Dune: Part Two

I think I’ve just watched not only the most anticipated film of the year but probably the best thing I’ll see in 2024. The wait for the second part of Dune was worth every moment. If this is the level of quality we get after three years, then I’m not complaining. This installment is a total sci-fi epic that rightfully earns its place among the best Hollywood offerings of the 21st century. Hans Zimmer has outdone himself again. While there isn’t a standout melody, the combination of his score with the practically flawless visuals evokes an indescribable sense of fear and respect for Arrakis. The cast is a gathering of top-tier talent, seamlessly blending into a cohesive and high-quality ensemble. Denis Villeneuve has once again surpassed expectations. He has faithfully adapted a novel once deemed unfilmable in the 1980s. (03/03/2024)

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)

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)

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)