Dune: Part Two

Not since Top Gun: Maverick have I been as excited to see a movie in theaters as this one – and much like the aforementioned Tom Cruise film, this exceeded my expectations. I rewatched 2021’s Dune in anticipation and drove out to the theater with Tori last Tuesday, excited to witness true cinema.

We left for the theater as soon as I got off work, not having time to eat dinner first. We got snacks at the concession stand – I got myself a large Bavarian pretzel, and having forgotten my water bottle in the car, found my mouth as dry as Arrakis by the end of the previews. I forgot about all my worries and let my problems drift away once I heard Hans Zimmer’s incredible score.

This isn’t a movie. It’s a cinematic experience. It’s impossible not to get swept up into the world-building, characters, setting, and atmosphere this film is able to set up. The stakes are ramped up to incredibly high levels from the start and don’t go anywhere but up until the credits roll. I was in awe.

The film brings back most of the surviving cast from the previous film (pour one out for Thufir Hawat) but for me the new cast members shined the brightest. Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken joined the ensemble and each did a great job.

I’m a poser as far as Dune fans go. I’ve been stuck in the first 150 pages of the book for the past five or six months (I still plan to finish). While I’m sure I would have appreciated the film even more had I finished the book in advance, I didn’t need to have read it to enjoy the movie. I loved not knowing what was going to happen next.

I don’t have anything negative to say, except that I suspect this film won’t be the same in my living room. See it in a theater, if you can.