Johnny316’s review published on Letterboxd:
This was something. No matter fucking what, you must watch this in cinema, it's an experience of a lifetime. My jaw was dropped on a floor so many times I eventually lost it, Denis, you owe me a new jaw. After the film ended, I was sorta in a state of shock for an hour, that's how impressive this whole thing was. And while I think the first one was good, this right here was absolutely spectacular on so many different levels.
Chalamet definitely gave his finest performance, others were equally impressive, but who really surprised me was that Austin Butler guy, he really had that presence of someone who could possibly kill Paul. Zimmer as usual did his thing, he fucked with my ears, the goosebumps were present on my body throughout the entire movie. In a recent interview, Denis said his biggest inspirations for the film were Lawrence of Arabia(same as for the original book), the last temptation of Christ and Akira, which shows both in Paul Atreides' character ark and how grand the film feels. Some people had major problems with how the original looked, that it was just bland, and I do understand that and maybe even agree with it, but hey they improved that in the sequel too, whether it's a bw scene or scenes in Arakkis, everything looks nice. Now when it comes to the plot, it's basically Paul's journey of acceptance as a messiah(or new Hitler) and as someone who wants to avenge his family and almost 3 hours felt like the right amount of time for such a story to be told satisfyingly. The whole religious aspect of the film started in a bit of a goofy way with Stilgar constantly saying that Paul is their messiah which exactly why it became a meme, but later we see just how much this prophecy affects people around him and just how serious the belief in a messiah can be.
Can you just imagine the timeline in which dune 2 was released in the original date? The battle with Oppenheimer for all the major awards would be insane. Oh well, at least next year it will be obvious what film will sweep tons of awards.
