DUNE: PART TWO, as with PART ONE, is a marvel in cinematic world-building. Villeneuve cares about fleshing out this sandy world, its politics, its religion, its version of Lockheed Martin war tech. And I appreciate it, I really do. However, it's lacking an element of fun. I feel like Ledger's Joker, "Why so serious?" And it's long. Too long for this aging cat, who values bedtime at a sensible hour over an extra hour of slow-moving mythology.

At a certain point, the length and serious theology lecture culminate into my compulsion to entertain myself. Instead of making notes during Villeneuve's theology and futuristic mythology class, I get giddy and feel the need to lean over to anyone willing to listen and make a quip about how Stellan Skarsgaard's overweight, hover-character is more or less one of the humans from WALL-E. Or, how the emperor's ship is a giant Pokeball from which Christopher Walken emerges.

To me this is the DUNE-iverse. It's a prestige, high-quality world-building exercise. It's no doubt a technical wonder. Warner Bros is willing to gamble that this is what cinemas need. They may be right to a point, but after BARBIE, MOANA, INSIDE OUT 2, DEADPOOL et CO, it seems Hollywood is pushing escapism and/or familiarity rather than serious & new. If the news cycle seems bleek, maybe fun, fanciful, and fantasy are (or even should be the new big-budget norm).

For me, I'm cool with bleak, dark, and serious. And I'm on board for seeing DUNE: PART THREE. However, after a couple of rounds of stillsuits, blue eyes, and getting sand all over the floor, I'm not convinced new emperor Paul Muadib Usul, son of Leto, Lisan al Gaib, Atreides-Harkonnen will interest me that much, no matter where else the story of his genealogy takes me next.
B+