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Dune: Part Two - Review Thread

Any news when it's on streaming? Loved the first
It's not confirmed yet. A tentative Blu-Ray release date on Amazon was May 14, 2024, which is 74 days out from theatrical release. Most HBO/MAX movies typically pop up for streaming 60-90 days from release.

Having said that, this movie was awesome (and I mean that in the jaw-dropping sense of the word) in theaters.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
It lacked the sense of overwhelming awe and spectacle of the first movie, but it was still a remarkably good movie.

The entire Giedi Prime sequence in black and white was just an artistic marvel. Incredible visuals throughout. I still can't believe someone made that.

Timothy was better in this than in the first but unfortunately Zendaya was still dreadful. Just awful. Zero nuance or acting range.
 

thefool

Member
Is it worth to watch TV series Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2023) ? I've read and liked the first 2 books a lot

I wouldn't want my first impression of Children of Dune to be the tv series. If you liked the books, sure it's watchable but very schlocky.
 
My rating: A-

Positives: Everything but two aspects. Like Top Gun Maverick, IMAX was the right call.

Negatives:

-The one scene where
Feyd showed up and Chani's friend stayed behind to protect them, thus getting personally killed by Feyd, felt rushed.
I'm hoping there will be a director's cut/extended edition because that was a pretty sizeable chunk of potential character growth cut out and brushed aside.

-This director had much stronger characters on Blade Runner 2049. I think his biggest issue here is that there are simply too many characters. He went from a strong, but small cast, to a set of movies about a multi-tiered plot of multiple characters, motivations, factions, lores etc. There's too much to cover and not enough screen time for strong character building(like Feyd and his family for example). What we end up with is really cool lore being shown and told but not enough charisma.

Maybe this could have been a high budget TV show instead, HBO style, to really help flesh all of these characters out in a fashion similar to The Wire or Game of Thrones. I don't know. From everything I've heard about the Dune books, translating it to a screen seems like an impossible puzzle that multiple directors edge closer and closer to figuring out.

I'm not going to read through this thread for obvious reasons of book spoilers, but I hear there is a fourth faction not even present, that very much needs to be introduced asap. I hope the director does a good job in doing so with the third movie. As a non book reader, if this faction has to do with space, and the conflict is moving to space with the next movie, then I think for the newbie viewers' sake, the right call was possibly made here. He kept the first two movies focused on this specific planet and conflict between these three factions, and then maybe the next one or two movies will expand outward now that this arc is essentially done.

The only minor mistake he made was not introducing this fourth faction in the background in some form or manner. Like a simple long-distance communication, or someone showing up at a meeting or even leaving a meeting as another main character enters, just so that the viewer can say 'wait, who the hell is that?' as they walk away.
 

Hardensoul

Member
My rating: A-

Positives: Everything but two aspects. Like Top Gun Maverick, IMAX was the right call.

Negatives:

-The one scene where
Feyd showed up and Chani's friend stayed behind to protect them, thus getting personally killed by Feyd, felt rushed.
I'm hoping there will be a director's cut/extended edition because that was a pretty sizeable chunk of potential character growth cut out and brushed aside.

-This director had much stronger characters on Blade Runner 2049. I think his biggest issue here is that there are simply too many characters. He went from a strong, but small cast, to a set of movies about a multi-tiered plot of multiple characters, motivations, factions, lores etc. There's too much to cover and not enough screen time for strong character building(like Feyd and his family for example). What we end up with is really cool lore being shown and told but not enough charisma.

Maybe this could have been a high budget TV show instead, HBO style, to really help flesh all of these characters out in a fashion similar to The Wire or Game of Thrones. I don't know. From everything I've heard about the Dune books, translating it to a screen seems like an impossible puzzle that multiple directors edge closer and closer to figuring out.

I'm not going to read through this thread for obvious reasons of book spoilers, but I hear there is a fourth faction not even present, that very much needs to be introduced asap. I hope the director does a good job in doing so with the third movie. As a non book reader, if this faction has to do with space, and the conflict is moving to space with the next movie, then I think for the newbie viewers' sake, the right call was possibly made here. He kept the first two movies focused on this specific planet and conflict between these three factions, and then maybe the next one or two movies will expand outward now that this arc is essentially done.

The only minor mistake he made was not introducing this fourth faction in the background in some form or manner. Like a simple long-distance communication, or someone showing up at a meeting or even leaving a meeting as another main character enters, just so that the viewer can say 'wait, who the hell is that?' as they walk away.
Unfortunately Vilaneuve doesn’t like or doesn’t do Director’s cut. 😢
 

wipeout364

Member
Timothy was better in this than in the first but unfortunately Zendaya was still dreadful. Just awful. Zero nuance or acting range.
100% she was terrible. No range at all just the same face and voice for every line, lowers the quality of every scene she was in. I have no idea why she keeps getting work.

In my opinion she is not attractive at all so that can’t be the reason for her employment.
 
Zendaya brings in the younger crowd, or she wouldn't keep popping up. I liken her success to Keanu Reeves where they may not be the best actors, but people like them for whatever reason. Especially Gen Z-ers in Zendaya's case.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
The director talks about some of the changes he made and some of the changes he didn't make in the book and why he did or didn't do them.



I never read the book, but it's interesting to me that Denis felt like he was taking the themes that the author had said are important in the book and making them more obvious in the movie because the original book did not show them as strongly as it could have. For example, the cautionary tale about Paul, and the role of women in Fremen society.
 

Big Baller

Al Pachinko, Konami President
I hated every minute of this movie. To be fair I felt the same about the first. I only watched it because I needed to kill a few hours and I knew my son would like it. He thought it was great.

terminator-2-title.jpg
 

3liteDragon

Member
Saw it twice in IMAX Dual Laser, it's a cinematic fucking masterpiece & one of the best sci-fi films ever made. The Geidi Prime scenes were fucking nuts & the CG looked incredible & believable. It was one of the best theatrical experiences I've had, felt very lucky to watch it in the format I did, we only have 2 Dual Laser IMAX theaters where I live & 3 IMAX 70mm theaters.

I don't wanna get ahead of myself but the 2024 Best Pic race might've just gotten it's first contender & likely winner as of right now, this & Oppie are the best movies of the 2020's for me so far.





 

Porcile

Member
Saw it in IMAX. Some pretty insane visual work going here but felt like some effects worked a lot better than others. Really didn't like the orange filter used in the opening scene, and while the black and white stuff works as a standalone effect I felt like the transiton from colour to that didn't really work at all. The rest was pretty mindblowing in all honestly and really had me thinking how they thought up some of the design work. Overall I thought it was much better than the first film.

But seriously Zendaya cannot act or hide whatever American accent she has.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
It lacked the sense of overwhelming awe and spectacle of the first movie, but it was still a remarkably good movie.

The entire Giedi Prime sequence in black and white was just an artistic marvel. Incredible visuals throughout. I still can't believe someone made that.

Timothy was better in this than in the first but unfortunately Zendaya was still dreadful. Just awful. Zero nuance or acting range.

Did you go for a piss break during the Worm attack on the Emporer's spaceship??
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Saw it again just now, this time on a 4K ultra large screen with Dolby whatever. That was some next level shit.

It's even better the second time because you notice all kinds of details you forgot after the first time. For example the dust storm creating sparks on the Emperor's ship, or how you can hear the ocean in the background when Paul fights Feyd-Rautha.

Can't stop thinking about the Geidi Prime arena sequence. The visuals were mindblowing. The color filtering they used was insane. And the blotched firework effects. Unreal. I still don't understand how someone even comes up with this, it's so wild.

Second time around I also noticed how much heavy lifting Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem do in this movie. They are both amazing in their own way. It's kind of genius how Villeneuve made Stilgar the comedic character considering he's a hardcore fanatic believer. Even Timothee Chalamet has grown on me, especially in the second half he's actually pretty badass. Movie's imagery goes out of its way to show him in that light, of course. But still, every slow-motion out of focus desert shot of him walking looked fucking sick.

GH6ZSXPbQAAHWp-


What an incredible movie.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Second time around I also noticed how much heavy lifting Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem do in this movie. They are both amazing in their own way. It's kind of genius how Villeneuve made Stilgar the comedic character considering he's a hardcore fanatic believer. Even Timothee Chalamet has grown on me, especially in the second half he's actually pretty badass.

The character arcs that are developing over the course of the two movies are dynamic and interesting. So many movies fuck it up, which is why seeing Dune and Dune 2 get it right is satisfying.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Not much to add, I saw this a couple weeks ago.

Have to say though the biggest shock was Timothy Chalamet though. Could easily have gone the way of Brad Pitt in Troy but he really stepped it up.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Rewatched the first one in 3D on Apple Vision Pro on my flight from LA on Sunday - the unprompted champagne pours were certainly a plus. Then I binged all the fantastic extras on Kaleidescape when home, really helps to place everything in context.

Then finally saw Part Two yesterday, the only IMAX 70mm in Europe.

Phenomenal world, especially the monochrome planet and the main battle.

The pacing was fantastic, I was afraid we would snooze off due to jet lag at a 840pm showing, but there was not really a boring moment or a lull, it was a constant rollercoaster ride.

I did feel the Baron, the Harkonnens and even the Emperor folded quite easily. The character growth of Paul was excellent, as were the development of the Harkonnen characters. I liked the comic edge they brought to Bardem’s character, it helped to lighten the overall bleakness.

I must say thay I feel that sound aside, AVP is extremely competitive with IMAX when using the theatre mode. The details are super crisp, colour balance perfect, and you get the best seat.

Can’t wait to back to back the two films on AVP, as well as in our upcoming Barco Bragi CS / Kaleidescape / Meridien home cinema.
 

Majukun

Member
all my issues with the movie come mainly with the story and being rather sluggish in some parts, part 1 flew much better.

my issue with the story is the duality that this movie seems to have with profecy and its consequences...we pass most of the movie aknowledging that Paul realizing the profecy can't bring anything good, but at 3/4 of the movie the prog just shrugs it off and decide to go full on with it (the "water of life" I guess had an hand in it) ,and the movie just ends with the worst possible scenario unfolding.
when it ends, it feels like I just witnessed "the one" become it just as I already knew it will, there is no journey, no surprise , no introspection, it's a flat line.
I guess it's just because this is not really an ending but part of a series of books.

also the villains were a disappointment, the two arkonians from part 1 get sidelined for this new guy that be barely know, since he gets introducted, bombs some people, gets seduced, and dies, and that's pretty much all we see of him

cinematography was of course great, but strangely the black and white parts did nothing for me, found them rather distracting and more of a way to cover some spotty CGI
 

ADiTAR

ידע זה כוח
all my issues with the movie come mainly with the story and being rather sluggish in some parts, part 1 flew much better.

my issue with the story is the duality that this movie seems to have with profecy and its consequences...we pass most of the movie aknowledging that Paul realizing the profecy can't bring anything good, but at 3/4 of the movie the prog just shrugs it off and decide to go full on with it (the "water of life" I guess had an hand in it) ,and the movie just ends with the worst possible scenario unfolding.
when it ends, it feels like I just witnessed "the one" become it just as I already knew it will, there is no journey, no surprise , no introspection, it's a flat line.
I guess it's just because this is not really an ending but part of a series of books.

also the villains were a disappointment, the two arkonians from part 1 get sidelined for this new guy that be barely know, since he gets introducted, bombs some people, gets seduced, and dies, and that's pretty much all we see of him

cinematography was of course great, but strangely the black and white parts did nothing for me, found them rather distracting and more of a way to cover some spotty CGI
I said earlier in the thread, and someone came at me, that Feyd should've been cut from the movie and his role given to the other two. In the book he makes more sense.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Just want to say that this movie became available on international waters in crispy clean 1080p a couple of hours ago.


f95b6ccea341537205c07aa0c05df5168fe0e25d.gifv



One of the sickest moments in the movie:


 

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
I read the first novel when I was in middle school, so I forgot much of it and probably didn't appreciate the details.

Watching this reminded me that Paul goes full tilt war crusader while betraying his true love. This story is a tragedy. But I love it. The scene where he rides the worm is some of the greatest cinematography in the history of movies IMO. You could almost feel it, even watching with my cheapo surround sound system.
 

thefool

Member
all my issues with the movie come mainly with the story and being rather sluggish in some parts, part 1 flew much better.

my issue with the story is the duality that this movie seems to have with profecy and its consequences...we pass most of the movie aknowledging that Paul realizing the profecy can't bring anything good, but at 3/4 of the movie the prog just shrugs it off and decide to go full on with it (the "water of life" I guess had an hand in it) ,and the movie just ends with the worst possible scenario unfolding.
when it ends, it feels like I just witnessed "the one" become it just as I already knew it will, there is no journey, no surprise , no introspection, it's a flat line.
I guess it's just because this is not really an ending but part of a series of books.

also the villains were a disappointment, the two arkonians from part 1 get sidelined for this new guy that be barely know, since he gets introducted, bombs some people, gets seduced, and dies, and that's pretty much all we see of him

cinematography was of course great, but strangely the black and white parts did nothing for me, found them rather distracting and more of a way to cover some spotty CGI

About your issue, fundamentally, this simply isn't a particularly great adaptation of the book.

There is a much bigger catalyst for Paul deciding to move forward and take the water of life and the vast majority of the story after Duke Leto's death is Paul finding himself looking into a future he very much wants to avoid and starting to feel trapped. There's a ton of introspection about his prescience abilities and how it affects him.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Watched it, very slow start, mid it starts to speed a bit up and later part is solid.

Movie feels like its trying to milk a 1 hour story towards 3 hours long with grinding the pace down endlessly. The story also made very little sense at times and specially the ending had my eyes rolling multiple times same as it just doesn't make any sense on multiple levels.

The only thing this movie has going for it is the sound/visual in a cinema experience, its a pretty mid movie otherwise.
 
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Shane Gillis said Dune 2 is an awesome two-hour-long cologne commercial, and I can't disagree with the man 😆
 
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SJRB

Gold Member
I need a one-hour version of the Harkonnen haka from the start of the Arena sequence for my workout routine, the thumping drums and the chanting gets my blood pumping.
 
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Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
I finally got around to watching it.

I might be in the minority here, but I felt that despite its solid runtime, the movie seemed rushed, especially in the last third or final act. If any film needed a director's cut, it's Dune Part 2.

I'm still undecided about Zendaya's portrayal of Chani, and I'm genuinely puzzled by the casting of Christopher Walken as Shaddam IV and Florence Pugh as Irulan. However, Austin Butler as Feyd was incredible and pretty much stole every scene he was in. Overall though, I enjoyed Dune 2 and it's probably one of those movies that will grow on me over time (similar to how I felt with the LotR movies which I was kinda eh at in the beginning but they're movies I love now).
 

WitchHunter

Banned
Denis Villeneuve is king kong, but god, this movie was botched. The first part was quite ok, not counting some very rough parts here and there. But the second... I mean I felt like I had to endure a long indoctrination session with some crazy hobo sect. Too much talking, zero action, long & boring parts come after one another. Weak roles got a lot of time, while strong actors got a few minutes or so. I'm sure there were sweaty sessions in the cutting room.

Chalamatte wasn't bad, but he must age. Guy is too young. I would've given the main role to Mr. Javier Bardem.
 
Yeah 2nd movie definitely felt rushed. I refuse to believe villeneuve when he said cut scenes will be forever gone. Hes going to pull a snyder guaranteed.

Also I never read the books but to me it didnt make sense that nobody used shields. Something about being afraid of sandworms? How does that make sense when no one except the frenen were doing that lizard walk and you had giant machines roaming around anyways.

And they should have used shields in the final fight. It would have been a badass callback if paul killed him the same way gurney beat paul in the first movie.
 
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Fbh

Member
Finally watched it.
Like the first one I thought it was OK. I WANT to like these movies more than I actually do.
The visual, productions values and music are really cool but they feel like style over substance. It's like they went through the book and the selection of what parts would be adapted was entirely based on what would look cool without much regard for worldbuilding and storytelling.

Also the VFX are really cool and I love the vehicles but I don't love other parts of the art direction:
The Sietch looks like a bunch of empty halls with nothing in them, it never looks or feels like a place where people actually live, you never get the impression the Fremen have much of a society or culture. The place where Jessica drinks the water of life and becomes the reverend mother literally looks like some random hole in the ground.

Not a fan of the changes to the books either I know Alia would be challenging to do in live action but her not being born during the whole plot is lame. Chani being annoying and pissy for half the movie sucks too, I guess an actual supporting female partner isn't 2023 enough.
 
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Ulysses 31

Member
People should watch the SciFi series from 2000 and 2003(Children of Dune) if they want a more complete picture of politics and customs on planet Arrakis.

I was quite surprised to see Irulan talking about cuckolding Paul with Chani and she was OK with it as long as she's discrete and doesn't get any children... 👀 :messenger_winking_tongue:
 
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Jsisto

Member
Just rewatched on Max. Absolutely loved it in theatres, and it’s still an amazing accomplishment, but man….watching it at home casually and with fresh eyes, it’s a damn travesty what they turned Chani into. Can’t blame it all on Zendaya, although her constantly making that angry constipated face certainly didn’t help…but they just completely ruined the essence of the character. Shes essentially an entirely new character. Pretty much every other change from the book made some sense, and I get they wanted to make Chani skeptical to help make the viewer aware that Paul was going down a dark path, but they didn’t have to do it this way. She’s constantly standoffish and incredibly unsympathetic, and her “romance” with Paul isn’t remotely believable. Frankly, I wish there was a cut of the movie that completely removed her. Didn’t think I would feel this strongly on a rewatch but wow….what a horrible decision.
 
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Chani didn't bother me much. The Fremen are basically militaristic culturally... Chani is a warrior ... She thinks, breathes and bleeds battle. She reminds me of Jamis and how Stilgar was in the first movie. And then how fatherly (caring) Stilgar was in this one.

Other than that, I was completely enthralled by this movie! Even more than the first.
 
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