Dune: Part Two desperately wants a large scope, the battles, the warring houses, differing planets, differing cultures, as well as thematic elements on white saviours, colonialism, capitalism and fascism. Yet there is a constant friction between this and what in practise feels extremely narrow.

I think this sense of narrowness is a symptom of several pretty major issues. One is the issue of the characters, who pretty much across the board feel underwritten and, in a certain few cases, unconvincingly performed. I think a few of the actors give quite compelling performances within the confines of the writing, Butler is a smouldering sociopath who gives basically all his scenes a certain dangerous horniness, Rebecca Ferguson is genuinely unsettling. I think unfortunately it is with both Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet where all the issues with the writing and acting are most prevalent. Neither are very convincing, and this lack of believability is even more true when it comes to their chemistry free relationship. So much of the film is with these two, and it is quite hard to care. Paul himself is a pretty dull character, not just in the sort of innate blandness he has but how his arc, to this point, never feels surprising.

The writing really does leave a lot to be desired, there is clunky exposition and a logic to moments and character's behaviour is baffling at points. I don't fully understand still why the Emperor not only puts himself in so much danger, but then ignores warnings and sticks around. You are the Emperor dude, just send your best guys in!

Of course Villeneuve caused a ruffle with his comments on dialogue in cinema and so it is unsurprising the visuals are this film's strongest element. There are some really nice shots and I do really enjoy the brutalist aesthetic, the stark use of orange and black, and then black and white of the Harkonnen planet. The impressive aesthetics extend to the ships, the suits and costumes of Harkonnen and Fremen alike. I am once again a huge fan of the dragonfly helicopters, legitimately one of my favourite fictional vehicles. Although, this is not all a visual delight, there are a couple of instances of, in my opinion, unacceptably shoddy CGI work, especially some crowd shots in the colosseum.

A final issue I had was a distinct lack of awe. The first Dune had a few moments where I was stunned by the imagery and the sound. The throat singing section, the bagpipes' moment. There was honestly not a single moment here like that and it was a crying shame.

This was definitely a more negatively slanted review, I think because I had such high hopes and it fell quite short. Having said all that, I didn't hate this. I loved a lot how it looked, I thought the action scenes were pretty fun, especially the final combat fight which was well choreographed. This is fine, let's hope the final entry to the trilogy delivers on the promise of the first film.