universzero’s review published on Letterboxd:
🎪 Epic ☣ SciFi 🎬 Villeneauve (2024)🇺🇸 [Pics / Direct Link] [Dune Part One review]
“Never give your water away. Even to the dead.”
Dune Part 2 is one of the best films I’ve seen recently. In addition to being a spectacular film to watch, this is moving and personal, with a thriving emotional core, strong character arcs, subtle human interactions, and a plot that several times veered in directions I never predicted. The events and decisions made absolute sense, and the last half of the film was much stronger as it occurred in the film than the plot I had imagined might transpire.
Despite starting with much more action, which I was concerned would compromise storytelling, everything that works in the first film is still strong here. I prefer the first half of Part One and the second half of Part Two (and look out for the title drop near the end of the film; it’s another perfect moment). However, it’s almost a nonissue. See my review of Dune Part 1 for more on that.
Timothée Chalamet’s Paul faces an emotional and personal minefield as well as a strategic one. At stake are his entire construction of self, what he can and cannot tolerate causing and becoming, and how he wants to interact with the world and the future. Multiple sacrifices are made just to find one outcome that is survivable and tolerable, and this outcome does not look like what most characters wanted.
”If I go south, all my visions lead to horror. Billions of corpses scattered across the galaxy all dying because of me.” “Because you lose control?” “Because I gain it.”
I hadn’t expected Paul’s final choices to be correct but also such a punch in the gut, and yet still satisfying and moving, and I could say this for most of the central characters. But it’s not a grim ending despite that. It is simply nuanced about what victory in this context means and what else was at stake or lost. None of this is belabored or heavy-handed—the performances are natural and easy to connect with. Consequently, this film really works.
Along with the character work, Dune Part 2 delivers the dramatic and thrilling military epic you’d expect for a production of this scale. You already know that the cinematography, production design, pacing, acting, the score, the fight choreography, and so on will be top notch. The experience of watching this in a theater is well worth the price of a ticket. And somehow it’s still a PG-13 film and that didn’t bother me. [Pictures / Direct Instagram Link]
This is another film where an individual fulfills old prophesies to become a chosen person who leads a band of rebels against an emperor to save a population, or world, or galaxy. Nothing could be less innovative than this ancient plot structure. I’m usually a bit tired of it. But here it’s so much better than usual that it almost always feels fresh and grounded.
Something about the lightness and honesty of the performances, the quality of the acting, the strong writing, and the lack of belaboring make that plot a backbone of something better. Well, and also because Paul and Jessica are tripping half the time. This mother/son hero’s-psychedelic-journey plot addition is extremely entertaining to me for reasons I had better not discuss.
”You want to fight with us? First thing you must learn is to be one with the desert.”
There are a few small things that didn’t work for me. The only relevant one is the cartoonishly villainous nature of evil, which makes some of the Harkonnen performances slightly unbelievable and annoying. I would have been more scared if they acted more human.
That is my actual only problem. Well no, it needed more Anya Taylor-Joy, but her being in the film was a great surprise, and a good portion of the cast (for example Léa Seydoux, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson) are personal favorites, so it all works out in the end. I even now tolerate “Zendaya”, despite my certainty that it is not a complete and properly-formed human name. It would be like if my entire name were actually Universzero. Moving on.
This is great. If you’re into this type of film, you are going to love it. Go watch. Now I’m off to rewatch Part One, and probably I’m going to catch this once more in theaters before it closes to check whether I agree with my first impressions.
Strongest recommendation.
Some Lists:
🎬 Dennis Villeneauve (Ranked)
☣ Science Fiction
🎪 Epics, apparently
🇺🇸 United States
2️⃣ 2020–2029 📆 2024
✵Index and Viewing Next
⛧ New Global Horror Home Releases (All Years)
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gems and 🌱 Candidates
Looking for something different? Consider:
Dune Part One and Part Two | Poor Things | The Zone of Interest | To Catch a Killer | Restore Point | Out of Darkness | Navalny | Pelican Blood
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