David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune was not what critics and fans wanted even after spending nearly two decades trying to adapt the book. Chalk full of bad effects, horrendous writing, and too many cut corners when adapting the full story, it was a flop at the box office. Lynch disowned the film and, since then, a true adaptation of the film never made it to the big screen.

Enter Denis Villeneuve, a French-Canadian director and lifelong fan of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic who fought hard to adapt the book into a new film. In 2021, Dune: Part One premiered to an enthusiastic response but with some drawbacks. There were complaints that his work on the film was exceptional, but the pacing was bad and there was more set-up than excitement.

Thankfully, Dune: Part Two justifies all of those criticisms and makes sense of why they were necessary. All that setup pays off and the pacing is perfect. The ensemble cast is tremendous, particularly Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, and Javier Bardem. The set design, costumes, score, writing, and direction are flawless. Just as Goodfellas brought the mafia genre back to its glory days in the 90s, Dune: Part Two will do the same for sci-fi. This is truly The Empire Strikes Back of our generation and a cinematic experience everyone needs to have.

The cast is absolutely perfect! Chalamet delivers a career-best performance as Paul Atreides, showing off a whole new side of himself by channeling a darkness that we’ve never seen from him. Zendaya’s role development in this film is expanded significantly from Dune: Part I and this allows her to show off her incredible acting skills. Despite this, the two standouts for me personally were Javier Bardem, who brings comedic relief and is the one true believer in Paul, and Austin Butler, who channels a demon straight from hell as Feyd-Rautha. Butler’s performance is so captivating, that it is easily the most memorable movie villain since Anton Chigurh, who was coincidentally played by Butler’s Dune: Part Two co-star Bardem. I do wish he had been given more screen time but regardless, Butler deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this role as it completely blew me away.

Villeneuve’s writing and direction are sublime, bringing Frank Herbert’s words to life better than anybody could’ve imagined. His vision for this world is clear as day and every single frame is a testament to that. More importantly, we see the payoff from the choice Villeneuve made when he split the first book into two movies. His groundwork and world-building from Part One allows Part Two to tell a much clearer story and the writing, specifically for Paul, shows this. Of course, we can’t forget to mention DP Greg Fraser, who has some incredible cinematography and brings Villeneuve’s vision to life and is a treat in IMAX. Don’t be surprised if he wins another Best Cinematography Oscar, especially after winning for the first part.

The overall production design is outstanding and unrivaled. The costume work is magnificent in detail and design, giving everyone a unique look while also making them look similar and part of a cohesive group. CGI has been a topic that the film community has had many negative conversations on recently, particularly related to quality and the overworking of staff. While I can’t speak to the latter, I am happy to report that the visual effects in this film are some of the finest I have ever seen and put every movie of the last decade to shame. THIS is the benchmark for what visual effects can be and everyone should follow suit from this example. Sound mixing is not something I normally comment on in my reviews, however, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about it in this film. This film relies on sound for many things, particularly Lady Jessica’s subplot. Arrakis is brought to life because of the sound and this shouldn’t go unrecognized.

Thematically, this film goes to some very dark places while also shining a light on religion and its ability to captivate the masses. For fans who haven’t read the book, they’ll surely be surprised by the turn Paul’s character arc takes and more noticeably, how he embraces his role as the Messiah. The viewer is treated to opposing perspectives of this idea with Chani, who loses faith in Paul after being a strong advocate, and Stilgar, who blindly follows Paul and sees the prophecy fulfilled any way he can. These contrasting perspectives give the audience a lot to think about and depending on how you perceive these themes and characters, your opinion on the ending and Paul’s character will make for some interesting discourse with other viewers.

Normally this is the part where I discuss any issues I have with the film, but try as I may, I cannot seem to find any. Dune: Part Two somehow lived up to the hype and exceeded it. Denis Villeneuve’s magnum opus delivers on every front. It’s easily the best film of the year so far and should win all the technical Oscar categories next year. I cannot begin to imagine how he will top this but I can’t wait to see.