I rewatched Part 1 earlier this week in preparation for this, as I’m sure many others did. On my initial viewing back when it was released I didn’t love it and found the density of the material difficult to get into, but subsequent viewings have improved my outlook considerably. Any issues I have with this one would be similar the first film in that there are part where it does slow down just a little more than it should.
Even then I still felt like I could’ve continued watching this for a bit longer. I know that won’t be the case for everybody, especially my wife but she has no taste (joke’s on me though, I married her). Simply put, this is a masterpiece. Denis Villeneuve just never misses - or at least of all his movies of his that I’ve seen over the past decade, they’ve all been bangers. The man just knows how to find the power in stories and really immerses you into the reality of what’s on screen.
This world of Arrakis and everything around it is just stunning. It all looks and feels so believable, the cinematography is out of this world (not sorry) and the whole thing is a visual treat for the eyes. I’m convinced the entire production crew went to another planet to film this as I don’t believe anywhere on Earth can look like this.
The movie starts off right where the first one ended with Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalmet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) still on the run after the Harkonnen attack and have joined with the Freman – the indigenous people of the planet, some of which believe him to be the saviour of their kind. The Freman are a people and culture I enjoyed learning a lot more about this time and through Javier Bardem’s Stilgar, we can see how dangerous intense faith can be despite it being quite humorous early on.
There’s an amazing cast here giving some incredible performances. Timothee Chalamet in this one is such a step up from the previous film and he really grows into this role of Paul and he really delivers an intensity and sense of fear come the second half of the film. Austin Butler is the best new addition here and I loved every second he was on screen. He joins a prestigious list of villains who don’t have much screen time, but feel like they have more because of the impression they make. Anyone who was disappointed by a lack of Zendaya in the first movie should be satisfied here, she’s a very big part of it here and will break your heart.
I appreciated the need to avoid certain third act clichés here and what we do get of this massive battle is impressive, but it’s the smaller fights that are the best. The final fight between Paul and Feyd-Rautha isn’t scored and is all the better for it – letting you hear every blade hit and feel the stakes of it.
Overall I don’t have any real issues with this. It surpassed the greatness of Part 1 and left me very eager for more, it has a very Empire Strikes Back sort-of ending. This is just massive franchise storytelling done in an anti-blockbuster way with a rich narrative and deeper themes that really engrosses you into the world and its characters. This is epic, monumental stuff and I couldn’t be happier with it.
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