Dune: Part Two: Will It Spice Up Your Day?

Yes, this site still works.  I feel like I'm taking longer gaps between reviews.  Since I wrote the review for The Creator, I haven't really seen a ton of new movies.  Godzilla: Minus One came out (which was awesome), but I wasn't going to write a review for it because it was supposed to be in theaters for only a week.  That turned into about two months.  My hopes going forward are that this site will be updated regularly instead of, you know, every four months.  I also wanted to get note that when I saw Dune: Part Two the first time,  I was just starting to get over complications from a procedure so, um, let's just say I wasn't all there.  At the time of this review, however, I did manage to go see it a second time so I have a much better grasp of it.  So how good is it?  That's what I'm here to tell you.

Dune: Part Two is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Austin Butler, Josh Brolin, and Dave Bautista.  After finding the Fremen, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) seeks revenge for those who killed his father and destroyed his family.  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

Going into Part Two, I had been hearing nothing but praise for this movie.  Some were saying it's one of the best films of the last decade and up there with some of the greatest sequels ever made.  Having seen the movie twice now, I feel that the praise might be a little much.  With that being said, this is a great movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen.  Everyone here is firing on all cylinders.  Chalamet does great as Paul Atreides.  His chemistry with Zendaya, who plays one of the Fremen named Chani, is off the charts.  You're rooting for their relationship the whole time.  Paul has grown quite a bit since the last movie.  He's been thrust into this situation and has to step up to the plate.  Seeing where this journey takes him is kind of heartbreaking in a way, without getting into spoilers.  To see his progression from just the beginning of this movie was intriguing.  Zendaya also does a pretty good job as well.  Chani is very skeptical of the religious beliefs of her people, so when she sees Paul being regarded as a prophet, she becomes conflicted.  She's no pushover, though.  Chani isn't afraid to kick ass along the way.  For me, Rebecca Ferguson is one of the highlights of this film.  She plays Lady Jessica, Paul's mother.  Jessica is a Bene Gesserit, which is a mystical group of women who are basically cosmic puppet masters.  They're pulling the threads behind the scenes and planning decades in advance for the coming of the Kwisatz Haderach, a male member of the order.  Ferguson knocks it out of the park.  It's interesting to see her evolution from the first one where she was more subdued and a little hesitant of the Bene Gesserit's ways.  In Part Two, without getting into too many spoilers, she's changed quite a bit.  She's calculating and very intimidating.  I'm really interested to see where her character goes in the next one.  Another MVP in this movie is Javier Bardem who plays Stilgar.  He's a Fremen, but unlike  Chani, he devoutly follows his beliefs.  In this movie, he's essentially Paul's hypeman.  He believes that the young Atreides is the Lisan al Gaib, an off-world prophet.  Bardem does a fantastic job showing this loyalty.  He also got the biggest laughs from the audience.  It's really hard to go into detail why he's such a great character without going into spoilers.  On the villain side of things, Austin Butler is terrifying as Feyd-Rautha, nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Skarsgård).  He's just brutal and Butler completely disappears in the role.  I was a little nervous that I would see some cracks of Elvis (he played him in the 2022 movie) but that's not the case here.  He's psychotic and you're always kind of nervous what he's gonna do next.  Skarsgård is also extremely menacing as Baron Harkonnen.  Technically, this movie is freaking incredible.  Like I mentioned earlier, I've seen this movie twice with the first time being in IMAX.  You need to see this on the big screen.  This is the definition of epic.  Everything about it is grand.  There's a ton of sequences that have been stuck in my head.  One of them is the introduction of Feyd.  We see him fighting in a gladiator pit, but the whole sequence is monochromatic.  It was such a unique decision.  This whole film is shot beautifully.  The amount of detail and care put into the movie is insane.  Whether it's an ornithopter or a giant sandworm, everything feels and looks real.  It's absolutely crazy.  When I first saw Part Two, I remember I said to my friend that I was a little disappointed with Hans Zimmer's score.  Upon rewatch, I found out I was extremely wrong.  The score is quite beautiful.  There's one piece in particular that's used many times, but upon hearing it in the end, it's heartbreaking.  The action is also really well done also, especially the melee fight scenes.  It's almost like a dance.  I think it's so cool that with science fiction you can always get something new, just when you thought you'd seen it all.

While I did like this a lot more on the second, I do feel that Dune: Part Two is being overhyped just a tad.  It's great, don't get me wrong, but for everyone who's been saying it's on the level of sequels like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, or Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, let's reel it in a little.  Have some class.  This isn't really the movie's fault, but more of my expectations.  One of my main gripes is how quickly some things happen.  An example that's not too spoilery is Paul and Chani's relationship.  While they have great chemistry, I thought it happened a little too quick.  In one scene Chani barely acknowledges Paul, but a few scenes later they're chatting up a storm.  I'm not sure if scenes were cut to make way for other parts of the story, but it felt a little off to me.  Things like this happen a few times throughout the movie.  There's also a lot of nicknames for Paul you're gonna have to remember.  One thing that bugged me also was the pay off for some character beats that were set up in the first one.  An example of this is Thufir Hawat.  He was shown to have survived in Part One, but is nowhere to be seen in the sequel.  The director has said that his scenes were cut, but he won't release them to the public, which, for me anyways, is a bit frusturating.  There's a reveal that happens also that sort of doesn't really go anywhere.

To wrap everything up, Dune: Part Two is a great epic.  The characters, particularly Lady Jessica and Stilgar, are extremely interesting, the movie looks fantastic, the effects are incredible, it has an epic scale, the music is stunning and the action is really cool.  I did feel that a few things, including major relationships, were a bit rushed over, and I also felt that some plot points didn't get the payoff that they should've had.  I'm really excited to see where they're gonna go with the third one, which they have to make.  Be sure to see this on the biggest screen you can!  If I were to rate it, I'd give Dune: Part Two a 9/10.