Dune 2 is now director Denis Villeneuve's highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 97% score based on more than 100 reviews. The sequel to the 2021 sci-fi drama Dune brings the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel to an epic conclusion.
Starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, it picks up after his family’s horrific betrayal from House Harkonnen. After he and Lady Jessica find themselves in the deserts of Arrakis, they unite with the Fremen people to wage war against the house that betrayed them. The sequel also stars Zendaya as Chani, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha.
The score on the film aggregation website is the highest of Villeneuve's career so far, currently leading ahead of Arrival on 94% and Sicario on 92%. However, it is worth noting that none of Villeneuve's oeuvre is low-ranking, with his lowest rated film Enemy still sitting at a 71% score. The director also doesn't have critics ratings for all of his films.
Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive for the new film, including our own five-star Dune: Part Two review. Total Film’s Kevin Harley writes: "Villeneuve wrangles coherence from Herbert’s unruly elements to deliver a sequel that ranks alongside The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back – and Blade Runner 2049. No mere expansion pack for the dreamier Part One, it’s a completion (maybe…) of a story that might have appeared misleading, certainly incomplete, without it."
Other critics have had similar sentiments, including The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey who also gave it five stars. She writes: "There are moments in Dune: Part Two that feel so audacious, they play out as if they were already etched onto the cinematic canon." Meanwhile, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw writes in his four-star review: "Denis Villeneuve’s monumental adaptation expands its extraordinary world of shimmering strangeness. It’s impossible to imagine anyone doing it better."
Dune 2 arrives in theaters on March 1. For more, check out our guide to the best sci-fi movies of all time.
