Ending Part One with Paul's fight against Jamis felt weird to me back when it released. Afterwards I listened to the audiobook and still found it an odd place to cut off the story. More on that in my re-review of Part One. I'll just say that Villeneuve should have changed up that trial in the desert, I still don't know who Jamis is. That said, I think the opening of this film god-damn ruled. It was clear right away that this entry will take its liberties with the source material and I really liked that aspect of it.

There is this comparison with Lord of the Rings floating around with Dune. It is a stretch. Yet, it helped me understand why this entry clicked so much better with me. Much like in Peter Jackson's work, Dune Part Two hypercharges character traits which smartly adds conflict. As much as I ire Part One's filmmaking, the characters tend to be mostly stoic - or dare I say, boring! Here, I liked how Paul struggles with his destiny and Chani counters that nicely as a Fremen skeptic. The filmmakers even gave her a BFF to talk to.

How I her from the novel, she mostly goes "okay, I guess" - no matter what Paul is up to. It works in the novel, but I am glad that they changed it up for the film. I guess I need to stress that I am not an expert when it comes to the book, as I mostly listened to it while painting my hallway. But I am pretty sure Villeneuve also hypercharged Lady Jessica's fanaticism. The fact that Bardem's Stilgar is a comic relief at times gets debated a lot. I liked that decision as well. I don't mind some levity in a movie and I am glad it made its way into this entry. There is room for that in a blockbuster.

You can already tell, the character dynamics kept me quite engaged this time around. Then there is the sheer spectacle of Part Two. Well, it is absolutely bombastic and I was very glad to have booked the IMAX screening. Not just because of the visuals but the sound design and score are also off the charts. My favourite sequence must have been that Harkonnen arena fight. The visuals alone told me everything I needed to know about their cult of strength and brutality. The Riefenstahl aesthetics underlined the Harkonnens' actions really well, it's not just lazy visual shorthand like in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Some issues arose for me in the film's middle chunk. It was a little too much of unfocused prophecy gobbledygook, awkward pacing and nuclear warheads hidden in the desert for me to stay fully engaged. I mean, what is this, Beneath the Planet of the Apes!? My brother-in-law also let out a handful of yawns next to me. But: when the finale rolled around, the film sucked me back in. Boy, what a show! I think I gasped when that one premonition from Part One turned out to be Chani. That is definitely a good sign and I am willing to give the film some leeway with its shortcomings because of it.

What I also really liked was Chani's battle gear, it looked pretty damn cool - just like every costume in the film. It's irable how complex the film dares to be when it comes to the conflict of Paul's prophecy and the possibility of him being a false messiah. If I had one wish, it's just that it could be portrayed more ambiguous, like in Patton or some other 70s movie. Then the finale could be a litmus test for the audience, are you on board with this crazy person who shouts orders or do you think he went off the deep end?