I was lucky enough to see Dune Part 2 almost a week early. Regal had a special showing on Sunday in IMAX, and although I was feeling exhausted going into this 7 p.m start, I felt confident that Denis Villeneuve could wake me up with some incredible IMAX sound, and he did not disappoint. Also the theater was packed, which I had not been in a packed IMAX theater like that since Oppenheimer, which was just last Summer, but it feels like so long ago. The only bad thing about the theater being packed, mixed with the unusually warm Syracuse winter, is that it caused the theater to be way too hot, but any time the theater is packed, it makes the experience so much better, especially when people are so excited that they start to clap when the movie begins and ends.
Dune Part Two picks up right where the first one left off. Paul and his mother have landed with the Fremen, and they are starting to get their acceptance. The Atreides, Paul’s family, have just been extinguished by the Harkonen’s, and they have lost control of the planet. Paul wants revenge, but he can only achieve this with the help of the Fremen. There is a prophecy, and Paul fits this prophecy well, so the Fremen start to believe in him slowly. It helps that Paul leads many of the attacks on the Harkonen’s. The Harkonen’s continually try to mine the spice from the desert, but at every turn, the Fremen are able to defend their turf despite it seeming like they have the technological disadvantage, but they know the land, and that is the advantage they need. Despite seeming dominate in all the encounters, the Fremen flee south to recruit more Fremen for their fight to take back their planet, and it all comes to a head in one massive battle.
This movie had so much hype going into it, which is an incredibly hard thing to live up to. People were calling it the best Sci-Fi movie ever, and that is clearly a lofty expectation. Personally, to me, it did not live up to that, but it was truly incredible. It is rare now to have a movie in this genre look so real. Typically, everything is CGIed to hell, but despite being filled with massive machines, intricate suits, and giant sandworms, everything felt so real. It makes it so easy to stay engaged with what is going on the screen. It did not matter that it was almost three hours long, because the visuals were so good that I could have sat there for a long time and enjoyed whatever was happening. The color pallet was also right up my alley. It basically all took place in the desert, and the yellows, oranges, and reds of the sand and the rocks always gets me. It is also the easiest way to make a place seem other worldly.
On top of the visuals, the acting is also incredible, which is due in large part to the insane cast that signed on to do this. Chalamet, Zendaya, Bardem, Butler, and Pugh just to name a few. So not only are these names of some of the best actors in the business right now, but also, they are names that will put butts in seats, which is important. It can be hard to sell a sci-fi epic to everyone, but with names like that, it is going to put up some serious box office numbers.
There is something about Chalamet though, because he seems to be cast as another white imperialist. In Wonka, he goes around from place to place, and he steals the resources of these people, including draining the resources of the Oompa Loompas, so that he can use them in small doses for his candies. As Paul goes and joins the Fremen, initially it seems like he is just trying to be a part of their clan, but as the story progresses, I started to get a different vibe. His diction stays the same by saying that he is there for them, and that he does not want to be the leader. That they need to take the land back, because it belongs to them. The Fremen are the natives of the land, but his actions and the look in his eyes change. It starts to feel like it is all about Paul and what he wants. Also he keeps having a recurring dream, that if he travels south and builds an army billions will die, and he goes south anyway. He did not have much of a choice, because their current hideaway was being destroyed, but he had a warning, and it feels like he is very susceptible to fall into this self-fulfilling prophecy. It feels like the Fremen are just going to become pawns in the game he is about to play, and the biggest way that he shows this is by rejecting Chani in front of everyone and choosing Princess Irulan as his wife.
This brings me to the most important question of the movie, Zendaya (Chani) or Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan). Paul has clearly developed a relationship with Chani ever since landing with the Fremen, and she has been an integral part of his success. She is always willing to share her mind, and her backing of him was a big part of him getting the support from the others, especially those that were younger and less believers in the prophecy. Although Chani herself never believed in the prophecy.
After the last fight though, Paul decides that he is going to take the hand of the princess in front of everyone, and Chani stands up and leaves, while everyone else is kneeling in support. A bigger war is coming, so traditionally joining houses in feudal times was a keyway to get more power and create a stronger force, but this seems more like a forced marriage, so how much backing will he get from these people. Also how much will the Fremen really want their help? These people were just trying to take their resources without consent, and now they are supposed to be fighting on the same side. Also the family Paul is marrying into will want something in return, so is he really protecting their land? All these questions are easily answerable by googling what happens in the books, but that is no fun. I rather speculate.
Ever since seeing The Northman, the last fight scene in a movie has become one of the defining parts that I look for, and grand sweeping battles like what happened in Napoleon are great, but when it comes down to two characters going mono a mono, to me that is better. A winner takes all, where both people have all their chips on the table, so when Paul started to fight Feyd-Rautha, I perked up even more in my seat, and the way it was framed was amazing. It is a throne room battle, and giant orange setting sun is in the background giving it all a beautiful glow, there is one shot, where they are fighting, and one of the camera angles makes them look like black fighting silhouettes, and that was all I needed. I wish they would have stayed at that angle longer, but it was there long enough for me to think that it deserves to be a poster. It was not as good as the ultimate fight in The Northman. It was not as long, and they were using knives to fight in this one, which takes away from some of the pure physicality of it, but I do not know if The Northman fight can be defeated.
The other shot that I thought was poster worthy was of Paul and Chani sitting on the top of a sand dune looking out into the desert, and it shows how small they are on their massive world, but it feels like the whole world is in that one small interaction. It reminded me of Across the Spiderverse when Gwen and Miles are sitting upside down on the ledge of one of the skyscrapers. The colors in Spiderverse and the relationship between Miles and Gwen made that one better to me, but it did create many of the same feelings.
This is an incredible movie, and it was such a pleasure to be able to go and see this early. I cannot recommend enough spending the extra money and seeing this in IMAX. It is definitely made for that. The visuals are unreal, and it will suck you in. My biggest gripe is the run time and the denseness of the material. It feels like so much happens in the time frame, but I just watched Inception, and its run time flew by compared to this. Honestly though there are so few films that are this well done, so it is worth the long runtime. Also it is hard to come by a cast this amazing, especially one that will be so resonant with younger audiences, and this creates a chance to draw in new a whole new audience into a world that they did not even know existed. Very few movies give me legitimate goosebumps, and when Paul gets onto the Sandworm for the first time, it got me. Movies can be manipulative, and they can be mediocre, but still bring you close to tears, but a moment that creates goosebumps from excitement is hard to come by. This gets 4.5 Stars, and it is easily the best movie of the year so far, and it will assuredly be nominated for best picture next year. Do not wait until this is streaming, it must be seen in theaters.
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