Just. Incredible. I’ve never felt so confident in giving a 5 star review for such an engrossing cinematic experience. I don’t think for a single moment, I was aware of the fact that I was watching a movie. I was truly on Arrakis. There was only one thought I had during the film where my attention was diverted. It was during the gladiator sequence. Upon seeing the incredible scale and feel of being in a hostile planet with such a striking look, I thought back to a former co-worker of mine who for years said that if adapted properly, Dune could be the greatest sci fi story ever told. He was right. I smiled, knowing his dreams were reality.

The film is almost too good. On every level, it just works. It picks up right where Dune Part One left off, making this a perfect double feature, single story. But everything Dune Part One does well, Part Two does better. The performances? Better. The cinematography? Better. The visual effects? Better. And most importantly, the story and direction of it, is somehow, improved to the point where it must be considered one of the greatest sequels ever. 

I hold the term “perfect” for seldom films. But. This may be on that finite list. It’s a masterpiece. A master craftsman, using every tool at his disposal, with a team of experts all working to make something life changing. From the first frame on, it’s just some of the coolest shit you’ve ever seen, topped with an artist crafting brilliance wrapped up in a timeless story that somehow feels fantastically new.

Great science fiction should take modern themes, ideas, cultures, problems, and politics, and set a story in a fictional world with fictional science, and comment use the freedom of imagination to comment on those things. Dune does this maybe better than any sci fi story ever. It allows you to ponder so much about the time we live in now, and how this space fantasy is really talking about the present. Because even though Timothy Chalamet is wearing blue lenses and fighting with swords, you are struck by the way the story makes you think about the world outside of the theater.

The best films are the ones that hit you not after the credits roll, but the ones that hit you once you’re laying in bed and staring at the ceiling. Dune Part 2 was that for me. I stayed up half the night thinking about what I just witnessed. Asking questions about the film, the story, the direction, the characters, the production, and thinking—how’d they do it? It is one of those moments in life we’ll randomly 30 years down the line and instantly be brought back to staring up at the ceiling, pondering the questions of life once again.