Contains spoilers.
Midlothian, Texas, U.S.A. – Dune: Part Two is breathtaking in multiple aspects and a wonderful experience. This film stands out as as potential premiere cinematic experience of 2024.
Every aspect of this film delivers, even going so far as giving me goosebumps on multiple occasions, which could have been in part the IMAX viewing.
The visuals, as with most other films by director Denis Villeneuve, are definitely the standout.
The cinematography is flawless and brilliantly breathtaking. From the shots and how they follow to the sheer and absolutely immaculate framing of the most impactful scenes, every frame is of high significance and a feast for the eyes.
The choreography was great and the effects are stunning and create such a spectacle. Some of the color grading in some scenes can be relatively flat, but it tracks because of how the desert is supposed to feel to the audience.
Speaking of the feeling of the desert, the score does so much work immersing the viewer when it comes to feeling the power and aura of the characters and setting, especially Paul, played by Timothée Chalamet.
Also on the sound perspective, the use of language and subtitles was excellent.
The film has served as a showcase of some of the standout performances of 2024.
Chalamet completely embodies Paul Atreides in every single way, but shines in all the most important ways.
He carries himself excellently as the sincere kid who is grieving and makes the shift into a reluctant “leader” work. The most impactful scenes that the movie decided to adapt are where Chalamet shines the most, giving true life to some of the best dialogue maybe ever written.
Austin Butler does an incredible job as the cruel yet charismatic Feyd-Rautha Harknonnen, chewing every piece of dialogue and scenery up and spitting them back out with pinpoint precision, except for one. Through Butler’s performance, we also see the Harkonenns be more ruthless and cruel than before in both the previous film and the book. This serious expansion makes their horrible deaths that much more satisfying.
Zendaya’s Chani is more independent than in the book, which makes her a great audience surrogate and a point to ground the story in realism as she stands against Paul and attempts to keep him honest. Zendaya plays that defiance of religious extremism very well.
On the other hand, the film wastes Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken who are excellent performers by casting them as characters who have very little going for them in this story.
The film definitely sets out to do what Villenueve co-writer Frank Herbert were initially trying to say.
Paul is a great example of an antihero towards the end until he isn’t, being a sincere ally to the indigenous people of Arrakis until he feels he has no other option but to use them to his own ends. Then he glides into morally gray territory until he jumps into being a genocidal maniac.
The ending itself was bonkers. It literally made my jaw go slack and that’s all I have to say about that. The movie was great.
McGlauthon Fleming IV is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
