Dune: Part Two

2024

★★★★ Liked

This will be an odd review. Why? Because I give the movie fewer stars than Part 1, yet I found it better. It's hard to explain, but I'll try.

I won't delve into the technical and musical aspects of the film because they are simply an absolute masterpiece and the reason why everyone should go to the cinema. Tough luck if you don't experience it in the cinema!

Dune: Part Two overall gave me the feeling that a lot was left by the wayside. Whether it's in the book or not doesn't matter. I missed sequences like Paul's training in the desert, or the depth and complexity of the character Na-Baron Feyd-Rautha.
Despite the length of 2 hours and 45 minutes, I still wanted more. That doesn't happen often. During the phase where Feyd-Rautha celebrated his birthday, I felt a certain drag. It's possible that was because I couldn't buy into the character played by Austin Butler.
However, the film has reignited my interest in the world of Dune even more. I want to immerse myself in this world even more, absorb everything. From the customs of the Fremen, the behaviors in the desert, to the Atreides family history. Dune: Part Two has poured oil into the fire that Dune: Part One and the book had ignited in me. I want to know what it feels like to drink the water of life, what it's like to be high on Spice, what it's like to fall in love with a Fremen like Chani, what it's like to ride a Shai-Hulud, and how to deal with the difficult task of being seen as the Messiah by everyone. These are emotions I didn't have in Dune: Part One. In Dune: Part One, I was just gaping at the screen, truly frightened by the Harkonnens and the plots of the Bene Gesserit. It was the introduction to Arrakis which can be witnessed only once. And even though I have more criticisms for Dune: Part Two, I find it a better film because it feels more like a movie. 

Nonetheless, I am convinced that Dune as a work remains unfilmable. Not because I want to criticize Villeneuve, quite the contrary. Villeneuve has brought out the best and shown that the book can never be done justice on the screen.
Overall, it feels to me as though the films should not be separated. Once Dune: Part Three is in cinemas and the story Denis Villeneuve wants to tell is over, I'll try to watch all the parts in one go and judge the trilogy as one film because that's how the first two parts feel.

In conclusion:
No matter how you spin it, I am so grateful for the films.

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