"He who controls the spice controls the universe."

Summary:

•An angry and defiant Paul Atreides and Chani deliver many of the best and most intense moments. They both yell, glare, and scowl throughout. Zendaya's expressive, enraged eyes are on point. If looks could kill.
•First-class cinematography, visuals, lighting, sound design, performances from its main cast, sets, casting, editing, costume design, dialogue, and directing.
•The third act and final scenes are where this film shifts into a whole new gear of legendary greatness. The last 25 minutes were insanely cool.
•Timothy Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, and Josh Brolin, in particular, all bring their "A" games. The entire cast delivers consistently high levels of greatness.

Before getting into my thoughts on Dune: Part 2, I want to review three exciting things I've read recently from Director Denis Villeneuve. In a recent interview with Deadline, he mentioned that he's not a fan of dialogue and is far more interested in "strong" visuals.

He also spoke of his disappointment with movies being "corrupted" by television overall.

Thirdly, he said he hopes to make a film someday with zero dialogue (which I've recently seen almost done to this degree in last year's Silent Night and No One Will Save You). For a director not overly interested in dialogue, there are some exceptional lines in both Dune Parts 1 and 2, despite this mindset. It makes me wonder if either one could be even better with more of an appreciation for this.

Actor Ethan Hawke is brought up in the interview as someone with the polar opposite philosophy when making great movies. He's far more interested in dialogue over cinematography when giving opinions on what students looking to be directors should most focus on. He approaches this from an actor and director standpoint, as he's been on both sides of the camera directing six of his films.

I also thought it was intriguing that Dennis Villeneuve was so fascinated with the original Dune books that he set out to capture all of the tiniest and most subtle details, right down to the smell of the original source material. I have no clue how one manages to do that, but this is the level of ion consuming him when he directs. It's probably one of the biggest reasons he's my 2nd favorite director working today behind Christopher Nolan.

Lastly, I read earlier that Denis Villeneuve still has quite a bit of anxiety and sleepless nights some six years after his work on Blade Runner 2049 was completed. He had Ridley Scott's blessing to direct this beforehand, but now he no longer wants to do a sequel to something already established by a different director. Ridley Scott later commented that he wished he could have done Blade Runner 2049 but was committed to doing Alien Covenant.

I think this kind of response played a huge part in Villeneuve's having major reservations about ever doing something like this again. He was so worried he might not do proper justice to the original that he genuinely believed it could kill his career.

Highlights with Dune Part 2:
•Captivating blue eyes everywhere.

•Like Oppenheimer, fantastic use of black and white scenes utilized in different sequences.

•The lighting team helps deliver some of the best shots imaginable. Villeneuve is big on repeating various shots of the sun in different states. One was blurred a bit in the background in a final scene, which was notably impressive. The lighting of the characters' faces and color palettes chosen by Villeneuve were superbly done.

•Astounding visuals and sets. Excellent closeups of Paul Atreide's boots traversing slowly in sand, dunes, and his hands. Thought it was cool how the central protagonists would do sort of slow-dance movements when walking over sand to avoid summoning sandworms.

•Futuristic fireworks in at least two scenes made me reflect on putting my hands over the top of a plasma globe as a kid. If you've never seen this, flashes of light pulses electrically charge and react to your fingers and hand. I've never seen anything done like this before. Also resembled colorful ink blots.

•Rebecca Ferguson's (Jessica) symbols all over her forehead, cheeks, and chin, with a small circle over the bridge of her nose, looked terrific, resembling an all-seeing third eye. Loved that.

•Incredibly inspiring rallying speeches by Paul Atreides and Chani both. They are at their absolute best when ionately screaming and yelling at others. At one point, Paul Atreides loudly commands, "Silence!" and you feel every ounce of his rage perfectly conveyed.

•As astonishing as the various ships were last year, The Creator, they are even more glorious, original, and unique here. One ship reminded me of the Jawa's Sand Crawler from the Star Wars films with its giant treads.

•The explosions are unreal. Shots of rockets being launched, lasers being fired, and futuristic helicopters resembling winged insects being taken out of the sky with expert shots were glorious.

•Wide shots showing the full scope of so many soldiers ready for battle were fantastic.

•Austin Butler's voice and psychotic villainous character were major standouts. He said it took him over 3 hours a day with makeup and hair. He couldn't see out of one or both eyes if his bald cap was off by mere millimeters when it was placed on. I love that he changed his voice up so drastically for this, as Christian Bale previously did in Nolan's Batman trilogy.

•Villain Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) reminded me of Star Wars Jabba The Hut, which is only darker and has far more substance to his character. Shots of him in black-colored water baths and various scenes overlooking Feyd-Rautha and other things were imposing.

•Austin Butler's (Feyd-Rautha) entrance into the coliseum reminded me of Russel Crowe's Gladiator. When the doors in front of him open wide and his face is lit up, it's downright mesmerizing.

•Paul Atreides finishing his challenge to ride a sandworm was awesome. How you make sandworms look this deadly, ferocious, and fierce... Villeneuve handles this with ease and finesse.

•I was engaged from the very first moment until the end, and the two-hour and 46-minute run-time didn't feel overly long when you have this much story to tell. It did take me about 25 minutes for me to shift from "this is really cool" to "oh my god, this is fucking fantastic". It's a movie that slowly gets better and better as it moves along.

• Hans Zimmer's score matched the extraordinary visuals every step of the way. It was flawlessly done by a genuine master of his craft.

• There is no post-credit scene, and none is needed. I can't wait to see what's in store for part 3, Dune Messiah.

•Underrated romantic subplot. It's a great moment at the top of a Dune where the camera sweeps around Zendaya and Timothy Chalamet's characters from above.

•This is Timothy Chalamet's best performance, and Zendaya brings it right with him. These young actors and actresses working with a legend like Christopher Walkin bring their very best work. I'm sure the stress was high in not wanting to let anyone else down in this talented cast with a sub-par showing, and just as Robert Downey Jr. pushed others in Oppenheimer to deliver in spades, I felt the same thing happened here.

IMDB: 9/10, Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 94%, Audiences: 95%,
Letterboxd: 4.6 / 5

Notable quotes:

Paul Atreides: I am Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis. The Hand of God be my witness I am the Voice from the Outer World, I will lead you to paradise!

Paul Atreides: "There is no one in this room who can stand against me." He continues, "Your mothers warned you about my coming. Fear the moment. But you think you could have a chance. But you are afraid. What if I could be the One? This could be the moment you've been praying for all your life."

Alia Atreides: You are not prepared for what is to come.

Reverend Mother Mohiam: Consider what you are about to do, Paul Atreides.
Paul Atreides: SILENCE!

"In the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets, but the darkest of them all may remain."

"May the knife chip and shatter."

"This prophecy is how they enslave us! It's not a prophecy. It's a story".