Dune: Part Two

I left the movie theater with the same feeling as I had going out of The Return of the King in 2003: That I had just witnessed cinema history. Something truly unique that only comes once in a lifetime. I never thought I would ever have that feeling ever again. But here we are 20 years later, and Denis Villenuve and his crew has delivered one of the most epic, ambitious, visually spectacular movie I've ever seen. I've been sour on the current state of cinema for a long time. The contentifcation of modern blockbusters, the lackluster "hero" propaganda from DC and Marvel, the death of mid-to-low budget movies, and with the threat of AI-generated movies on the horizon, my enjoyment of cinema has reached an all time low. It might be a bold statement, but Dune: Part 2 might have cured my cinema depression. It's been 24 hours since I watched the movie at the moment of writing this, and I just won't leave my mind. Some of the shots are ingrained into my brain, the Hans Zimmer score is running on constant loop on Spotify, I've started reading the Frank Herbert books, I just can't leave Arrakis behind. I theorize on what a potential sequel might be and what it could contain. I haven't had the enthusiasm to do such tings for a piece of entertainment in over a decade. Dune Part 2, like Paul Atreides, might be a savior, for good and bad. I predict that Hollywood will take all the wrong lessons from the movie (they always do), we will see countless of badly conceived clones and spin-offs, and even with Villeneuve leaving after Part 3, Warner Bros. would want to milk this franchise for everything it's worth, until it's back to the sorry excuse of cinema I mentioned above. However, should someone take the right lessons from this, we're in for a beautiful future. But whatever future comes true, I'm glad I had the pleasure of watching this movie. It's been invigorating seeing something like this on the big screen, that is unafraid, ready to tackle subject we normally don't see, make a alien world feel so alive, be a bit out there with it's ideas. Especially on this scale. With this movie, Denis Villenuve has proven he's no longer one of the best filmmakers working at the moment. He's at the top. Unchallenged.