Dune: Part Two REVIEW - A Treasure in the TRASH 

Zendaya's only expression the whole movie was a "girlfriend-mad-at-you-about-something" face.

The depiction of Geidi Prime was a monumental triumph of cinematography. The greyscale was otherworldly, spooky and alien, saved massively on set design costs, and adeptly sent the message that Harkonnen culture is rigidly black and white

Only 190 mill??? Bro, some garbage movies have higher budgets. Good management there.

The visuals in this movie are so natural you don't even think your looking at cgi but rather something alien that was photographed on camera and that's how cgi should look in live action and not like a cartoon.

Zendaya is extremely overrated.

"An alien woman in an alien world - she just comes off as Californian." Sounds like she nailed it.

Didn’t completely hate Chani, but it’s just weird that she would rather her people stay oppressed, instead of rallying behind the one person who brought all her people together. Like all she does is cry about the prophecy but doesn’t offer any solutions.

Big things missing from the books: Paul and Chani lose a child to an assassination attempt by one of the Houses/noble families. Paul's three year old sister is considered as an abomination - as is Paul. The movies completely did away with the 'weirding way' too. However, none of these mattered as much as the wooden acting from Zendaya :(.

A great movie treated like a masterpiece because people are so beaten down by garbage.

Emperor Corrino was like that in the book too, I haven't seen the new movie, but I know the problems with the series and other movies is that they try to paint him as the overarching villain, when really he's being played by Gaius Helen Mohiam and Vladimir Harkonnen. He isn't even an antagonist to Paul, he's just a convenient stepping stone to power, he thinks he is a grand chessmaster but is consistently outplayed. This goes more than double for Princess Irulan, she's barely in the book if you don't count the historian's notes at the start of each chapter which she authored. Anya Taylor-Joy was cast waaaaaay ahead of time, they are definitely planning on doing the sequels if they cast her as Alia. If they thought Dune was unfilmable, wait until they get to God Emperor of Dune.

Hollywood, quite trying to make Zendaya a thing. She not a good enough actress.

The ending he's referring to is a cringy girl boss scene that was thrown in at the last moment for no apparent reason, in an almost "F U, we got the last word in", way.

Zendaya plays Zendaya just like Michelle Rodriguez always plays Michelle Rodriguez.

You have to respect Austin Butler for having the balls to take up Sting's codpiece as Feyd-Rautha.

I’m not a fan of Zendaya. She’s just not a great actress. Serviceable, yes. Decent, maybe. But not great. When I told my brother she was cast as Chani he replied by saying “I don’t know what a Zendaya is.” Pretty much sums it up right there.

Zendaya can't act. She always brings any project down with her bad acting.

Zendaya has the acting depth of a puddle of water on Arrakis

I think the sound design in this movie is among the best I've heard in a long time. Truly a movie that needs to be experienced in theaters.

Just saw it today on IMAX. Let me say, every time something big is happening on screen, I can feel my body and the chair I'm sitting on shake, literally shake. The sound design is stellar. And The scene on Geidi prime was GENIUS

The only complain I have for this movie is that we didn't get more Feyd-Rautha scenes. I really love how Villeneuve portrayed Feyd in his films. He really showed why Feyd was Paul's greatest rival in the movie. This version of Feyd is more powerful because he actually is a very capable warrior unlike the book and previous adaptation versions who likes to use trickery to win his fights. Austin Butler's version of Feyd also has none of the reckless and impulsive nature of the book version. He never tried to assasinate his uncle like the book version.

Zendaya just plays Zendaya in every movie. Like a Cara Delevingne that seems to blandly fail upward

Not a false prophesy, but it wasnt supposed to be Paul that was to fulfill it. The breeding program the witches had in place was thrown off when Jessica had a boy to please duke leto.

Your description of Zendaya’s acting is spot on! 😂 I described it as Los Angelos but Californian is close enough

Javier Bardem and Austin Butler absolutely crushed it. TC also definitely lived up to the lead role, and he will be excellent in the next

Movies aren't going to get better for years.. because all the trash they green lit are coming up.

Fun Fact: When Jodorowsky assayed to mount a production of Dune in the mid 70's, he had hired H.R. Giger to design the Harkonnen and their home world.

They made Chani either too stupid to understand what was going on, or too much of a narcissi to care.

No, the biggest change was focusing on Chani too much and changing her character.

This is not a sequel, it's the rest of the first movie.

2049 didn't suck

I liked it. But honestly, it's terribly dumbed down. And Im so tired of Zendaya sulking constantly. She is vastly over rated.

It was a well made, good movie but too many things from the book were missing in my opinion. Spice was not explained very well, mentats were barely mentioned, navigators were absent, Feyd needed character development, the Emperor was poorly represented, Alia is not even born, etc. Had I not read the books I probably would have enjoyed the movie more. The 1984 version was closer to the book I think.

Zendaya was the worst part of this movie imo. Such a wooden performance. She didn’t really have chemistry with Paul and she seems to always be against him. I don’t really know why they were together. Didn’t seem like a natural relationship

So this is what willy wonka was doing while his factory was shut down.

This film stands on the shoulders of David Lynch, it really takes zero chances and isn’t original in any way. It’s just tries to remake the film that Lynch tried to cram into 2 hrs probably due to studio pressure, over the course of 2 films. It’s a set piece by set piece remake of Lynch’s film with a little added exposition. The ending, as compared to Dune 1984, is an enormous letdown that only serves to setup Dune part 3. I prefer to have Paul stab Feyd Rautha in the throat and then explode his chest cavity with the Weirding Way followed by his Heretic Sister screaming that he is the Kwisatz Haderach, but maybe I’m Weird too.

I agree, zendaya isn't a versatile actress. If anything, its as if she's not acting but just being herself in all the movies she's in

I think when people compare it to LOTR they're not saying it's as good as them, I think the comparison is that they're 2 grand franchises, with well developed world's and characters, that will stand the test of time.

I'm glad that I can finally go to the cinema and watch a good movie.

why does the Sci Fi Dune show in the year 2000 get no reference!!!!! REVIEW IT SIR!

Dune was slightly 'lucky' in this way- Herbert's original books had women being just as strong as men in their own way (the Bene Gesserit, female Fremen warriors). Because he wrote it with some gender balance in it, there was less 'need' to insert intersectional ideas. You CAN see some of Villeneuve's nods to more current sensibilities: 1) making female characters have more agency/ability (the new Jessica kills with her hands, Dune '84 she didn't) 2) Changes like Dr Kines' race/gender make little difference to the plot because it doesn't become the focus, or even get a mention (you wouldn't know the character has been gender swapped if you hadn't read the book or seen Dune '84)

Well they completely changed zendayas character from the book. In the book she supports paul & sticks by his side during his messiah phase . In the movie they made it the opposite

Butler really is becoming a mega star, hope he continues to absolutely kill it. Couldn't care less about Florence "iPhone face" Pugh or Zendaya.

this will not be remembered in 5 years. The fact that Gary tried to read it and simply couldn't stick with it goes to show that there really isn't much there. It's simply a fantasy epic that looks cool and is well performed. Aside from that, there's no rabid discussion of what you thought of this or that, it's basically dead already. And the worldwide gross fell from Part 1 to Part 2. Not a good sign.

The choice they made to swap the arcs of Chani and Jessica is very weird. Jessica is supposed to be reluctant and Chani the supportive one. Paul and Chani are suppose to have two children together so if they make a sequel they'll have to resolve this plot point that doens't exist in he book. They made some very strange choices. I understand why they cut out the mentats from the second movie but why did they introduced them in the first one then ? And why did they cut out completely the Guild ? So that the Landsraad can bring their warships without opposition in the end ? Some part are overly long, and some seem rushed, seemingly at random. I suppose for the sake of making beautiful shots ? This movie stutters. Or is desperately in need of an extended cut (which is ironic for a 3 hours long movie).

Finally criticism of Zendaya

I fell asleep 3 times with the 1st one. Everyone says is great... had to get some energy drinks to finish that one first

I had also tried many times to read the books and never could get into them. However I realize now it's because the first book hits you pretty hard early with terms and names that are sometimes hard to keep up with with no reference point. I could never get the appropriate "theater of the mind" experience going having not even seen the older movie. But now having seen both new movies, I gave the Audible version another go and it makes a WORLD of difference being able to picture it now.

I don't mind Zendaya as much as I mind the utter character assassination of Chani.

Denis Villeneuve is already working on a third Dune movie, which is about adapting the novel Dune Messiah. It should come out around 2027. Warner is obviously creating a big blockbuster Sci-Fi franchise of it's own with Dune, and if the movies keeps getting better, then they are sitting on a pot of gold.

The movie didn’t click for me. The only interesting character was Feyd Rautha. It’s a shame because I wanted to like this movie.

The movie could have been a lot better. I actually became nostalgic of the 1984 David Lynch version while watching this one. Zendaya sucks, I wish they had somebody else play the role and I wish her character stuck to the source material.

The Bene Gesserit didn't plant a false prophecy. The pre bene Gesserit wild mothers planted in stories the framework of a messiah legend in order to help one of them to survive among the Fremen if they were forced to and the Fremen filled in the details over time but that doesn't make it false-- everyone was using Spice prescience knowingly or unknowingly which is why Paul and his mother fit every prophetic sign of the legend. It was a REAL prophecy put there accidentally for political means originally.

I really wish they would release longer cuts of both these movies for home video, like the good old days.

What's up with RU-vidrs trying to look like musicians but putting a guitar in the background?

They need to stop casting the same people. Enough Zendaya already.

IMO, everything was great except for Zendaya, because Zendaya is an activist pretending to be an actress in a good movie.

The Chani character had way too much screen time compared to the emperor and Feyd

I watched Dune 1 and thought it was fine. It was alright. Saw Dune 2, and that was one of the best movies I've seen.

I mostly loved it. I just didn’t care much for the changes to Chani’s character from the book and am slightly worried about what that implies for future movies.

Zendaya was a poor casting choice for Chani. Otherwise, looks promising!

They should’ve made everybody gay.

No idea how Zendaya gets such big roles and is pushed so hard front and center. She either looks like a bum & acts like she doesn’t want to be on set or has 1 or 2 facial expressions. That’s it.

My fiancé and I are massive LOTR fans.. huge nerds of it. Just went and say return of the king extended version in theatre and the fellowship with live orchestra. We love the series. Dune 2 absolutely falls into the same category. I haven’t seen a movie so good since LOTR. I was completely blown away. Dune 2 is a masterpiece, a pure work of art. We both looked at each other when it was over and just sat in the theatre like what the fuck. It’s truly beautiful and it absolutely made me feel all types of ways just like LOTR did. Go watch it

The Fremen arent native to Arrakis

You know, with that popcorn bucket collectible, do you think they knew how that was going to be perceived or was it like, "oh no, what have we done?"

We cannot easily compare the worlds Herbert and Tolkien created. They are totally different flavours.. read the books first ( or at least one of the series) then you might be able to analyze, compare aso. Plus keep in mind: LOTR fantasy / Dune sci-fi. I’m too lazy to go on but maybe you can catch my point here. 😊 I’m a big fan of Dune, read the books & I also love LOTR movie trilogy.

I think it is interesting how David Lynch visualized Giedi Prime as Planet of the Gingers, while Denis V. portrays it as Planet of the Skinheads. It works either way, but in Denis' version the Harkonnes' psychosis is more subtle and brooding. Lynch's version was more entertaining, while Denis' version is more frightening. I now view the Lynch DUNE as how the story would look if performed as live theater.

Zendaya is not Chani. Zendaya is Zendaya. It's the same like Miles Morales is not Spiderman. Miles Morales is Miles Morales.

Is it just me or does the Harkonin (sp?) Nephew look like the guy that got fired for stealing luggage?

its actually more trash in the trash

To be fair - the pacing matches that of the book pretty closely - the ending wraps up really quickly in the book. Also, the book does end with Chani and Jessica - so makes sense that the film matches that too.

Chani was the character I dislike the most! Because that is not the way she is in the books!! Other than that, it was a fine watch!

The director is expected to do Rendezvous with Rama in the next year or 2. Been waiting decades for the movie to finally be made. He would do it justice. Fingers crossed.

The only issue I had was most of the fighting against the Fremen. Every Fremen being able to kill with no or very minimal casualties just made most of the battles feel weak. I guess that's just me though.

Frank Herbert himself rushed with ending of his first book by almost not bothering much with last battle at all, so D.V did a much, much better job with a film... :))))

You described exactly what I think about Zendaya's performance, she acted like a "tough californian girl". Worse of all, every single time she came on screen I was badly reminded I was still watching a movie... Not saying she's a bad actress, but she could have improved her presence by adopting a different accent at least.

Zendaya was very much the weak link of the cast. I noticed in the first movie that all the other Fremen had an accent but her; in this one they even explicitly mention Fremen accents (Stilgar had a southern Fremen accent) while Chani was there, ignoring her Californian accent. You are being paid to be a professional actress, I'd think that a professional actress ought to be able to handle an accent. You are right about Javier Barden as Stilgar stealing the show. He completely makes the Fremen for me. I'd add that I loved what they did with Josh Brolins Gurney so much that I wish they had introduced him way sooner. In 1984 Dune he went native just like Paul and Lady Jessica and was a pretty generic honorable warrior character. In this he never gets the blue eyes and acts a bit like the devil on Paul's shoulder, seeing the Fremen as just a means to avenging house Atreides. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say more, but if they were already going to change some things from the books why not bring Gurney in sooner too?

I cant understand how you can have such a stellar cast of proven actors and lump in Zendaya in there. In a desolate desert planet surrounded by people with ethnic sounding accents she comes out with a valley girl accent. I love everythign about the new dune movies apart from that 1 casting choice. every scene she's in sounds like she just learned the lines the day before shooting.

I loved this movie, I honestly don’t think the pacing of the first half is bad but I do agree the film honestly could’ve used an extra 30 to 45 minutes at the end. I could be completely wrong, but I have heard that the battle scenes in Dune (the book) aren’t super fleshed out so that may have been the reason why certain certain battle scenes weren’t longer. I wish the Director could have added about 30 minutes just to make the battle scenes longer and more intense. Than maybe I could put it up at the same level as The Two Towers. Overall, I think it’s the best sci-fi movie in a long time, and maybe one of the better movies of the entire decade.

Gary used to own a sandworm

Fun fact: Tolkien hated Dune with a passion.

ehhh idk its hard to compare Lotr with this two different type of movies

I've read the book. These movies are good (at least, from what I can see from Part 2's trailer and info), bordering on great, but they miss on a few points from the books. Part of the point of Jessica giving birth while with the Fremen was because her daughter, Alia, is a key figure in the final act of the book and in future books. Because of the psychic and drug-fueled trial Jessica has to go through to become a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit, Alia also gains heightened awareness and consciousness _while inside the womb._ Alia is basically born with the wisdom and intelligence and powers of a Reverend Mother but without any of the disciplines or loyalties (in the book, she's the one who kills the Baron because he underestimates her, since she's 2 years old, and lets her get close enough to stab him with a gom jabbar needle she'd been hiding). In part one, the biggest disappointment was the gender-swap and race-swap of Liet Kynes. In the book, Liet Kynes is a male Imperial Ecologist who was chosen by the Emperor personally to learn about Arrakis and the Fremen. Long story short, Kynes goes full Dances with Wolves and gets adopted into the Fremen, even starting a family (Chani is his daughter, making her half-Imperial in the books). He's later so impressed by the honor and integrity of Duke Leto Atreides, partially thanks to the values he gained by spending so much time with the Fremen, that he actually betrays the Emperor and helps the Atreides royal family (most of them) escape. As an Imperial, and as the Imperial Ecologist and Emperor's contact, he's not killed by the Harkonnen. However, after he's captured he's left in the desert with a ruined stillsuit as punishment for his betrayal so they can say they "never killed" the Imperial Ecologist. Kynes' life in the book has beautiful poetic symmetry: he starts out as an Imperial agent to be used to exploit the Fremen, but instead he learns their ways to survive the desert and becomes a man of greater integrity as he falls in love with the Fremen and Arrakis. Later, he sides with Leto against the Emperor, showcasing the Emperor's fears of Leto having the potential to gain enough influence to usurp him (if Leto could convince his _chosen man_ on the planet, an Imperial man, he could convince anyone to come to his side). Then, Kynes sacrifices himself to do what is right, and the people he started out serving in the first place leave him to die in the desert he was sent to study as an insult to him, but in actuality he's at peace with it since he'd long since come to love the place and now gets to be one with it. They removed nearly all that poetry for a cheap girl-boss moment, and it will never not annoy me.

RZF = Resting Zendaya Face

Loved the movies, but it is absurd that they all kill each other so easily with blades. Seriously? They can't make blade proof armor? They can't put better batteries in the shield tech? Ridiculous.

The battle scenes are probably the biggest letdown for me -- They're always swift and one-sided.

Blade Runner 2049 was the best movie of the last 10 years. Fight me.

I liked the movie but they cut one of the best characters I wish we could have seen on screen (young Alia) and changed the ending enough to make me question how the will set up the second book to cannan standards. Chani was also way more likeable in the book. (No constant resting bitch face.)

As a huge fan of the original, I was pretty disappointed

I liked how the Freemen were such diverse people... I bet that was their strenght, DIVERSITY... LOL

I'm with it. I liked it, but Dune 1 felt bigger, had more depth and was better overall. Both had pacing issues that could have been used to flesh out characters or the politics and alliances of the world, but I came out of the theater feeling slightly underwhelmed. Still it's 100% worth a trip to the theater and on the best screen available.

The fact that you can't get into the book diminishes you ever so slightly in my eyes. 😊

The First one was better. This one is okay at best half of it was rushed and it should have been two movies for character development. Paul went from refusing to be the messiah into embracing it in like 3 minutes. Reminded me of the last season of game of thrones when dany loses her mind from one episode to another.

UFFFFFF the Zendaya california quote articulated perfectly the only gripe I had with the movie.

I thought it was a very good movie, plan to see it again, yet I'm amazed that the SyFy miniseries managed to contain so much more of the plot in an hour's less time. I don't know how well that miniseries stands up today, but I still remember scenes from it near 25 years later, so I'm going to say it was definitely good for what it was. I don't know that I loved cutting the timeline down so much and making it Paul Atriedes and the No Bummer Summer During Which He Conquered the Galaxy. Dude destroyed a space empire in the same amount of time we all had to wait just to see this film after it was delayed for the writers' strike. Definitely no LotR either, but then, maybe if the studios would believe in quality projects and just commit the money and time up front, it could have been.

I have read these books and been a fan for a long time. To me, the most important theme that appears in Dune is a specific duality of human nature. We want peace, but we aren’t made for it. All of our deepest dreams are in the image of paradise, but all of our heroes and legends are remembered for their sacrifices. We as a species feel shame for our violent past, and yet here we are in the year 2024 still waging war on one another. Dune is not a story about the Spacing Guild or Mentats. It’s not about Chani or Paul or Alia or any one character in particular. Every detail, every bit of world building, is secondary to the true focus of the story: humanity itself. Watching these movies it’s clear to me that Villeneuve and his team are reading this story and asking the questions Frank Herbert wanted us to ask. I understand many details were changed or even omitted, but Villeneuve still managed to capture the essence of Herbert’s original story. To me that makes this a masterpiece.

I thought the entire thing was "meh", the Lynch version was an masterpiece by comparison. This film does what Star Trek Discovery does for the star trek universe. It has its glimpses of brilliance but is so far up its own ass it gets it so so very wrong.

We need more movies like Dune. Good story, good music, good effects, good actors, good director. Excellent to watch. Movies with vision, not another cheap money grab in studio assembly line. My only regret is Dune looks like Fantasy movie, and i prefer more sf edge movies.

Thank you for talking about Zendaya! She takes me out of every movie that she’s in. Her acting range is not diverse at all. Like someone already said, Zendaya plays Zendaya in every movie.

I've been a Frank Herbert fan for DECADES, so I'm thrilled that someone was able to do the series justice.