Movie Details
| Title: | Dune: Part Two | |
| Director: | Denis Villeneuve | |
| Year: | 2024 | |
| Genre: | Science Fiction | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 04.27.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (6)
- Arrival
- Blade Runner 2049
- Dune
- Enemy
- Prisoners
- Sicario
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 04.27.24 | Internet | Dune: Part Two AKA The Second Half of Dune. As reported by everyone else, it's good. I liked it. It does feel like the meat and potatoes of the story and even though it ends setting up another movie I still felt it had an actual ending with some story threads being resolved. It also feels like a ton of stuff happens in this movie compared to the first; it really makes the first film feel even more like a prologue. The big thing that I appreciated here though, especially compared to Lynch's film, is that you actually feel progression as Paul becomes the leader of the Fremen. You see him earn that stuff in many scenes where Lynch's film felt the most rushed. So I get it... you have to eat the veggies of the first one to be able to savor the steak of this one. All the fighting scenes I thought were done well. The Harkonnen stuff was great, Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha I thought was great, how he talked like Stellan Skaarsgard kind of. The Bene Gesserit stuff was good, you really get a sense of them being witches playing the long game. The dynamic amongst the Fremen I thought was good. Chani, Stilgar... all the ships and machinery and technology I thought was good. The worms were well handled, the scene where Paul rides was a standout. The desert felt much more desert-y this time around. I got a sense of the vastness and desolation of Arrakis that I didn't before. I kind of remember more Thufir in the book though, and while I did think the score was better, that messiah wail still took me out of it every time it happened. I guess I see why there are so many visions in the first movie now as there are even more here but I guess that's just what life is when you're Paul and you have them. I did feel like Lady Jessica was sidelined but I kind of remember the same thing happening in the book. Certainly Lynch's movie she's barely in the second half. And the baby stuff wound up being a spot of humor which I think it welcomed for its weirdness. Christopher Walken was mis-cast as the emporer though. I love Walken but he's too old. I remember thinking from the book that he was a crafty politician who was basically caught by the impossible odds of Paul being Kwizatch Hadderach (however you spell that) but here he feels like he's too old and become clueless to all the machinations happening around him. I don't feel any power in him even when the script seems like he tries to use his position as one last bluff against Paul. In the movie it feels more like a muttered delusion. Anyway... Design-wise, I feel like since we get to see a few other planets not everything was just brutalist and bare. I guess this is more with the costumes than the sets but the infrared stuff on Geidi was cool as was their weird fireworks. The ship designs were also different, not like House Telvanni in Morrowind different but I guess different enough... Harkonnen ships being bulbous and the emporer's ship being a big chrome testicle. Cool... maybe not as batshit crazy cool as one might hope but still cool and i don't think disappointing. This note has felt pretty all over the place, random thoughts. I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. Didn't fuck a popcorn bucket or anything, but I liked it. I think because of being the end of book 1 it didn't have that "middle movie" vibe like The Two Towers where everything just carries on. The next one will be interesting because I haven't read any of the sequels and the movie will have to actually end. From what I hear the sequels get pretty weird so I'm not sure if there's a natural end to the story at the end of the second book or what, but I'll be curious to watch and find out. As such, I think this one makes the first better (if slow comparatively) and has the makings of being a remarkable trilogy of movies. A real treat for modern audiences used to marvel and star wars bullshit. |
