Dune part 2, 8/10
Yep, loved it. Every bit as good as I was hoping it would be. In some respects a bit weaker, in some respects even better. I now consider this the Lord of the Rings of the 2020s. No property since has been able to achieve the same level of grandiosity, scale and epic storytelling, not to mention succesfully adapt a seminal work of fiction to the silver screen for modern audiences. After Game of Thrones, The Witcher and even Star Wars tried and failed to reach those heights despite having all the potential and resources in the world, I just love these movies merely for existing.
I don't really know how much there is to be said about this movie that I wouldn't also say about the first. The production, effects, cinematography and acting are all stellar. The weighty tone complements the scale of the events perfectly. No winking to the camera or postmodern deconstruction to be found here, it presents itself seriously and sincerely. The seeds of how a messiah figure is explored in these movies that were lain in the first movie have born immensely satisfying fruit here. Timothy Chalamét was already a great lead in the first, but his charisma is just soaring in this one. I was legit having chills in the scene where he has his messiah speech. He genuinely had the air and manner of a transcendent, mythical figure. The way other characters react to him when his status starts rising feels very true to the first movie's promise: terrible things may happen as a result of the prophecy coming true, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
What I appreciated most about this movie specifically is how it was able to deliver on the lofty things it spends most of its runtime setting up. Paul's journey to being the messiah (as much as it occasionally treads on Life of Brian territory for comedic effect) is not relegated to just speeches and crowd shots: you actually get to see what the power he wields looks like when put to action. And it's just glorious. Here again the Lord of the Rings comparison lifts its head, because I legit can't think of another property where we get to see battle scenes on this scale, and more importantly, have emotional stakes that match the scale. Like in the first movie, you genuinely feel like the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance even in the smallest personal confrontations.
This movie's not perfect though. Despite its expert pacing (the movie just flew by for me), some of it is kind of janky: the reveal of Gurney Halleck being alive after all comes way too matter of factly, and could have been a way more satisfying payoff. Also how it's found out that the Atreides just had a functioning nuclear arsenal just laying conveniently around feels way too quick and sudden. I don't know how these things were in the book, but they still feel kind of clunky. Sometimes presumably quite large chunks of time pass only in a few shots, and it felt a bit confusing. The movie's also visually very drab compared to the first. The first one was no carnival of colors either, but there at least we got to see lots of different places like Caladan, the Sardaukar homeworld and the Harkonnen world. Here the vast majority is spent on Arrakis, and black and brown costumes mixed with bright brown sand and drab skies just makes the movie look visually dull despite the stunning cinematography. The costuming in these movies is the part where the seriousness IMO went overboard. The Bene Gesserit get to have all sorts of weird and ostentatious outfits, but the fremen and Harkonnens, who we spend the majority of the movie looking at, seem to both have banned any color from their clothes. The ending is also incredibly abrupt, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be a third, and I'm all here for it.
So yeah, great movie, delivers on all fronts I was hoping it would. Gonna watch these back to back sometime.
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