My Highest Rated Films (#131)

With the seemingly incessant praise that 'Dune: Part 2' seems to be getting, there's not an awful lot that I can say that hasn't been said before. Either way, believe the hype.

Me, personally, I'm not the biggest fan of the first 'Dune'. I think it's a good film, for sure, but somewhat overrated. Part 2, however, manages to take everything that was good, and everything that was bad about the first film, an excel with them. The cinematography is genuinely mindblowing. I don't mean this in a hyperbolic manner, but in a nearly three hour long film, every single shot feels carefully planned, and executed with a distinct level of care. This is only bolstered by the thick orange colour grade, which works really well. Masterfully framed, blocked, shot, and graded. The narrative is incredibly interesting, and very engaging, and is executed with performances that are mostly better than the first film, all across the board. Zimmer does a great job with the soundtrack, and new characters are introduced well. I could just write, and write about the things this film does well. I felt that the ending was amazing, too, and literally had me frozen into my cinema seat. Truly sunk into this world. On the topic of the world, this is a film where I never realised how strong the world building was until the film finished, and I was no longer in the world of 'Dune'. Such a subtle grip.

It's receiving endless praise, but it really is a benchmark in commercial cinema, and nothing less should be expected from the artistic master that is Denis Villeneuve.

It's not quite perfect, however. For one, the romance between Chani and Paul is strong in its own right, however it could have had a little more attention at some points here and there. My main issue is with the pacing. There were some points during the last hour where the runtime could definitely be felt, and that this truly did feel like a film I was giving nearly three hours of my life to, however when the ending came along, and this gorgeous sun-kissed sword-fight plays out onscreen, I'm stuck in the world, truly immersed, and there's no longer any issue. Finally, the sound design is good, for sure, but man, the strive to maintain this almost minimalist nature was a bit jarring at times, with these incredibly loud blares I could feel in my chest. I could genuinely see my friends next to me covering their ears at points.

Overall...Villeneuve has done it again. I'll forever be a fan of this man's films, he's clearly very ionate about 'Dune', and picking him to work on these films have really payed off. This is not quite a masterpiece, but it's an excellent film in its own right, and one that I'm glad I got to see on release day. Truly amazing, and a monument of modern day cinema, and my initial indifference towards the first installment pushes me to rid any suspicions of recency bias from my mind. I wasn't sure that it would live up to the ratings.

90/100