Dune: Part Two

With a bit of exaggeration, you could say of this colossal film it is about the USSR fighting the Arabs for oil and the Americans pulling the strings. Dune: Part Two is the pinnacle of modern big screen in every way. From the engaging storytelling, to the sound design, the fantastic sets, the visual effects, the sound and Hans Zimmer's beauty. Hands down, this a brilliant job by the filmmakers and the actors. A monumental epic that for years was considered unfilmable has succeeded for the second time. Everybody says it can't be done, until somebody does it. And that somebody is Denis Villeneuve. The event of the year – the riding of the worm and the duel between Chalamet and Butler are absolute cinematic delights. And the whiners who will complain about the final third and who knows what else are not worth addressing. (03/09/2024)

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)

What The Empire Strikes Back is to A New Hope, Dune: Part Two is to the previous film. In short, it's a perfectly natural sequel that doesn't suffer from the infamous ills of second parts, but continues to develop the story, stretching it out to unexpected breadth and depth, and from the opening scene gives the impression that last time it was just a set-up of pieces on a chessboard and a few tentative but thoughtful moves, but the real game only begins now. Stunning is probably the word that describes Dune: Part Two in every possible way. The elaborate script, the breathtaking desert scenery in particular, the believability, the palpability, the actors and actresses who just really are those characters. Even those unfamiliar with the source material will easily understand what makes Herbert's work special when they see all the unexpected turns the plot takes. Special mention must again go to Hans Zimmer, who probably hasn't composed anything decent since the last Dune because he was working on the second part. As was the case with the last film, I now have no choice but to believe that I will see the next installment(s), because all those ajar doors and gates are just so very tempting. (02/29/2024)

It is almost the same as with the first visit to the sand dune. Dune is a huge blockbuster with stunning visual aspects and captivating Chalamet in the lead role. He effortlessly crosses the boundaries set by the script, as his Paul remains a bit lost Pavlík until the final third, and his transformation towards the events that were promised is quite sudden. Thanks to him, it is easier to forget that most characters (Chani, Irulan and all the other benegesserits) are more interesting than the main hero, and I still can't get rid of the feeling of how much of a shame it is when such an enchanting, cruel, and complex world revolves around one questionable prophecy. But do not be fooled. This dazzling blockbuster is exactly what we repeatedly call for and love the sound whirlwind that is supposed to happen when the lights go out in the cinema. (04/24/2024)

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)