Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling
Written By: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve
Studio: Warner Bros
Buy On Amazon.com

Dune: Part 2 is a great sci-fi flick with a less confusing storyline but can still be pretty confusing.

After House Atreides gets betrayed and destroyed by House Harkonnen in Part 1, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) live among the Fremen people of Arrakis. Paul falls in love with Chani (Zendaya), the woman from his visions in the first movie and learns the ways of the Fremen people. They think Paul is their prophesied leader and will bring back prosperity to Arrakis. Meanwhile, House Harkonnen brings in crazy Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to wipe out the Fremen and their new leader “Muad’Dib.”

Dune: Part 1 was a cool sci-fi film but I felt mostly confused and just as it was getting good, it stopped. Part 2 is a great sci-fi movie and continues with the impressive special effects and action. I’m still confused but had a better time watching it.It’s best to think of these two movies as one giant-ass movie. I liked the action more in Part 2 and the Dances with Wolves aspect of Paul joining the Fremen and leading them. Seeing them riding the sand worms or giant sand anuses was pretty freakin’ cool and done really well. It could have looked so cheesy but Denis Villeneuve and his team made it look amazing. Of course, whoever made the popcorn buckets is probably looking for another job or a raise. I guess it depends on how the higher-ups feel about how much buzz those things got for all the wrong reasons.

It’s surprising that Austin Butler looked and acted that menacing and played the villain really, really well. Think he should have shown up in Part One though. I thought all the acting was really well done from Timothée, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin (No Country reunion!) and I can’t forget Christopher Walken. Timothée really does a great job with the acting, the fighting and everything that Paul does. I like him better in this role than Wonka. Stellan Skarsgård is probably relieved he doesn’t have to be in this makeup and fat suit anymore either.

The 4k UHD contains a bunch of featurettes talking about worm riding, training, Austin as Feyd-Rautha, Hans Zimmer featurette and more. In total there’s about close to 45-60 minutes of extras to watch. For the quality of the movie, it looked and sounded spectacular on 4k!

I’m not sure Dune: Part 2 is a sci-fi masterpiece like others have proclaimed but it’s certainly an entertaining sci-fi flick that still feels incomplete. Like an Empire Strikes Back, middle of the road story. Some plot lines are tied up while other ones are unanswered since there’s more Dune books to adapt. I guess there’s a prequel series coming to MAX called Dune Prophecy and Denis will eventually make a third movie when he feels its time? Can’t wait to see what he does next with his franchise!

Features:
Chakobsa Training
Creating the Fremen World
Finding the Worlds of Dune
Buzz Around the New “Thopter”
Worm-Riding
Becoming Feyd
A New Set of Threads
Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune

Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (51.27 Mbps)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.43:1

Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Audio descriptive

Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish
Forced subtitles

Bottom Line: The Empire Strikes Back of the Dune franchise but let’s not make the popcorn buckets again, shall we?
Running Time: 166 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: