When the legendary Chris Nolan says Dune: Part Two is on par with ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, I think no other decoding or analysis is needed of the greatness of this Denis Villeneuve epic. It has been almost 10 days since I watched, and I am still out of words to capture this helluva experience.
To start with, since I read the book already, I knew what was gonna transpire in the entire movie as an overall idea. But that’s where the fun began. Whatever I visualised while reading the book two years ago, all came alive so well on screen, especially the Lisan-al Gaib scene. The performances of Timothee, Zendaya, Rebecca, Florence Pugh, Austin Bustler, Lea Seydoux, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem (ooof, what a cast!) lit up the screen with an aura that truly brought the desert epic to its true glory under the helm of Denis, aptly aided by Greig Fraser and Hans Zimmer.
My pick of the lot would be the scene where Paul becomes Usul, the Muad’Dib of the Fremen. I vividly remember the first time I read that part where Paul asks Stilgar about the name of the desert mouse that will become his battle moniker. Paul’s first sandworm ride, the Lisan-al Gaib scene, Paul and Feyd-Rautha duel and his intro, man, Denis and team literally created the Star Wars of our time. Well, Frank Herbert’s comments about Star Wars are one for any other day ig.
With really a lot left to unpack from the two parts Denis has already given while he is on the mission for a clean triad with Dune: Messiah, I think quite a few rewatches and rereads are necessary to delve deep into the politics, ecology, religion, and feminism of Dune.
Is Denis our own Lisan al-Gaib, the voice from the outer world? I am not sure about that, but he is surely my damn favourite of the current lot with no doubts. Hope he makes Dune: Part Three, Rendezvous with Rama, and many more epics for us to celebrate him as the Modern Muad’Dib of Hollywood unless he decides to go on a holy war like our Anakin Skywalker aka Paul Atreides aka Space Hit…
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