Dune: Part Two

If there’s one thing I love is to watch a film untouched by any knowledge of its plot or quality. If I can avoid even the synopsis, I will, because I believe a lot of the film can be ruined by prior knowledge or expectations that may not be met. Had I not watched About Time more than once, for example, I would not regard it as highly as I do today, because I expected something I did not get. In this particular case it had nothing to do with quality, but no more of that. For Dune: Part Two, I sadly came into the movie theater knowing way too much, expecting a cinematic masterpiece at the level of The Lord of the Rings. Well… It truly speaks to the power of Villeneuve’s latest epic that my ridiculously high expectations were very much met, perhaps even surpassed. To start with the obvious: the absolute technical masterpiece this is. The worldbuilding is just phenomenal, with some of the most gorgeous costumes, sets and visual effects ever seen on the big screen. I’ve always believed that, as long as one doesn’t sacrifice the basic quality of any technical film aspect, the most essential things for a movie to stand out above the rest are its visuals and its score. Denis Villeneuve truly understands the power of this visual medium, and so he brings in two titans alongside him to elevate his work with stunning cinematography and a larger than life score: Greig Fraser and Hans Zimmer. The visual effects team’s competence never strayed the director away from the desert and the Sun. “My planet Arrakis is so beautiful when the Sun is low”, says Chani, so it was absolutely imperative that Dune did not have bland studio lighting. The hot star of Arrakis provides every shot of the desert with mesmerizing tones of orange, yellow and the shadows that highlight it, while the dark Sun of the Harkonnen home allowed Fraser to play with infrarred in a fascinating way. He provided the perfect frames for the makeup artists, costume and set designers to put their canvases in, allowing them to truly shine, while Hans Zimmer casually wrote some of the best music ever heard in a movie theater, solidifying this film as one of the most thrilling cinematic experiences ever. The closing track will go down in History as one of the GOATs, perhaps second only to Inception’s Time (unsurprisingly, the only one that can beat Zimmer is himself). And I say all this without even mentioning the action sequences, which are impeccable. The final assault on Arrakeen to overthrow the Emperor… I need the recency bias to wear out a little bit, because to me it is on par with the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Another craft this film truly masters is the acting. My God. It sounds stupid to compare it with such a recent film, but the quality of this cast is in the likeness of Oppenheimer’s. Just one actor after the other squeezing the very best they can out of every second. The standout is, of course, Mr. Timothee Chalamet. I have never liked him in any way, so I do not say this lightly, but his character journey as Paul Atreides is one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. He is utterly unrecognizable from the pompous white boy at the beginning of Dune: Part One to the Lisan al Gaib, the cult leader he perfectly embodies with confidence and authority. Paul Atreides is dead and Timothee Chalamet is the one who killed him, there is now only the Muad’Dib. I cannot wait for the embodiment of evil we will see in the next installment of this franchise. Javier Bardem is amazing in the way he balances the zealot, the skeptic and the chill funny guy. Zendaya is great as ever, there is one scene in which she does an eye twitch and I cannot comprehend how the fuck she did that voluntarily with one single eye. Austin Butler’s voice feels forced in some moments, but he is overall a good addition, especially when we meet him in the arena, where he fully transforms into a madman. The only annoying thing about him is the fact he wasn’t allowed to shave his hair and so he looks like Megamind. Rebecca Ferguson must be a manipulative witch plotting to burn the world with an unstoppable Holy War in real life, there’s no way she got into the character just like that. Stellan Skarsgard is disgusting and scary, Josh Brolin is fierce and stern but also protective of Paul, Dave Bautista is intense in a great way, and Christopher Walken has the eyes of a man who has seen a thousand houses rise and fall under the Hand of God. Florence Pugh did not have much to work with, but I’m excited to see her in the next Dune. Last but not least, I must praise the politics of Dune, which are as subtle as a T-Rex in a yellow dress. Denis does not waste a second in the process of getting Paul on the throne, but it is not an empty journey made merely for spectacle as it would be in some action movies – it conveys much about human nature and the way our society is bound to organize itself. Fastforward 8000 years in the future, we will still have great empires exploring poor “planets'' for the sake of profit, secret groups manipulating the course of History behind the curtains, powerful figures manipulating the masses with religion as their instrument and the highest of hypocrisies when it comes to starting wars. I will be very much seated for Dune: Messiah, but the ending of Dune: Part Two has already said it all. There is no question that Paul will never fulfill his promises of turning Arrakis into a paradise, and there lies the true power of Frank Herbert’s story. With or without the Bene Gesserit, with or without the Water of Life and with or without prophecies, religious or not, there are messianic figures left and right claiming they can save their people, and their path always leads to tyranny. Bless Denis Villeneuve for adapting this truly relevant and potent story into a technical masterpiece, a modern wonder for our eyes and ears. A must watch for, as Gary Oldman would say, EVERYOONE.