This was a visceral and seminal moviegoing experience. I’d been too young to watch Gladiator or Return of the King to experience those, but I imagine this is how my parents felt seeing those. This is why we go to the cinema. Dune Part Two is Villeneuve’s crowning achievement both on a technical and on a narrative scale. Every shortcoming I may have had with the first is overcome with a rich and deft hand. I couldn’t help but think of the situation in Gaza which really colored in some context for me considering some impenetrable (though unintended) parallels.

In our trying times, a story about the dangers of fundamentalism and the machines of power that drive individuals into destinies they cannot control is daunting. Visually striking and tactile, there is a sense of escapism. But thematically especially in an election year, I felt and saw our world reflected onscreen.

Newcomers Pugh and Butler provide strong performances. Butler’s patently evil Feyd-Rautha skirting the line of high camp. but this is truly Chalamet and Zendaya’s picture. The romance the two share throughout the picture anchors the film emotionally, adding a missing dimension the first film lacked. Both actors’ chemistry and individual skill come out in full force. Hans Zimmer’s leitmotif for their romance s as something that speaks to the tragedy and far-reaching implications of their love. It’s hauntingly beautiful. Rebecca Ferguson who I retrospectively adored in my Part One rewatch shimmers as long as the story requires her to be there. 

The hand-to-hand combat sequence between Paul and Feyd-Rautha is going to go down as one of the best fight sequences of the millennium. Taking a peek at the audience around me, it was no different from witnessing a sporting event live. And those wormriding sequences… you must watch this on the biggest IMAX screen you can find. I’d gone to revisit the first after seeing this because of how engrossing the format is. What a movie.