I didn’t rewatch it (yet) but I wanted to write a more in depth review that wasn’t just my initial thoughts, so this is what I wrote.

Immediately immersing you into the world of the characters, Dune: Part Two is an exciting experience, especially in IMAX.

Villenueve no doubt creates an amazing atmosphere, the world-building is off the charts. It feels like you've left Earth and traveled to the dry and sandy Arrakis.

It starts up right where the first one left off, following Paul Atreides and his mother into the desert after his people have been exterminated by the Harkonnen. We see a lot of interesting things happen as Paul (sometimes accidentally, sometimes purposefully) seems to fulfill prophecies, and the people of Arrakis, the Fremen, start to worship him as a Messiah. The problem is that the Bene Gesserit, an order of, for lack of a better word, witches (including Paul’s mother) seemed to plant these prophecies in the people’s heads. It seems as though the Fremen have no free will and are simply pawns in the grand plans of the Bene Gesserit to find their own Messianic figure, the Kwisatz Haderach. Paul’s love interest, Chani, doesn’t believe in the prophecies though, creating the conflict there. A lot of interesting conflicts and sub conflicts with different characters are all entangled. One of the most surprising revelations of the film, one that almost made me audibly gasp, was learning that Paul’s maternal grandfather is the Baron, the leader of the Harokken who killed Paul’s father as well as nearly all of his people. I think this strengthens this idea of Paul uniting people even more, as his blood is of two different groups who are enemies. Paul unites the Atreides with the Harkonnen.

But sometimes the characters felt weirdly rushed. Austin Butler's character, Na-Baron Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, was an immature child who only pretended to be a real fighter. But then he fights one man from the House of Atreides who wasn't drugged and kills him. While the man fought with the adrenaline of trying to save his own life, he had still been imprisoned and seemed fairly weak. And he still put up a pretty strong fight. After that we don't see Feyd-Rautha fight anyone else (just emotionless killing of defenseless individuals) but yet when he challenges Paul, he's a formidable opponent, almost killing him. It just feels as though he was a bit of a Mary Sue. Another character who I thought was not given a proper arc was Florence's Pugh's Irulan Corrino, daughter to the emperor. She starts off as an interesting and nuanced character who seems to be critical of the emperor's decisions but then simply becomes an object, a bargaining chip for Paul to gain power. Paul's arc felt a bit rushed too considering he was so against being seen as a Messiah but then just a little later, he goes all the way trying to convince people that he is. But that one is more understandable to me, I see that he's trying to convince people to fight for him and can use this prophecy as a tool (or really a weapon) and so he sort of changes his stance. He is still ridiculously inconsistent (saying you'll love someone forever and then asking for another girl's hand in marriage) but I think that adds to his character's immaturity and inconsistency as he's trying to find solutions for the Fremen while still discovering himself.

The only other real flaws I had were a lack of stakes and a lack of emotions. The stakes never really felt high for me because, except for his knife fight with Feyd-Rautha, I never felt like Paul was really in danger. The whole film you just kinda know that Paul is going to survive everything until his duel with Feyd-Rautha, making it probably my favorite scene. It's the first time you really feel like Paul is human and not invincible. As far as my other point, sometimes emotionally this could be lacking. Sure I felt a level of grief for Paul, and Chalamet did an excellent job at showing his anxiety and fear of the consequences he could experience, but sometimes I felt next to nothing. When Paul tames the Shai-Hulud, I didn't feel as excited as I wanted to or as I felt like I should. The love story between Paul and Chani also was just weird at times. It’s an extremely fascinating concept how Paul sort of becomes the opposite of what Chani believes in but they still have this strong, intimate love for each other, but the execution of this concept wasn’t amazing. I think the best example I can think of is when Paul and Chani first kiss, they’re having this intimate moment and the camera is close and as you start to feel the intimacy, they cut to this wide shot spinning around the two lovers so they can show…sand? It just felt pointless, in my opinion, and completely ruined the intimate feeling.

This is far from a perfect film, and it makes me cringe when people make the claim that it is. Nonetheless, it feels wrong to call this film anything short of a masterpiece. The grandness and scale are off the charts with this film, juxtaposing the epics of old with the setting of the future. I really enjoyed this movie. Above all, it immerses and entertains.