Does ‘Dune: Part Two’ Live Up to the Hype?

Um. Yeah. Pretty much.

Much is being said about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, the latter half of his epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which began in 2021. The performances! The scale! The popcorn bucket! Like sand in the Arrakis desert, excitement around the Dune saga is everywhere … and rightfully so!

But I’ll come right out and say it: I was never a Dune fan. The original, MASSIVE book felt impenetrable to me and there wasn’t a lot drawing me to the David Lynch Dune earlier in life, what with its cat milking and battle pugs. Of course, as the first film neared release, I scooped up a copy of the book in the summer of 2021 to ride the hype train like a Fremen atop a sandworm.  I made it about 40 pages in. I was lost. It sat on my nightstand for two years.

I have since seen Dune: Part 1 at least three times, and I enjoy it overall! Villeneuve transformed a tome that was for half a century considered to be unfilmable into a beautiful and raw piece of cinema. Sure, it’s a tad slow and heavy on the worldbuilding. And sure, the movie ends just when the story starts to get really good. But that first installment proved to general audiences – and perhaps most importantly, to Warner Bros. Discovery – that Dune was a blockbuster franchise. Now, nearly three years later, we’ve got our conclusion. Or, at least, the middle chapter of a Dune trilogy given how it ends.

Picking up right where the first film left off, we catch up with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), embedded with Arrakis’ native Fremen, a group that includes the faithful Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and the skeptical Chani (Zendaya). After the Atreides family was decimated by the nefarious Harkonnens in the first film, Paul seeks seek to strike back against the cruel and revolting Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), whose nephews Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista) and Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) are hardly lacking in cruelty of their own. Meanwhile, the calculating Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken) and his daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), look on with great interest as the conflict over Arrakis’ spice – one of the most powerful substances in the universe – continues to escalate. Perhaps that’s all thanks to their own machinations. But you didn’t hear that from them.

Of course, there is much knife fighting, worm riding, and Ornithoptering throughout the film’s 2 hours and 46-minute running time, but what truly propels this film is the performances. From Chalamet’s simmering malevolence to Butler’s unhinged menace to Skarsgård’s literal and figurative sliminess, everyone is at the top of their game. Zendaya in particular elevates Chani as the story takes her character on a journey that’s slightly different from the Chani of the book, and I can’t wait to see where she goes next.

And speaking of where Dune goes next, this is where media literacy comes in or, perhaps, our collective lack of it. It’s startling to see how many people on social media have completely misinterpreted Paul’s messianic ascent, viewing him as a heroic conqueror by the end of the film despite Villeneuve’s dedication to Herbert’s original intent. If they don’t get why the end of this movie means very bad things for the universe, they’ll understand completely when Villeneuve’s Dune: Messiah rolls around … I hope.

Dune: Part Two is already being considered one of the greatest genre sequels of all time – up there with The Dark Knight, Aliens and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I’m not sure I agree just yet, but I will say that Dune: Part Two is one of the best films I’ve seen lately, and it deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible. As for the popcorn buckets, hey, I won’t judge.  Don’t be afraid to buy one. As they say, “Fear is the mind-killer.” 

'Hooked on a Feeling': Why 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Soars

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy is Marvel Studios’ most ambitious feature yet, marking the first time the Marvel Cinematic Universe has veered away from the core Avengers characters to tell an offbeat intergalactic yarn involving a talking raccoon, a sentient tree and The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.” It’s also the most fun you’re going to have in a theater this summer.

Guardians begins in a familiar Earth setting back in 1988, where a young Peter Quill sits outside his dying mother’s hospital bed as he tries to tune out the rest of the world with a Sony Walkman — arguably the film’s most central MacGuffin. After his mother dies just a few moments later, Peter flees the hospital and is abducted by space pirates led by the morally ambiguous Yondu (Michael Rooker). Fast forward a few years and we meet Peter as a grown man (Chris Pratt), who has become an intergalactic treasure hunter who goes by the self-ascribed moniker “Star-Lord.” He’s in search of a mysterious orb we later learn houses one of the Infinity Stones, powerful items that grant their bearer incredible destructive powers.  Collect the whole set and get a free gauntlet while supplies last!

Anyhow, Peter’s quest for the orb soon aligns him with an odd assemblage of characters, including Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the adopted daughter of the mad titan Thanos; Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a muscled warrior seeking to avenge his family; Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a quick-tempered, furry science experiment; and Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree creature with an extremely limited vocabulary. Once united, the rag-tag crew seeks to prevent the villainous Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) from using the Infinity Stone for his own nefarious means.

This movie is goofy as hell, always embracing its own absurdity while somehow never crossing over into self-parody. Much of the fun throughout comes from the interaction between the incredibly strong ensemble cast — an impressive feat since two of the main characters are digital creations. Pratt’s Star-Lord is a swaggering, quick-witted Han Solo-type who clashes nicely with Saldana’s no-nonsense Gamora. Rocket and Groot will go down as one of modern cinema’s most memorable comedy parings, digital or otherwise, while Bautista’s surprisingly gets some of the movie’s biggest laughs as a naïve barbarian who just can’t wrap his head around metaphors.

There are visual thrills, sure, with harrowing space battles and elaborately staged shootouts. Yet, perhaps the best special effect in Guardians is its ability to be uproariously funny without being cynical or mean-spirited. In fact, this might even qualify as a “feel-good” movie. There, I said it.

Keen-eyed Marvel fans will notice plenty of Easter eggs throughout the film, including nods to the comic source material as well as previous Marvel Studios films. It goes without saying that you should stay through the end credits for what is, in my opinion, one of the best post-credits sequences of all time.

I’d love to be “that guy” and point out a few reasons why Guardians doesn’t live up to the hype, but I’m hard-pressed to recall any specific gripes about the film. It’s action-packed, it’s hilarious and it’s loaded with fan service while being inclusive of casual moviegoers. And yeah, I’m saying that about a movie starring a gun-toting raccoon.