"DUNE PART TWO" - REVIEW
(Originally published March 21, 2024)
Thoughts on DUNE PART TWO.
Finally saw it. I was catching up on all the Oscar things plus doing Oscar videos, raising children, doing work, job hunting, etc.
I was going to say “I’m a little late to the party on this…” but I’m retiring that phrase from my vocabulary, especially when talking about movies (and especially movies that just came out a couple weeks ago, for Pete’s sake). I’m not saying it anymore because movies are forever. CLASSIC movies are relevant forever. And this film, about the victories that barely conceal a dark heart’s lust for power, is a CLASSIC.
It’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK meets LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (and all that that implies), but it is also pure Villeneuve. So much love and passion exudes from every image, every gut-churning sound effect, every human face. For all its incredible spectacle, director Denis Villeneuve does his best when he focuses on the inner lives of the characters in his now trademark way. His style contains a Kubrickian examination of dehumanization, but with none of the smug intellectual self-satisfaction that Kubrick often possessed in showing us that. Also unlike Kubrick (and to an extent, Ridley Scott and David Fincher), Villeneuve actually gives a damn about people.
The filmmaking is also more confident. As much as I loved the first one, at times the scope and scale were almost comically large. This time around, the epic scale matches the ambition of its ideas. The world created is one that I believe exists. I believe everything that I’m seeing and I can feel it all of it, it’s so tactile and relatable.
Whereas his editing choices were always so bold and inventive and evocative, here he does a lot more with deftly timed camera movements and staging to create suspense on a vast desert landscape.
Individual things I loved:
- Timothee Chalamet was riveting in a whole new way. I feel like we watched him become a man in this movie, from the beginning to the end. Seeing him use his power and his charisma wielded as a weapon, as a threat, was utterly engrossing and chilling. And in fact, every member of the cast was pitch perfect, and let’s just say I would never want to encounter Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha in a dark alley.
- This ranks among one of the great Hans Zimmer scores. For me, it is up there with GLADIATOR and INTERSTELLAR in terms of mystery, majesty, and menace.
- And when that haunting final shot came up, I remember thinking “please be the final shot and cut to black right now.”
This is already the best film of the year. And if ever there was a time to splurge on a premium format, treat yourself if you can and see it in Dolby Cinema or IMAX or 70mm. It absolutely calls for it.
#moviefriend
Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: https://mnfilmcriticalliance.wordpress.com/