Dune: Part Two

watched part two right after the first one and yeah, amazing movie. fascinating movie too. i still don’t fully know what to think about some of it because it felt very close to religious propaganda at points, or at least like watching a belief system actively form in front of you. it really reminded me of stories from the bible, except here i liked that paul almost forces his way into being the chosen one, whether he was “meant” to be or not. that was one of the most interesting things about him. he doesn’t just sit there and wait for destiny, he kind of grabs it by the throat. and i know his name being paul is probably not random either but god i still hate it, it sounds way too plain for a character like this. this movie fixed a lot of what i didn’t love in the first one. the cinematography was amazing, the performances were very good, the scale was overwhelming in a good way. timmy definitely made up for what i thought was missing before. javier was brilliant as usual, and even josh brolin’s smaller role worked well. zendaya though… yeah no, still didn’t like her acting, didn’t like the character much either, just not for me at all. the temple scene with paul giving that speech in front of everyone praying was probably the peak for me, that was incredible. i also found the politics really interesting, even if there’s something a bit uncomfortable about the whole “outsider comes in and becomes the chosen one of a people who are clearly coded as another culture” thing, especially a white person of royal decent coming into an arab-like culture. but that’s also kind of the point, and the movie does lean into that tension. overall, really powerful, really well made, and way better than the first one for me.