Prior to the 28th of February I truly was not a Dune believer. Every ing day, Part One soured on me more and more to the point where I truly was a hater, in my mind it could never beat the "half a movie" allegations but for almost 3 years ive held on to a glimmer of hope that seeing both films would finally make it make sense. Maybe it's the IMAX bias, maybe its insane amount of hype, perhaps it's the incredibly hot cast, but it just all made sense to me. I still think Part One suffers as a standalone film. Its reliance on flash forwards and its ending point is still unusual to me although I think I understand now how there really wasn't much of a choice considering the very nature of adaptation as well as adapting from an almost impossible source material. In a perfect world, Warner Bros greenlit Villeneuve's 6 hour epic and no one would whinge about the length and how "movies are getting too long these days". Part of me is glad that didn't happen though because Part Two is truly an improvement on all fronts.

'The Empire Strikes Back' comparisons were bound to happen but upon watching the film it just makes so much sense. The scale, world-building, composition, performances are all turned up to 11 but are also working harmoniously. Fraser's cinematography is stellar here, there are countless shots that evoke a sense of spiritual significance while also living up to the prophetic nature of the narrative. It's easy to write it off as a cinematic flex, over-reliant on style but I truly don't see how else you could shoot something like this without alleviating the weight the story holds. Combined with Zimmer's score there are so many moments that truly feel like a miracle of filmmaking, I cannot lie I think I was genuinely caught up in religious fervour watching this film. Am really happy to see Chalamet doing a non twink-centric role for once, his work in the second half was incredible and genuinely stellar (something that rings true for the whole cast really). Austin Butler has redeemed himself from his flop era in Elvis. Q1 2024 was looking like the worst movies have ever been but it feels so good knowing we're truly back.

I would like to publicly apologise to Villeneuve, my film mutuals, and everyone I ever slandered Dune in front of. I am forever changed. Believe the hype. I am converting to Islam.