Dune: Part One vs Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part One

Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser shoot Arrakis as a living thing. The sand dunes get as much weight in the frame as human faces, and the spice storms are shot as enemies made of the elements.

Dune: Part Two

The second film makes Arrakis feel even more like a living system. The sandworms, the spice and the weather all act on the story. By the end, the desert is as much a character as Paul or Chani.

Dune: Part One

Greig Fraser's IMAX photography keeps setting imperial architecture against the desert landscape. The contrast makes the same point every time: human power structures look tiny next to geological time.

Dune: Part Two

Greig Fraser shot the Harkonnen homeworld sequences in black and white with an infrared digital camera. In IMAX, they look completely different from Arrakis. The huge format is put to work on industrial horror.

Dune: Part One

Hans Zimmer gives each faction its own sound through unusual instruments: bagpipes for House Atreides and women's voices for the Bene Gesserit. That is, the score works as a map of the film's politics.

Dune: Part Two

Hans Zimmer expands the musical themes he gave the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit in Part One. As Paul's transformation completes, the Fremen's drumming and throat singing swell into something close to war music.