Even on a second viewing it's impossible not to label this as an overwhelming sandy tsunami wave of some of the most jawdroppingly galaxy scaled out wondrous images ever put to a silver screen or any other screen for that matter, yet technical wizardry will only take you so far which is why this Villeneuve "go big or go shai hulud big" masterstroke of a follow up/second chapter becomes such a triumphant sci-fi blockbuster by the end, it marries the grandest of visual ambition and darkly grounded bizarre off worlds and dense lore with a powerful anti saviour narrative that in stark detail paints up the dangers of cult of personality, religious prophecies, charismatic leaders, and how easy all of those are used to manipulate whole countries and continents into deadly submission

Paul as a lead man might have felt a bit like a slanky whimpish lost boy of a Duke in the first one but here goes through the rebellious ringer to then come out a fearless man and probably a worse misguided man also, Chalamet dishes out his best performance yet as him and when speaking of the acting the entire cast is stacked like a grilled cheese sandwich made to give you a heart attack, and they all bring their absolute A game and gets lost within their roles and the dunes of Arrakis ; Favourites of mine would be the headstrong heart on her sleeves fremen Chani by Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson as the conniving string pulling reverend mother Lady Jessica, and the unhinged murdeous kinked out psychotic levels deluxe that Austin Butler brings as the na-baron Feyd Rautha

The Giedi Prime gladiator segment is a monochrome kino miracle of bombastic Gigeresque yumminess, Pauls first sandworm hop on ride has made me goosebump the living bejesus shits out of me both times because of it's effectively addicting epicness, overall this film has a special sort of biblical pathos behind both it's story and characters, but also in how it present itself as the wildest and vastest space opera this side of everything else, there's so much otherworldly yet familiar here to grip you and move you into the sandwalking rhythm, a rhythm that I found almost impossible to shake once I left the theater again (!), as I'm just yearning for more dangerous trips and false prophets and sandstormed battles through the desert of Arrakis, and while it has an absolute drum solotastic finale there is a door open for more to come that I can only hope Denis and Co will walk through sooner rather than later, after all the spice must flow