A monolithic work from Villeneuve. I'd like to premise this with the fact that I almost knew ,*too* much going in. This was not the viewing of sheer enjoyment I wanted, it was me sitting in a chair mentally processing every single moment that I had anticipated for 800 days. I'd spent weeks reading the wiki. A part of the first film lives rent free in my brain every day, and I have been rereading all the books. I hope on the second viewing I'm not sitting there going 'ah yes, this moment, tick, that event, tick, oo that's a change' etc. I think my absolute life changing adoration of the first film is just THAT hard to shake.

That being said, this is one of the most blistering critiques of religion a blockbuster film may have ever offered. The last maybe thirty minutes of this film had me crying because it was delivering on the character arc I have hyped on about for literal years. It is cynical, and nihilistic, and dark, it makes part one look like a walk through a rose garden. It asks us to question where faith goes when blind fanaticism drains all autonomy. Zendaya is absolutely brilliant, she is one of the only Freman with the conviction to question what is going on to her people. Austin Butler is deeply unsettling with only a stare sometimes. Timothee Chalamet embodies the role with the magnanimous gusto an emerging leader needs. Stilgar is a clown who is our guide into the world of upholding prophecy. And then you have Jessica who gets more frightening in her ambition than even she initially suspects. Great characters all round.

I have my few niggles. I think Zimmer's score has less rhythmic synchronicity than the first film. Even the sound effects in film one matched the tempo of the score. Everyone on the planet will disagree with me , and subsequent viewings may change this, but I think part 1 is slightly better paced. There's so much dense plot going on here that I wish it almost spent more time sitting with some moments. I winge, but I'm aware this is as humanely close to achieving Herbert's vision with such grandeur on the big screen.

The craft, the ambition, the thematic density, the sheer audacity of the piece is like no oother. Dune is still about one man and his pursuit/fear of power - mingling with the forces that be above and around him to tell a dangerous tale about politics, allegiance, nature and faith.

I understand all the changes, and at the end of the day, I dont think I could have made it better.

Read the books once the trilogy is over kids. Part Three will be an epoch in the history of cinema.