“You will never lose me as long as you stay who you are.” How can one maintain alignment with the self when they are a pawn or a king in a game of religious fundamentalism, exploitative capitalism, and political colonialism of epic proportion? Maybe these systems of humanity simply fail to serve us all at scale. What does one do when the machinations of hidden powers land on our shoulders while imminent warfare is breathing on our necks? “Our resources are limited, fear is all we have.“

Dune is a story about the dramas of human history and culture, rendered as galactic science fiction thousands of years in the future, and yet Denis Villeneuve has brought it to the cinema in an effort of filmmaking that I feel is unprecedented for the genre. More importantly, though, he has managed to turn one of the most dense and complicated books into an immensely entertaining spectacle and heartbreakingly interpersonal human drama, creating a masterwork of genre rivaling the likes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Timothee Chalamet lands a star making performance alongside Zendaya who is given exponentially more agency and character than the books could ever portray. Austin Butler enters the film with the true charisma and intimidation of a threatening champion. Rebecca Ferguson continues to do work in her best performance to date next to Javier Bardem who brings an unexpected depth to a character that was originally written more two-dimensionally.

I wrote extensively about the quality of filmmaking in my Dune part 1 review, and not only does it hold true, but I found this movie to be a flawless execution of directorial vision. Many shots or moments took my breath away. Things I’ve simply never seen before that feel impossibly real are plastered on the big screen and married to music and sound that will transport anyone to a world far away. Between all of this and a story of mythic proportions, there’s not much I could ask for in a movie.