Dune Part 2 is the monumental conclusion to my current favourite film, Dune Part 1. Its action packed, furiously faced paced and delivers an amazing ending to the story I’ve grown to love over the past few years. But as I’m sat writing this review I can’t help but feel just a lil disappointed, were my expectations too high?

I love Dune Part 1 for the world building, for the scenes that allow you to sit in this new universe and explore its beauty through the insane cinematography. It allows you to linger in a scene and truly absorb all of its beauty and gather your thoughts. However Dune 2 has an almost impossible task of clearly cramming in ALOT of important moments for plot and character development. It viciously pushes the viewer through scene after scene without time to breathe, without time to intake the beauty of the shots which Denis fantastically carries into this from the first film. 

Two scenes, and only two scenes immediately jump out to me which give me the same feeling as the original. The gorgeous ‘black and white’ scene on Giedi Prime and Paul’s first sand worm ride. These scenes allow you to sit in the moment and explore the beauty that has been so delicately created. The rest of the film, although having the same great cinematography, didn’t actually let me intake and enjoy any of it due to the time constraints and the rash editing. Big set ups like Gurney Vs Drax felt very anticlimactic and in about 2 minutes of screen time Paul is victorious.

And yeah I’m gonna be that guy, and I completely understand changes have to be made to make it more viewer friendly, more digestible and time aware, but some changes from the book simply didn’t have to be made. Knowing Denis loves the book and definitely knows more than me, I can look past the majority of changes, but I really, really dislike the change to Chani, how much she opposes Paul and how she ends up leaving at the end. The necessity for marriage is understood/communicated in the book and Chani remains by his side, showing her strength of character and love of Usul. No idea how thats gonna work for the next film…

I guess thats enough of the negatives for now…
This is awesomely action packed and due to the fast pace the run time simply flew by. It condenses the source material relatively well to give a coherent and fantastic ending. The books climax felt very rushed and mainly contains that end 1v1 fight scene with the political negotiations and Denis masterfully expands on this to give a visual masterpiece for an end battle. A set up for a third film is also very nicely executed whilst concluding this first story more than satisfyingly.

With everything being said, I’m still hopeful that this could easily be a 10 on rewatch. I’m hopeful that the first viewing is simply an overwhelming overload of information/scenes that on rewatch I’ll be able to sit in those moments more and enjoy the elegance of this Dune world. (And maybe I’ll get over all the book changes)… but as of right now, lying on my bed at 12:27am writing this review, I’m a lil disappointed from this built up hype of 3 years. As much as I am hopeful, I’m worried these negatives will stand out to me more on rewatch, and my most anticipated film probably ever didn’t match the excellence of the original.

92/100

Denis Ranked