alice Tully Hall during the New York Film Festival cheered and applauded loudly during the closing credits. The room vibrated mightily with clapping hands. Those vibrations continued as I made the long walk up the aisle and out of the venue, shaking my head at the rapturous reaction to something I considered mediocre.
But at least I remembered much of that movie.
My recollections came in handy, as “Dune: Part Two” makes no attempt to situate new viewers or give them a CliffsNotes-style summary. I can’t complain about that decision; after all, this isn’t a sequel — it’s a continuation. And yet, “Part Two” meets all the expected sequel requirements: It’s bigger, louder, costlier, and not as good as the “original.”
It’s the year 10,091 on planet Arrakis, and we’re reunited with Herbert’s hero, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). In the last film, Paul had visions of some kind of war after being exposed to a psychotropic substance called Spice. Those visions included a mysterious woman whom we discover is Chani (Zendaya), a member of the Fremen tribe that inhabits Arrakis and is led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem).
Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, had been training him on how to use “the Voice” — think of the Jedi mind trick from “Star Wars” if it were merged with the voice of Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. One of the few improvements in “Dune: Part Two” is to make that voice sound less like a Muppet and more like the demon that possessed Carol Speed in the 1974 Blaxploitation horror movie, “Abby.”
As “Part Two” opens, we are fully immersed in the lives of the Fremen. Stilgar believes that Paul might be the Messianic figure many of his people seek, though Chani isn’t one of those followers. “Dune: Part Two” tries to explore ideas about whether an outsider should lead and/or save a race of people, but the half-hearted efforts are almost as bad as if these notions hadn’t been interrogated at all.
The first film hinted at more Chani in the follow-up, and fans of Zendaya won’t be disappointed with her starring role here. Unfortunately, she and Chalamet are saddled with a soggy, tepid love story and dialogue so bad that it recalls those cringeworthy scenes of Anakin Skywalker pitching woo in 2002′s “Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.” At least Villeneuve doesn’t make Paul compare Chani’s skin to the sands of his planet as George Lucas did with Anakin.
“Dune” fans were also promised more appearances by the sandworms, and it’s here that Villeneuve delivers on the one memorable aspect of “Dune: Part Two.” I won’t spoil these scenes, but the sandworms are the true stars of the film. These creatures are so popular AMC Theatres has created a hideous-looking popcorn bucket with their likeness that makes the idea of eating popcorn as terrifying as sticking one’s hand into that box the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) used to test Paul in “Part One.”
Rampling reprises her role here, as do many of the original cast members, including Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista. Bautista, an actor who has always made the movies he was in better, disappoints here with a one-note performance consisting entirely of yelling.
It’s not his fault as the script (by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts) paints most of its characters as two-dimensional entities in service to the supposed visual spectacle. The only time the look of the film syncs with the characters is in the rendering of the sociopathic, white-faced Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler). Cinematographer Greig Fraser gives his scenes a garish black-and-white look, with the character’s bald head standing out in shocking contrast to his environment.
“Dune: Part Two” also introduces us to Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken, doing a walk-on cameo) and his daughter Irulan (Florence Pugh). Pugh and Walken are both pros at elevating terrible material and making it watchable, but their valiant efforts are for naught.
Just as in the first film, I was put off by the white-savior narrative (Stilgar’s fervent belief quickly becomes grating), and the Hans Zimmer score that sounds as if Arrakis were in the Middle East rather than space.
No matter. “Dune: Part Two” will be celebrated for the repetitive action sequences and the visuals, which are often so brown (it is the desert, you know) they invoke Michael Cimino’s epic 1980 box-office disaster, “Heaven’s Gate.” No wonder I blocked the movie out of my mind.
★1/2
DUNE: PART TWO
Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin. 166 min. AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. PG-13 (action, violence, obscene-looking worms)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.