Woooooooooooow.

Simply amazing. Dune: Part Two completely justifies all the choices I found strange about the first part. With how closely the last one followed the novel, it’s a bit shocking how much this one diverges. Ultimately I think it’s for the best, Villeneuve managed to take the themes and major plot beats of the Frank Herbert’s work and make it his own thing while completely respecting it.

I do think it’s quite a bit less subtle, they lean hard into the “Paul isn’t the hero” aspect which is something that the book implies but never outright states. I understand why it did this, we live in a political climate where making a narrative about white western presence in the Middle East without making it explicitly clear that all of it has bad implications no matter the intention is dangerous. It just still feels like a step down. 

I was a little skeptical with how they could even fill two and a half hours given how much shorter the second part of the book is, but I shouldn’t have worried. Dune: Part Two is a stunning, beautiful, and complex film that’s everything you could ask for coming off of the first film.