Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious past decade of blockbuster filmmaking is legendary in scope and scale, but what is unsurprisingly overlooked is how radical his studio work is. The Villeneuve project is tied so deeply to how power operates that he cannot help himself by spelling out how empires are built on dogma and tribalism; a political transparency that is sometimes cringe-inducing, but ultimately necessary. (Insert characters calling other characters fundamentalists several times.)

His meditative reinvention of Dune: Part One is a subversive character study playing with ideology and hero narratives; arguably too emotionally quiet and conceptually careful, though it greatly rewards on rewatch. Dune: Part Two is a continuation of Part One’s awe-inspiring epic, but tonally it’s an entirely different film. The thoughtful and contemplative Part One transforms into a thundering and sharp polemic in Part Two; with an extreme indictment on fanaticism through a grand scale chess game of intergalactic power. Part Two is visually stunning with excitingly high aspirations but somehow it’s more distant than Part One; Villeneuve trades his character study for a Ridley-Scott-level concept study. Usually that would be fine, but Villeneuve’s talent for finding the intimate in the grand is what separates him from the greats in this space—Nolan, Scott, Kubrick, etc. Need to revisit, but I think there is a pretty-glaring unevenness to the first act and a riveting final 30 minutes used the voice on us to try and forget.

Edit: Lol, I’ll just shut up, this movie is iconic and it sets new standards for the studio system…Timmy is unreal in moments, the visual effects are wild, the choreography is A+, I even liked Austin Butler, still needed more or less Zendaya, ultimately the end is mind blowing so you forgive underdeveloped subplots…go see it. (I see the Bene Gesserit have power over Letterboxd too.)

Villeneuve Ranked