ben’s review published on Letterboxd:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Denis the menace is my favourite modern director and is well on his way to becoming my favourite ever. Every film I’ve watched of his has left me in awe and blown away, this was unsurprisingly no different. First things first, visually stunning. Maybe on a technical level the best film of all time. The sand worms are still awesome, the world building is insane and the action scenes are mega. Not to mention, Hans Zimmer and his brilliant score which just raises the film up a level.
On to the performances and the 2 Dune performances from Chalamet show me he deserves his stardom. He was brilliant and became dominating in the character when he needed to be. My favourite performance however, was Rebecca Ferguson. She captures emotion and then goes to ruthless so easily, she was phenomenal. Austin Butler played the sociopath so well but was hoping to see more of him on screen. The last performance worth mentioning was Javier Bardem whose character also gave us a bit of comedic relief when necessary.
I think Denis has only 2 minor flaws in his career. Not so much in this one but he does struggle finding the right pacing. He goes from a very slow build up to some insane action scenes but then goes back to the slow build up. It just leaves you wanting more. It works for this film as the faster paced scenes come a bit more but in other films it can be an issue. However, this and Incendies are definitely his best paced films. His other problem is his writing. He’s gone on record saying he likes the art of film and doesn’t care much for dialogue and you can tell. You don’t get many memorable lines in his films and the dialogue is really only there to move the story along. I think it’s his style and you’ve just got to accept it with his films.
Anyway, Dune 2 is a sci-fi classic which lived up to my expectations. It’s a cinema experience everyone needs to enjoy, everything is a marvel to look at on the big screen. The 3rd one can’t come quick enough.
