Enjoyed Part II but not nearly as much as Part I. Thought Walken was seriously miscast, Bardem was brilliant in this segment and for me was the standout. One thing though which I thought was seriously over used was the Harkonnen's treatment of underlings. Yes they're evil, yes they're morally repugnant etc. but it got far too clichéd as the movie progressed.
Just out and thought it was great. As good as the first with the only difference being you are obviously not shocked by the spectacle this time.
Ferguson was great again and Bardem even better than the last movie (even snuck in a Monthly Python reference). Pugh done really well with her little bit and the princess and Lady Fenring were used well to explain the "plans within plans". Walken's emperor looked a bit too doting and stupid though and I would have always seen him as a more powerful man.
Elements and plot threads of Messiah definitely seeped in as well so I'de say Villeneuve is banking on a third.
Impressed with the Maxx screen in Limerick Omniplex too. The under seat speakers worked really well with the worm scenes.
And fair play to Paul for being even louder than Morpheus 😝
Bardem is fantastic in this as the believer. Even the slightly comedic bits he pulls off without seeming corny.
Another actor might have gone way too hammy with the constant "he's the Messiah!!" line readings but I think he sold the increasing hold religious fundamentalism was taking on the Fremen. Like I said the final moments could easily have come across as obviously chilling with a more direct soundtrack choice.
Well, therein lies my point. Walken hasn't ever been an actor with a huge range or that chameleon quality that I ever didn't think "oh, it's Christopher Walken". So for me his Shaddam was as fine as such a small character could ever be - even if his last act "fúck it I'm off to Arrakis" was too sudden.
Any time he spoke it was in his trademark Christopher Walken cadence. He even has his Christopher Walken hairdo.
Don't get me wrong, I love him as an actor. But he's become a bit of a character actor at this stage and shouldn't have been in the film imo.
Saw this last night in Leicester Square IMAX which was a great experience.
I think Chalamet has done a great job of changing his performance between both films to reflect the development of the character.
Walken was truly terrible. Just. No.
Really enjoyed it. Now we play the waiting game... again!
I've seen this said a few times but don't entirely get it. Shaddam IV barely featured to the extent I didn't even get a read on the performance such that I'd have called it Default Walken; Florence Pugh had more and even she functioned as a bit of a cameo. If anything my abiding thinking was just how old he looked, hunched in that way especially old people can get.
Thought it was fantastic, my one gripe being the colossal miscasting that was Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam.
It was basically Christoper Walken being Christopher Walken in the Dune universe. Absolutely ridiculous. Totally took me out of the film for any scenes he was in.
Aside from that though I loved every second of it. Can't wait for Messiah.
Saw part II last night and as someone earlier mentioned I found the first hour ponderous. The relationship between Paul and Chani has about as much chemistry as there is betweeb oil & water. Timothy chamalet just doesn't have that leading man vibe about him, even though hollywood is desperately trying to cast him in that role. For me it was Javier bardem who stole the movie, he is brilliant. All in all though this is a magnificent spectacle, a lot of the scenes are awe inspiring and the battle scenes are very well executed. It looks amazing and the pace does pick up towards the inevitable final battle.
On further reflection I think this film was a minor triumph to be honest, and while may not be a trilogy(?) that lives rent free in the pop cultural zeitgeist for years to come ala Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I do believe it might yet find itself up there, albeit as a more refined taste as opposed to the more emotive, visceral "canonical" blockbusters out there. Yet I'd be so bold as to say that of all the great blockbusters out there, few can claim to have had such a distinct voice and skilful hand at the tiller as Denis Vilenueve.
For sure, in translation to mainstream cinema there was always an inevitable degree of dilution of the original novel's own themes - including the (admittedly sensible) removal of the use of "jihad" in describing Paul's holy war - yet this sequel was a rather riveting bit of a polemic stealthily dressed in the robes of an elaborate, ornate blockbuster. Villeneuve showed a singular prowess in this respect and the very final moments underlined the obscenity of what was unleashed, as an ostensibly uplifting & triumphant score played over the first overtures of what was going to be a calamitous theocratic coup. Where victory had been destined to be its most pyrrhic as a railroaded protagonist was destined to be the messianic figurehead as the previous galactic order burned around him. This was the classic Chosen One storyline allowed to metastasise into a terrible religious conflagration, Paul's emotional dilemma born from the struggle to grasp at where his thirst for revenge stopped and the seductive power of his new status began. The only true humanity in this story - and honestly, the only grounded beating heart among this cast of royals and rasputins - centred around Zendaya's Chani, who slowly became a hopeless bystander as she watched her tribe become overpowered by the false hope of outsider dogma, now embraced and turned towards a terrible purpose.
This perhaps lacked the arresting shock of the new that came with the 2021 original, but simply holding steady was its own success here: there were countless ways the ball could have been dropped yet the clarity and scope of vision remained intact; visually and aurally this was cinema continuing to deliver on its promise to take us places we couldn't imagine, witness scenes beyond imagining. This time with a smidge extra runway to push things a little further, with the most obvious standout being the entire section set on Giedi Prime, home to the provocatively depraved Harkonnen. Here, a "black sun" was the contrivance to have the entire planet - and thus the images on-screen - reduced to an inky black & almost blinding white. It was an alluring nightmare world; while the alien desert of Arrakis retained that terrible barren beauty, accentuated by the commitment to film in actual locations, the sand under people's feet real and thus adding an authenticity and lived-in tangibility sorely lacking in Hollywood. I understood the production team used "orange screen" in place of green screens, all to prevent any hint of mismatch between FX and real location - and the results remained majestic.
As with the first film, the abridged nature of the script - if one can call 166 minutes "abridged" - did mean certain aspects paled a little against the broader tragedy taking place in the heart of Arrakis; the most obvious being Florence Pugh and Christopher Walked fulfilling functional cameo roles as they milled about pretty gardens, light-years from events on the titular Dune. But when the production design of something like this was this immersive, this sumptuous, it was hard to get too irritated by any mismatch in narrative focus.
I thought it was great (albeit not flawless), but it needs Dune Messiah to be adapted now to come to completion.
Fingers crossed that will be greenlit soon, but from what Villeneuve has said it's probably a few years away.
Just out of seeing it. It is much better than the first and I enjoyed a lot of it but as with the first movie (based on reviews and reactions) it is vasty overrated.
At times it's like what an art house student would produce if given an unlimited budget. Long indulgent scenes that add nothing to the story apart from bloat.
Some good scenes but every time I thought it was about to get going the breaks were applied again. Some terrible editing in there too where scenes jumped in a very inorganic way.
Still a decent watch that could have easily been 30 minutes shorter (and I'm someone that likes long movies).
6/10.
Back from seeing it. It's a terrific movie, however it was spoilt somewhat by Odeon having the sound way too loud. I'd say there was at least 10% distortion from their sound system in places and one driver had had enough and was actually buzzing in places.
I won't be going back to a theatre in a hurry, but I am really looking forward to watching it again at home with better image and sound quality.
Hmmm.......not quite up to the expectations TBH.
It's impressive, but somewhat lacking in tangible feeling and expression, with a first hour that is extremely ponderous with only it's observations around religious mania and messianic machinations giving any sense of progression. Very surprised at that given the effort put into the first part putting its chess-pieces into place, but Villeneuve does have a tendency to 'over-egg' leading to a flabby midsection (BR2049) not to mention one of my, admittedly unfair, feeling so about the first part - it was always a film that felt either 20mins too long or two hours too short for me.
I guess it's one of the disappointments with this, in that, at the time, I didn't think the first film could be properly judged without the whole picture, and unfortunately, it didn't improve the first film as I would have liked. Not too mention, that we have to go to the well again for the continuation of the story.
Good points....the Bene Gesserit stuff, even Pugh was a little surprise (though the accent was a weird choice....too American), along with the subsequent religious-mania (include Ferguson in this), Feyd wasn't bad either with a striking introduction, technicalities of production are again first rate. Less impressive....still not feeling those two leads, final battle scenes surprisingly weak post the inital salvo, rushed towards the end after dragging its feet
Certainly preferred the first part, especially after only rewatching last night, so I'd stick a 6/10 on this for the time being. Has it's moments, more than a few, but baulks under its weight a bit too much. There's a better film in there, no doubt about it, so it'd be interesting to see it revisited but that's too much to hope for with a Part 3 to come.
Very happy with the movie. That said the rotten tomatoes scored and the spiel about Austin Butler being a powerhouse villain? Is completely overblown IMO. The movie is visually stunning and a solid 7/10.
The 1st hour of the movie does a good job of building Paul & Jessica's efforts to secure their place with the Fremen. A lot of reverence and reference to the book, particularly regarding Paul's incomplete visions.
There's a few bits I feel were mishandled, but that was more a matter of my expectations than any mistakes or ball dropping on Villeneuve's part. Villeneuve has shifted the pacing and some of the plot, but it does hang together very well.
I'll definitely go to watch it again.
I will say something that isn't a spoiler, nor will it be much of a surprise 😉 I have no doubt that there are literal hours of footage that could be added to any future Directors Cut, should Denis ever decide to do 1.
I honestly find my 65" OLED TV delivers a better viewing experience and image quality compared to a cinema if I sit about 1.5m from it in a dark room. The viewing angle is on par with a big screen but the image quality is better than you get with that reflected from a screen.
Just out of the showing and while I'll put more thoughts together, this was a spectacular visual and aural experience, and for a mainstream epic a pretty brave film essentially decrying the folly and tragedy of religion and the fundamentalist belief in prophecy.
It won't change your mind on the series as a whole, but hot damn this may be a future classic in the making
On a tangential reference to above, I'm no fan of Ed Sheeran but there are rumors he's to collaborate with Dani Filth of death metal band Cradle of Filth. Looking forward to that output.
In a somewhat related musical reference there's the below interesting snippet from Hans Zimmer regarding the ideas behind the soundtrack further adding to the experience. Fascinating stuff:
It suits his pockets to big up these movies. Will direct some people to his work.
Or maybe he did just love it. There really has been little or no dissenting voices.
I don't see him go past Messiah the plot gets a bit ropey and very wacky from Children on and would also require a whole new cast. I would love to see how they handle later stages Leto II from an art direction point of view.
This comes up every time there's a prestige blockbuster, and unfortunately, the simple answer here is you're not going to get anything close to a true IMAX experience in Ireland, so it's not really worth worrying about. Just go to see it at the best screen or cinema you have easy access to.
If a film has a 70mm release, then the IFI might have it. This doesn't, so it's not a concern. There's no complex format concerns as there were with Avatar 2 or Oppenheimer either.
If you just want a big screen, any multiplex with a 'premium' offering (digital IMAX, iSENSE etc..) will probably be a step above the average screen, if you're happy to pay a bit extra.
Personally, though, I tend to prefer the Light House in Dublin to any of the multiplexes: screens aren't as big, but it's just always reliable in terms of projection quality and audience. Just be aware it won't be screening on their bigger screen (1) until Sunday, as the Dublin Film Festival is on in the meantime. But it'll flag what screen it's on when you're booking.
That's very much r/dontputyourdickinthat.😮🤣
I'm off to see part 2 at 7.30, not in an IMAX but it is a bigger screen and we do have central seats.
I have been a fan of Dune since I 1st read the book as a kid in the 80s. It is a book I still re-read regularly and always take something new from. I thought Villeneuve's interpretation in 1 was brilliant and I really do think he has paid respect to the original and it's overarching story and theme.
The most worrying thing for me about 2? Was Brian Herbert's glowing review.
Given the absolute disaster Herbert & Kevin Anderson made of their effort to "grow" the Herbert Duniverse 😉 in prequels, sequels and god stop please, it's already dead-quels
I hope he's not judging Villeneuve by his own piss poor standards?!?
I do hope that Villeneuve takes it as far as God Emperor. Messiah and Children are easily enough spread over 2 movies but then it gets into the esoteric and really weird ones, Still better than Brian Herbert's efforts but best left on the page anyway.
Watched the re-release of Dune Part 1 last night. Thought we would get a sneak peak of Dune 2 but nope.
Context for those not in the know, these are custom, novelty popcorn buckets the AMC chain in America produces for big movies. Like for Wonka it was the bucket made to look like Wonka's hat. The Dune one was ... something.
What a film. It’s a bit slow in 1st hour but rest of it grips you in till the very end. Totally epic sci-fi like nothing before, it’s not even very much like Dune P1!! Brilliant performances from all, especially Chalemet and Butler.
even the director says the first book was misunderstood as to what the author wanted took from it so he wrote Messiah... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_-l6xq2KI
Big Dave says no https://x.com/IMAX/status/1762930731607785893?t=ENwCzcxqmX4oGOTYOcPO-Q&s=09
Anyone know if the special edition popcorn buckets will be available in Ireland 🤣
Imax digital in Cineworld Parnell st. I'd presume.
What is the closest to a true IMAX experience in Ireland?
true, can easily watch any of the back to the future films at any stage
Love to see it; funny it's Screen 1 and the biggest screen. This is a regional Vue n' all, one that's rarely booked out.
