DUNE: PART TWO
(12A) 167 mins
4
“THIS is only the beginning,” said desert warrior Zendaya as the end credits were about to roll in Dune: Part One.
If you felt a bit cheated by a two-and-a-half-hour space saga that didn’t have a conclusion then your heart may well sink further when the even longer Part Two signs off with another cliffhanger.
Even so, this spectacular follow-up is so gripping, you’ll be aching to see director Denis Villeneuve tie together his many plot strands in the final instalment of his planned trilogy.
Long stretches of his sombre 2021 film were devoted to explaining the dense mythology in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel.
Now with the introductions to the sweltering, mineral-rich planet of Arrakis done and dusted, the sci-fi specialist can hurl us straight into the action.
Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is hiding in the giant worm-infested desert with his mystical mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) after his royal father was murdered by a treacherous rival family.
To survive, they need to convince the local rebels that Paul is the “outsider” who has been prophesied to free the oppressed Fremon tribes from the evil House Of Harkonnen.
They get their chance in a tense opening scene where willowy Paul surprises everyone by effortlessly fighting off a hulking Harkonnen soldier.
Fremon warrior Stilgar (Javier Bardem) thinks our hero is “the One” but his comrade Chani (Zendaya) is not convinced. Paul doesn’t believe in the prophecy either, but plays along with it while he plots revenge on Baron Vladimir Harkonnon (Stellan Skarsgard).
Much of the action focuses on Paul’s rise up the rebel ranks and his blossoming romance with Chani.
Another speaker-rattling Hans Zimmer score powers ominous scenes on the planet Giedi Prime, where we meet the Baron’s creepy, hairless heir Feyd-Rautha (a shaven Austin Butler).
This second film is odder than the first. Pregnant Jessica ingests a blue liquid from dead sandworms to speak to her unborn child.
If there is another instalment, a brief vision suggests her daughter will be played by Anya Taylor-Joy. We should also see more of Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh, who appear fleetingly as the galaxy’s emperor and his daughter.
I can’t wait.
★★★★☆
LISA FRANKENSTEIN
(15) 101 mins
4
SET in 1989, the snappy dialogue in screenwriter Diablo Cody’s retro comedy-horror may make you chuckle, but the relentless references to director Tim Burton’s works (most notably Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands homages) mean this soon resembles a fan flick.
Teen goth misfit Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is living with her dad, new stepmum and cheerleader stepsister Taffy (a brilliant Liza Soberano) in a pastel-pink home but prefers listening to The Cure and hanging out at the tombstone of a young Victorian pianist.
When the corpse (played by Cole Sprouse) comes back to life, the two form a relationship and go on a slaughter spree to reclaim his missing body parts.
Cultural references are spot on with hair crimping, tanning beds, and Desperately Seeking Susan outfits, while cult classic teen murder movie Heathers seems to have influenced the high-school scenes.
There are occasional moments of originality, and some novel power ballad slasher scenes – including an amusing “Bobbiting” to On The Wings Of Love – but with so many obvious influences it’s hard not to feel like you’ve seen it all before.
★★☆☆☆
FOUR DAUGHTERS
(12A) 110 mins
4
TUNISIAN divorcee Olfa Hamrouni’s two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, were radicalised by Islamic extremists when they were teens following the Arab Spring. They fled to Libya, where they remain held in detention today.
Olfa’s younger daughters, Eya and Tayssir, narrowly avoided the same fate.
The two progressive, likeable young women credit a spell in a domestic reform centre when they were ten and 12 years old for preventing them also being “devoured by the wolf”.
Docu-drama director Kaouther Ben Hania blends re-enactments using actors with the real-life family in a bid to unravel how half of this funny, warm, strong-willed quartet of feisty, smart, siblings went from heavy metal fans to wearing the niqab and joining Islamic State.
And as dramatisation blurs with reality, characters break the third wall to debate complex issues with the real-life people they are playing.
Olfa is a complex subject – a traumatised, devastated mother, both cheerfully admitting subjecting her offspring to childhood beatings, yet also broad-minded, hopeful and herself a revolutionary as well.