Return to Arrakis: Dune: Part Two

 With its beautiful cinematography, visceral action, interesting character arcs, and a dark score by Hans Zimmer, Dune: Part Two is an amazing addition to the Dune franchise.

The faster pacing, combined with the sensory overload, dense plot, and strong character arcs, made the film quite overwhelming, but far more enjoyable than the first film. A minor issue in the film was that it felt like the scenes were jumping from one plot to the other very quickly, hence the overwhelming feeling. The plot and subplot weren't too difficult to understand and overall cohesive; however, some jump-cut scenes were questionable. Moreover, the way the planet is lit so harshly, yet has a "black sun" that saps the color from everything, reducing the world to a diegetic greyscale, the complete lack of flora and fauna, the completely smooth and hairless inhabitants, and the horrifically beautiful black "fireworks" that are unlike anything seen in this world had all worked so perfectly to create this unimaginably alien and inhuman environment. Although there are some issues with how the movie is shot, the setting of it is breathtaking, including the grand scale it visualizes.

Greig Fraser, the cinematographer, has outdone himself with Dune: Part Two. Certain scenes were shot as if it was with a telephoto lens and Telephoto Compression. This is a technique that enlarges the background without enlarging the foreground, which is great for creating a massive scale for objects in the background relative to objects in the foreground—like the scene where Paul and Chani running in the foreground and seeing a massive Ornithopter falling in the background, or the scene where Paul is standing on the dune in the foreground and seeing the massive worm coming towards him in the background.

Hans Zimmer, a renowned film score composer, is outstanding at setting the tone of the movies without even using words and just sound itself. The contrast between Dune: Part One's more dreamlike and mysterious score and the dark, intense score of Dune: Part Two perfectly resembles the story of Paul Atreides. In the first film, he is this innocent boy who discovers a beautiful new world. However, in the second film, this innocent boy turns into the prophet Lisan al-Gaib, who fights the Harkonnen, the main antagonist in the film.

While most parts of the film were stunning while some parts were lacking something, it's been greatly applauded that every single actor and actress did an amazing job in their roles. They all disappeared into their characters—characters that helped strengthen the worldbuilding Frank Herbert created and Denis Villeneuve, and his team, put to screen. Overall, while the beginning was somewhat slow-paced and honestly boring, the second half of the film was jam-packed with action and intense scenes that kept viewers on edge about what would happen next.

- Surisa. V