Dune: Part Two

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

The long wait is over and it was worth it! The sequel to what is maybe my favourite movie in the past 10 years, certainly the best adaptation and work of Sci-Fi, and it is everything I could have wanted. The visuals are stunning again, the music is stunning again, my word for the first movie was perfect and this movie continues that. I feel grateful to live in a time where I got to see both of these on enormous screens with speakers that shook me to my core.

So this one picks off right after the first, and I love that, since I think they will be great to watch back to back. The opening scene really sets the tone visually, and I was blown away by some of the artistic choices. This movie focuses a lot more on Paul and the Fremen. I always thought it was the least interesting half of the book, and I do think I liked the first movie a touch more as well. This is missing the family dynamic and the classic heroes journey beginning. Most of the world building has been done, so while I miss that early exploration it is a very solid foundation to build a movie like this on.

I thought Chalamet was really good in this, and by the end I fully bought him in this role. I like that it leans into whether or not him being a messiah is actually a good thing, and I can tell you that in future books the answer is definitively no. Paul goes through a shift in this movie, basically a power upgrade, and I thought the difference pre/post was great (although I wanted more insight into what had changed, more visions). The acting across the board was great, and I like that more humour was introduced with Javier Bardem as Stilgar. Zendaya also gets a lot more to do in this one, and I am curious how they will use her in future entries, since they are painting Chani with a lot more depth than the books did. Austin Butler is a terrifying villain, and while his main character trait is that he's a freak I thought he killed it. His first line sounded like he was still in Elvis mode, but after that I thought he emulated the existing Harkonnen's perfectly.

This movie is all about the set pieces, and there are a handful of them that are staggering. I still think the spice walker rescue from the first movie is the peak movie-going experience of my life, but there are a few in here to rival that. I like that we get a glimpse at other planets, with completely different design choices. The technical crew of this movie is really flexing, and it feels like they made the perfect sci-fi movie.

I have a minor complaint, and its about a specific spoilery part of the book that is super weird. I wanted them to go full weird and they didn't. That's fine, and I don't know how they would have done it, I just would have loved to see them try. So that was a slight disappointment. I also found some of the catharsis at the end was a bit too neat, almost symmetrical acts of revenge for some of our heroes. Seemed a bit odd, especially given how it goes down in the book, but again a minor complaint. As a final complaint I think I wanted to see more of Paul's visions, specifically I wanted to see how those are executed. They lean on a few very specific visions, and I wanted some more psychedelia.

It would have been really cool to see this come out in November when it was supposed to and have it disrupt the Barbie/Oppenheimer love. This movie has some themes in common with Oppenheimer, and I think it would have been neat to have them compete for awards. But I am also fine if this is just the best movie of this year no contest.

For an almost 3 hour movie I thought it moved quickly and was constantly engaging. It had me thinking about The Two Towers and how that movie drags a bit for me. It has been compared to Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight, probably because it is a bit more of an ambiguous followup, but also just because its an amazing sequel built on top of the genius of the original. I am hyped for this team to tackle Dune Messiah, which would be an off-beat finale for a typical movie trilogy but I think would be perfect for this.

Believe in the hype, this movie is the real deal and an experience you only get a handful of times in your life. Seeing IP you love being adapted is always scary, and these movies have raised the bar so high I am convinced nothing will ever come close. I said it with the first movie, but I actually think these movies might even be better than the book in a lot of ways. Hard to compare across mediums, but they have distilled everything I love from the book into digestible and timeless works of art.