Ryne Walley’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Abomination."
Frank Herbert’s interstellar messianic conspiracy reaches the fever pitch of total war in Denis Villeneuve’s now-complete, and astonishing, adaptation of Dune. Even when taken immediately beside Part One – each rendition ending and beginning with minimal interruption between – Part Two feels like a different beast entirely. Both chapters are obviously connected by a fundamental aesthetic and thematic language. However, this latest film conjures are far darker reality (and inevitability) for these characters, carried through with fearful momentum. The experience, beyond the sheer creative magnitude of the work, is a sweeping and unstoppable tragedy, one that underscores the rampant menace of insidious, unrestrained outside political obtrusion on indigenous societies as the scheme of the "Savior" consumes true cultural identity with religious extremism. Yet these machinations of control are doomed, the perpetrators ultimately powerless to wield the very evil they wrought, destined to be devoured by the flames of their own (un)holy creation.
A grave science-fiction epic, staggering in scale and consideration. Villeneuve and DP Greig Fraser’s awe-inspiring imagery is rivaled by the equally stirring efforts of the writer-director’s screenplay (co-penned by Jon Spaihts). As with Part One, among the (very) faithful turns rendered from Herbert’s original opus, Villeneuve orchestrates a number of sharp adjustments that carry Part Two well past the expectations of either its predecessor or any prior incarnation, effortlessly building the material’s beauty and horror while introducing the complex dynamics subsequently explored in Dune Messiah. And of all the shrewd, often substantial, changes at hand, it’s the film’s poignant closing decision – arguably, and fittingly, the boldest and most compelling departure here – that stands emblematic of Villeneuve’s inarguable understanding of the novel and its potential some six decades after the first release.
So affecting in its designs and ambition, and to such a gobsmacking degree, that the journey is not easily shaken. Whether by way of the filmmaker’s vision or the numerous other production achievements – there’s no shortage of acclaim for Hans Zimmer’s otherworldly compositions, the impressive costuming, every location and stunning construction feat, or the superb cast – Dune: Part Two delivers a full-bodied blockbuster event that utterly fulfills Villeneuve’s grand dream. An extraordinary adaptation.
"Lead them to paradise."
