Dune: Part Two

A wonderfully hypnotic and transcendent grandiose work of epic proportions that finally satisfied me to the fullest. To be honest I was very skeptical, because I didn’t like the first part very much; it was extremely slow for my taste, slightly uninteresting, it lacked any memorable wow scene (there are several here), that would make me want to watch the movie again sometime, and the action scenes were a real bummer (especially the shields, which looked like cheesy CGI effects from SyFy, really bad in contrast to the world, which looks visually stunning). Thankfully, Denis Villeneuve himself realized this and the shields are kept to a minimum, almost non-existent. The second episode had me glued to my seat right from the start, it's simply more rewarding to watch and it deals with more interesting things. I did enjoy all the customs and traditions of the Fremen (there is a lot of inspiration from the Arab world here: names, costumes, religion, but I really liked that here). Audiovisually, it's flawless, the Greig Fraser/Hans Zimmer connection is very effective, all the huge monuments, machines, worms are hypnotically captivating, and the music is wonderfully ear-splitting and chill-inducing. The Harkonnens are also perfect, their world and traditions are nicely dark and twisted, and the entrance of Austin Butler is brilliant (though he doesn't appear until halfway through the film and doesn't get as much space). Timothée Chalamet's transformation into the leader is believable and (every speech where he roars is great), the chemistry with Zendaya works too – especially at the end it had a strong emotional impact on me and the final epic battle could have been longer but was satisfying. (maybe they hired a new choreographer, because the fights are much better, though I wish it was R-rated). I'm glad I finally lost myself in Dune, albeit for the second time, but even that counts. I enjoyed every minute of it in the cinema, and the last time was with Poor Things, which is a different genre. I'm really looking forward to the third installment, with the addition of my favourite Anya Taylor Joy (a cast of the most talented young actors together!!). (03/04/2024)

I found the first one better, it was more tightly plotted and somehow more engaging, more thoughtful in its introduction to the fantasy world of Arrakis, I understood more the motives of each of the characters. And yet, even there, Denis Villeneuve didn't forget the visual magic - the arrival of Leto Atreides and his long flight in an ornithopter was so visually sexy. Even the Hans Zimmer music was more interesting to me in the first part. The second part is actually quite different in that respect, especially plot-wise in the second half, BUT .... then Denis unloaded some iconic scenes, from the first worm ride, to the black and white arena, to the frontal attack of the worms, with the seated fremen and their flapping scarves, and he had me in the palm of his hand again. The first part was food for the senses and the brain, the second one only for the senses, but you know, I'm a simple person, even Villeneuve pulling excellent visual ideas on me like Houdini pulls rabbits out of a hat is enough to make me happy. Only that Zimmer has been feeling bit tired in the last years and instead of his typical rumbling it wouldn't hurt to reach for some compositional melodic ideas again. (03/16/2024)

Impressive scale, a strong story that goes brutally against all modern trends and a young cast in top form (Austin Butler is demonic). It looks gorgeous, the polished design (a black and white planet!) where they paid attention to every detail surpasses the benchmark first film in places, and Hans Zimmer has taken the score to an even higher level. I liked the first part of Dune a bit more, though. It was more meditative and fresh. Here we're playing it safe and the cinemas are bursting at the seams. SPOILERS: It's interesting that a film about a colonizer who infiltrates a terrorist organization of religious fanatics and declares Jihad (it's interesting that they avoid that label) on the entire world order to avenge the death of his father gets this kind of space. Prophetic? We shall see. Denis Villeneuve has been mum about the third installment so far, and he's doing well because the leap to Savior is huge. Much more personal and the scale is smaller. The ending is bleak. (03/03/2024)

The main problem I had with the first Dune was that I had a hard time finding even one single character whose fate I cared about. It was a beautiful but cold and empty film. The second film, however, manages to repair the series' reputation in that sense rather quickly. The heroes finally do something interesting, they talk to each other, the debates have a point, and Villeneuve wraps it all up in just a little bit nicer visuals. Dune: Part Two is more beautiful, but also more action-packed, brisker and more watchable. Until suddenly it isn't. Villeneuve seems to realise after a hundred minutes or so that he still has a lot of story to tell and that he just can't cram it into the remaining hour. So he hits the gas and the film is suddenly unnecessarily rushed, running away from interesting topics because he still has to finish this or that. And while the final battle looks really magnificent, once again, with the closing credits, I got the feeling that there may very well be a great story behind this beautiful film, but even this time it didn't get told in the way it deserved. Unlike the first part, I wasn't bored this time, but if I ever see this part again, it will be before the premiere of the eventual third. For despite all the qualities, there is still a certain aftertaste of incompleteness. (02/27/2024)

An experience after an experience. And also an internal redefinition of when it still makes sense to pay absurd amounts for sitting in front of a giant screen with a perfect audio set. The well-deserved praise is abundant, so perhaps just to the extent that compared to the first part, it may lack a certain lightness that seemed to stem from Denis Villeneuve's awareness of huge expectations, refusing to make the slightest wrong step. This paradoxically happens at the moment when to fit into a runtime of under three hours, and to keep the widest audience in theaters, especially in the last third, it is edited in a way that you completely feel those missing fragments (especially if you have read it) and mentally beg for another hour. But otherwise, it is all we fervently wished for two years. It is an absolute peak of Hollywood craftsmanship in the best possible form. It is a visual masterpiece and total overkill of cinematic sound design, to which Hans Zimmer's galactic chorales respectfully yielded. For the first time, I truly understood how people felt forty years ago when they were shown Star Wars in movie theaters. (03/03/2024)