Josh’s review published on Letterboxd:
Above average, but unfortunately not without flaws
At the end of the first part, the planet Arrakis is the scene of a brutal attack - the result of an intrigue between the Emperor of the Universe Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) and the Harkonnen people. The attack was specifically directed against House Atreides, who had come to Arrakis to harvest the spice in the air and rule peacefully. During the violent confrontation, the head of the family (Oscar Isaac) died, his son Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) managed to escape and found shelter with the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis. While Paul wants to assimilate into their culture and learn how to survive in the desert, the Fremen believe him to be the prophesied Lisan al Gaib, a messiah who will lead the Fremen to paradise. Only the young warrior Chani (Zendaya) doubts the ancient faith and sees Paul as a sincere ally with whom she soon falls in love. However, the spice increases Paul's psychic abilities more and more and in his visions an impending war with the Harkonnen and the Emperor looms on the horizon. The fate of the universe hangs on Paul and the Fremen.
After "Dune: Part One " from 2021, the second part of Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune". (source: Filmstarts)
I have only anticipated a few movies as much as I did this one.
So I booked tickets as quickly as possible in an imax hall at the UCI in my area.
The imax room was almost completely sold out, luckily I managed to get the last seats.
And this special imax experience was absolutely more than worth it... Anyone who has the opportunity for this should definitely take it. You have to see a movie like this in the cinema and ideally on the biggest possible screen.
Let's start, as I did in the review of the first part, with the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer has cooked once again.
I particularly the track "A Time of Quiet Between the Storms". Goosebumps are guaranteed every time I listen to it.
The outstanding soundtrack and the so strong and powerful sound design make the movie an unforgettable auditory experience and the loudest movie I have ever seen (or rather heard - lol). Sometimes perhaps a little too loud... at least that's what I heard from others who were in the movie with me.
In addition to incredible images, the film also convinces with its special and visual effects. (They can ride on f******* sandworms)
This is mainly due to the fact that real sets and locations were used again.
Small side fact: - The Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, Abu Dhabi and some abandoned bunkers and the Origo film studios in Budapest were once again used as filming locations for this screen epic. -
Without good camera work, however, even the most beautiful locations are of no use. Fortunately, greg fraser, as in the first part, has taken on this task and more than succeeded.
The costumes (Jaqueline West), the utensils and the make-up also look incredibly high-quality and elaborate.
Editing was done by joe walker and it's great. The fascist and fanatical harkonnen, reminiscent of the nazis, appear even more cold-hearted and cruel through a black and white style (--> cold, dreary colors).
The stunts and fight scenes are outstanding quoreographed and realized. German stunt coordinator Vi-Dan Tran also worked on them again. In a talk on the German YouTube channel "Kino Plus", he offered a look behind the scenes. If you are interested in this and speak German, you can watch the talk here.
Let's move on to the acting performances...
There is a very strong lead and side-cast. I was particularly impressed by three of them. The great Christopher Walken, as the imperator and Stellan Skarsgård, again as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, although he had far too little screen-time.
However, Austin Butler, as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (or na-baron Harkonnen), stands out the most. He embodies the terrifying, psychopathic and psychotic role perfectly.
And good news for all Zendaya fans, she returns as chani in a much bigger role than in the first part.
The basic story of Frank Herbert is of course very interesting and clarifies questions that were unanswered in the first part.
There are also a lot of occult and religious rituals and customs, which were interesting in the first place, but at some point became a bit too much for me.
The biggest problem I had, however, was that the movie seemed rushed despite its long running time. The character development of Lady Jessica Atreides and Paul Atreides was unfortunately not really understandable for me and came far too suddenly.
I haven't read the book, but I've heard from people who have read it that it was much more comprehensible, detailed and authentic.
But Timothée definitely plays it brilliantly.
(---> you find him really unlikeable, if you see the movie you will know what I mean)
Unfortunately, the romance between Paul and Chani didn't always work for me either. It seemed a bit too flat and not properly developed.
The decision that towards the end of the movie we look out of Chani's eyes and see Paul from her point of view is very clever. Where in the first movie and also the first part of the second movie we identified with Paul and experienced the story with him, we now do that with Chani.
We only feel like an outsider, with a connection to Paul, but can no longer really understand his motivations ( or rather, we don't share his views or would make the same decisions). In the first part we still did, because the movie was shown from Paul's point of view and we as viewers virtually lived as Paul in the Dune world...
The ending is partly open, as there is the prospect of the "holy wars" in dune 3 messiah. But now, unfortunately, we have to wait again... I want to know where things go from here...
All in all, a very good and worthwhile sci-fi movie that you should definitely see at the movies. However, I'm not entirely satisfied with some of the decisions that were made. In my opinion, the movie should have actually been longer or the second part of the series should have been split into two parts. This would have made it easier to understand the motivations and character developments...
Rating: "audiovisual masterly" 4,5 out of 5 stars
