Dune 2 (2024)

[Jon Dent]

This movie is big. It feels big, it looks big, it sounds big, it's runtime is big, etc... If you thought Dune Part 1 was over the top and epic, Part 2 is standing right behind you saying "hold my beer..."

I might as well get the nitpicks out of the way first. The script is surprisingly coherent for a production of this magnitude, but it still relies a bit too much on people doing their homework before watching. There's no recap of Part 1 and little explanation of the larger world this story is a part of. There's also a few confrontations and character fates that have been shifted around for maximum audience cheers, and like Eowynn killing the Witch King in Return of the King, it can feel a bit cheap when it happens. Zendaya continues to be a limited actress. She's got the non verbal part of her role down, but every time she speaks I'm whisked away to the halls of high school. Austin Butler does a fairly good job being menacing as Feyd Rautha, but he can't quite get the high camp of Sting's take on the character out of my head. Dave Bautista shows that three films as Drax the Destroyer have wrecked his ability to be seen as a serious threat. Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy pop up for glorified cameos that are more notable for the "hey! That's the girl from..." reaction they generate than any real story function. Hans Zimmer's score is even more groaning and atonal than the first part, and while it's effective at stirring a reaction in the audience, that reaction is just as likely to be "for the love of God turn that crap down" as wonder. The sound mix dialog levels are less whispery than the first part, but the overall volume still gets obnoxiously loud to the point of distortion a few times too often.

Flipping the dial to what the film does well... The story doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable dual nature of Paul's rise. There's plenty of dark foreboding of what happens to him and the universe further along in the Dune franchise, and his ultimate victory at the end of the movie is nowhere near as triumphant as the one shown in David Lynch's Dune. Here it's filled with dread at what's to come. Timothee Chalamet does a good job navigating Paul's transition into a messianic figure, and he's well supported by Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, but none of them can hold a candle to the true acting standout: Rebecca Ferguson. Her shift from a caring mother to a driven, facially tattooed, amoral advocate for the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach (don't forget to do your homework kids) is truly scary.

The cinematography is breathtakingly epic, filling every inch of the screen with huge locations, massive crowd shots, and enormous desert vistas on par with Lawrence of Arabia. The visual effects work is every bit as good as Part 1, with the only real issues being with some less than convincing compositing during a gladiator fight on Geidi Prime (shot in black and white no less). The sandworms play a more active role in this installment, and every time they appear they own the screen with their huge size and cacophonous, clicky vocalizations. Vocalizations that sound a bit too close to the sound of a blown speaker cone for comfort, but I digress...

Overall, this movie makes a great case for theaters still being relevant. Every inch of it has been constructed for the big screen, and it feels at home there more than anything has since the last Avatar movie in 2022. It leaves the ending wide open for a third installment (rumored to be adapting Dune Messiah), and one can hope this movie does well enough to justify an investment into that part of the story. Denis Villeneuve clearly has a lot of interest in the material, and with two tremendous films already produced from it, it'd be a shame to stop him now.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It was the first time in a long time that I watched a movie with a considerable amount of people in that same room.

The fact that everybody in the room just kept sitting quietly in their seats for a considerable amount of time, when the end credits started rolling might be an indication that something rather special in cinematic history just happened...

[Bobby Henderson]

Cinema: AMC Patriot 13, Lawton, OK
Screen: Special (IMAX), Seat J15
Format: Dual 2K Projection, 5.1 audio
Movie Rating: 3.5 out of 4

I went to see Dune: Part Two thinking the movie would be the second half of a two-part story. About 90 minutes into the feature it became clear there was more of this story to tell than what would fit in the remaining run time. During the end credits I was looking up Dune: Part Three on my smart phone. Denis Villeneuve has already put in a lot of work adapting Dune: Messiah into a screenplay. With the amount of work still left ahead I'm afraid we could be waiting another 3 years for the next movie (if it actually gets made).

I have not read Dune: Messiah or any of the other Dune sequel novels that followed. Apparently Denis Villeneuve will have a tough job turning Dune: Messiah into a good movie because (according to critics) the sequel novels were not all that good. One criticism is Dune: Messiah has a lot of talking and not much action. That's a bad thing for movies. The novel Dune: Messiah begins 12 years after the events of the original novel. I wonder if Denis Villeneuve will try to dramatize the holy war the happens in between. He has said he won't do anything past the Messiah book, Part 3 will be the end of it.

Dune: Part Two was not boring at all. I loved the production design and visual effects in the movie. Some really great artistry and design was put on display. The ending was deliberately murky, hinting at a very dark road ahead. The final shot of Chani getting set to ride a giant sand worm off into the sunset is heart-breaking. The theater's sub-bass speakers seemed to be working in good order; the sound mix of this movie gave them a good workout.

I did re-watch Dune: Part One on MAX to re-fresh my memory of it. I'm glad I did because I had forgotten a lot of details from the 2021 movie. After watching it a second time I liked Dune: Part One even more.

Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy pop up for glorified cameos that are more notable for the "hey! That's the girl from..." reaction they generate than any real story function.

I agree with that. Prior to the feature, the trailer to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga played within the long string of other previews. Anya Taylor-Joy is very unique looking. Not ugly, but very far from generic beauty too. Her brief cameo in Dune: Part Two stood out to the point of being distracting. "Oh that's the lady I just saw in that Furiosa trailer!"

[Marcel Birgelen]

*Warning: May contain some spoilers*

I have not read Dune: Messiah or any of the other Dune sequel novels that followed. Apparently Denis Villeneuve will have a tough job turning Dune: Messiah into a good movie because (according to critics) the sequel novels were not all that good. One criticism is Dune: Messiah has a lot of talking and not much action. That's a bad thing for movies. The novel Dune: Messiah begins 12 years after the events of the original novel. I wonder if Denis Villeneuve will try to dramatize the holy war the happens in between. He has said he won't do anything past the Messiah book, Part 3 will be the end of it.

Back in the 1990s, I read all six of the original novels, those written by Frank Herbert, not all the stuff that followed afterwards. While the entire story is of pretty epic proportions, I don't think anything comes close to the original two-part novel. The part with Paul and Chani splitting ways is a divergence from the book and I think it enhances the emotional impact of the ending.

The 1984 movie had a pretty controversial ending and I think it took away a lot of the dark messaging from the original novel.

Some stories don't need a well-rounded ending, their impact is far greater if the ending is left to someone's imagination. I think this set of two movies is one of them. Remember: The Matrix never needed a sequel either. I'd rather want to see Villeneuve focussing on some other project, than trying to bring this thing to some kind of conclusion, with the inherent risk that it can only end in disapointment.

[Joe Redifer]

The final shot of Chani getting set to ride a giant sand worm off into the sunset is heart-breaking.

I thought her name was Johnny.

Anya Taylor-Joy is very unique looking.

That's one way of putting it. Here eyes are very, very far apart from each other. She must have some pretty good depth perception compared to normal people. I don't know why they replaced that other actress from the Mad Max movie with her.

[Marcel Birgelen]

That's one way of putting it. Here eyes are very, very far apart from each other. She must have some pretty good depth perception compared to normal people. I don't know why they replaced that other actress from the Mad Max movie with her.

Besides money, I guess age may be a factor? Charlize Theron is 48 years old at this point in time, I guess letting her play a teenage Furiosa is a bit pushing it?

[Joe Redifer]

Oh is she supposed to be a teenager in the new movie? Not that Anya Taylor Joy looks like a teenager (I'd buy 26 or so maybe). I'm not really interested in it. I didn't find the character that interesting in the last Mad Max movie.

[Marcel Birgelen]

For those who haven't seen the movie yet: It's the prequel to the 2015 Mad Max movie and practically her "coming of age" movie. So, mild spoilers may be ahead... We follow the character of "Furiosa" during multiple times in her life, her exact age at that time is unclear, but it can be guessed. Given the lifestyle choices of those characters depicted in those movies, you can expect most of them, with the exception of a very small elite, to die rather young. Also, like you can expect from a prequel: The movie essentially ends on the moment she becomes the Furiosa from the 2015 movie.

The part where she was still a child is played by Alyla Browne, "the rest" is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, the woman with the (presumed) good depth perception.

I also didn't find the character itself that interesting, the character development in this new movie is also rather flat: she becomes a "though bitch" pretty much early on and that's what her character is. What's more interesting to see, at least for me, is how they set-up the world as depicted in the 2015 movie and how it connects to the rest of the Mad Max movies.