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And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life

Villevenue and Company did it again
They made the undoable doable 
They made the impossible possible
They made it fucking work 
Everyone who said Dune would never work as a movie adaptation…IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!! 
IT FUCKING WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it does. Denis Villevenue has outdone himself with this one; it’s hard to make a sequel that matches the expectations of the first one, but not only did he match it, he sured it. This movie seals the deal that Villevenue is truly one of the greats of our generation and that his ion and vision for any story will constantly shine through, but especially when it comes to Dune.

Paul Atreides, much like Timothee Chalomet, is an enigma (I mean seriously how can you do this and Wonka in the same year?). While the first movie established a young hero looking for a chance to avenge his father and restore his family’s honor, this movie presents the tangled side of Paul, the side of Paul that is afraid of what he will become. His visions haunt him with a world that he has no choice but to create. Paul doesn’t want this, but he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. He fights for the Fremen, for Chani, for his mother, for his unborn sister, but no longer for himself. He is no longer Paul Atreides, Duke of Arrakis…he is Paul Muad’dib Usul, Lisan Al Gaib. And he knows that what comes next will change the structure of his world and the world to come forever. 

But, we cannot mention Paul without mentioning Chani. For all of those who complained about not enough Zendaya in the first part, trust me, she’s literally in every scene. Chani, like all the women in this universe, play a fundamental role in shaping the world to come. Seeing her go from falling in love with Paul to not even recognizing who he is is the crux of the movie in a lot of ways. If the first movie was through Paul’s eyes, the second is fully through Chani’s blue within blue eyes. On one hand, Chani loves Paul as a person, and on the other, she hates him as a messiah. She is caught in the middle of a ferocious turmoil between her own wants and the rest of the world’s needs. But of course, that all comes to a head with two of her biggest enemies, and they’re not even Harkonnens. 

That’s right! Sometimes, it really is your own family that are your worst enemies. Of course, it goes without saying that she’s been at odds with Lady Jessica since the first movie, but now there’s a new element in the picture, something that might just push Chani out of Paul’s mind forever: Princess Irulan Corrino. 

Oh those tricky Reverend Mothers…as if they haven’t messed up everything else yet. Irulan is the opposite of Chani: controlled, subtle, and yet utterly poisonous. Even from the first scene, she already knows her destiny. Like Paul, she has no control over it; her path has already been decided. She feels no love for Paul, but knows what must be done, not just for her father (shout out to Christopher Walken who absolutely KILLED IT as Emperor Shaddam IV), but for the “good” of the universe. She is just another pawn for the Bene Gesserit to use and she has only one goal: control Paul. But, we have to wait for Part Three to see how that unveils (even though I already know because I read the Dune series). 

Lady Jessica, although approaching it from a different way, also wants to control Paul, or rather, control his destiny: she wants him to become Kwisatz Haderach. This has become more than just avenging Leto; this is avenging all the wrongs that have been done to her, starting with the Reverend Mothers. But more importantly, she is creating a world that is not just safe for her family, but a world they can thrive in. And now there are more stakes than ever. Not only is she carrying a child, but she is carrying an Abomination, something that even the Reverend Mothers fear. Will the Abomination change the structure of the universe even more than Paul will? Again, we’ll have to wait for Part Three to find out (and to see more of *spoiler alert* Anya Taylor-Joy). 

Javier Bardem as Stilgar was fantastic as always and was pretty much the only source of any comedic relief. Don’t have much to say about him except I love Stilgar and I’m excited to see more of him in Part Three. 

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the Harkonnens!!! Of course, Dave Bautista as Rabban and Stellan Skarsgård as Vladimir were amazing and I loved their characters just as much as I did in the first one, but that’s not who we were all looking forward to. I hate to it but yes, Austin Butler killed it in his performance as the bloodthirsty, calculated, masochistic Feyd- Rautha. Literally as soon as I saw him in that first scene, I knew they made the right casting choice. I mean, how does one go from Elvis to this? It’s a stroke of genius. Feyd-Rautha is the Harkonnen that makes you realize the rest of them are not so bad. This character has a pure blood lust and he enjoys nothing more than death, especially if he is the cause of it. Feyd-Rautha quickly becomes the most dangerous threat to Paul and the Fremen, but Paul’s fire shines brighter and extinguishes his flame in the captivating ultimate duel (probably one of my favorite scenes). This dynamic really captured what Paul could have been if he didn’t follow the right path, or rather, if the right path wasn’t chosen for him (you’ll see what I mean). 

To wrap this all up, I must give praise to only one more person, Denis Villevenue. He took the words from the book and brought them to life on the screen. Every frame is filled with his ion, determination, and desire to make this film a modern science fiction masterpiece. The cinematography, the editing, the sound design, the MUSIC (love you Hans), the designs of the ships and the palace and the worms and the Fremen and Harkonnen and Reverend Mothers and everything was just impeccable: but more than all of that, Villevenue proved that this “impossible” book could be made for the screen and for that, I commend him. I love the Dune series, and when I heard that he was making it into a movie, I was skeptical. But he proved me wrong with Part One, and he proved me doubly wrong with Part Two. Can he prove me triply wrong with Part Three? We’ll have to wait another three to four year to find out. 

Onto Part Three, onto GREEN PARADISE