We’re highly anticipating Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part II,” even those who weren’t particularly keen on the first one are curious about this next chapter. I’m one of them.
There won’t be any press screenings for a few more weeks, but a distributor screening happened this week, and a reaction is coming in from X user Empire City, who is supposed to have some past studio history, on the exhibition side, he’s calling it a masterpiece:
I have now seen ”Dune: Part II”. I can say without reservation that it is INCREDIBLE, a true modern sci-fi masterpiece by Denis Villeneuve.
You can definitely complain about how the word “Masterpiece” is being used ad nauseum these days. Hell, I don’t think I saw a “masterpiece” last year, there were great films, but they all stopped short from having me refer to shy of them with the “M” word. Folks should stop watering down that word.
Regardless, Empire City goes on to comment that even those who disliked or “fell asleep” with the first one, will love ‘Part II.’
Villeneuve keeps saying that “Dune: Part Two” should not be seen as a sequel “It’s important—it’s not a sequel, it’s a second part. There’s a difference,” Villeneuve told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “I wanted the movie to really open just where we left the characters. There’s no time jump. I wanted dramatic continuity with part one.”
What else is different about ‘Part Two?’ Villeneuve says it’s more of an action movie, one that he finds to be “much better” than 2021’s “Dune.” If the first one built up the worlds and characters of Frank Herbert’s much beloved sci-fi novel, then this second one is supposed to be the massive delivery. What we’ll be getting is Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), after his father’s death, with revenge on his mind and the intense battle brewing with the invading Harkonnen.
The cast for the 166-minute sequel is a stunning batch of talent — Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.
“Dune: Part Two” will be theatrically released on March 1, 2024.
Alright, let’s settle this once and for all. What’s the best Bond movie? While we wait for the next actor to be cast, let’s do what Bond fans have been doing for six decades: argue about which one is actually the best.