I’m maybe being harsh. I could maybe agree it was very good? At a push. Although it was more likely just good. I get triggered when I see it being called brilliant though. The Dune movies have been miles better (especially the first one) Ditto the original Bladerunner, which was much better than the sequel*.
No Vangelis in the second Bladerunner film - except where they recycle Tears in Rain.
Yeah, try to ignore they hype but I'd really recommend that anyone who enjoys a good cinematic experience see it on a big screen.
Chalamet is a generational talent. The Mbappe of Hollywood.
I was sad at the lack of Hawat. Mentats in general got a pretty raw deal across the two parts.
but yeah, enjoyed it still. Sandworm bits looked incredible.
A pitch-perfect sequel, I thought it eclipsed the original.
Someone earlier made the point that they externalised a lot of the internal conflict and I think that's right - Stilgar becomes the will of the Fremen, pushing Paul towards destiny, Chani is the part of Paul desperate to avoid it, Jessica is the manipulating hand of the Bene Gesserit underneath it all. I think Jessica gets the rawest deal in that respect, but in the context of the film I get it.Saw it yesterday, thought it was mostly very good but wasn't super blown away by it as a whole.
I though visually it was excellent. The acting and the way it's presented is all top but like others have said it felt a bit rushed which is tough for a nearly 3 hour film.
I mainly wasn't sure about plot changes from the books (spoilers ahead) as they've obviously massively sped up his time with the fremen. Paul has an infant son (who is killed when the sietch is raided, giving it all more emotional weight) and Alia is born and is like 4 or 5 in the books? So he's there for years. He also falls into a coma after drinking the water of life, whereas here he's just... unconscious for half a scene? It loses its impact.
It essentially becomes a film about some OP guy who barely gets a scratch laid on him for entire franchise (until the final fight needs a bit of drama). I know it is quite like that in the books but it took a lot more time.
Also as people have already said, rubbish villains really. I know it's kind of the point in the books that the fremen numbers are so high that if they believed and rallied they'd outnumber them easily but the battle (whilst looking incredible) was over so quickly it felt like we were deprived of more of that spectacle.
Rabban was also pointless, just screaming in every scene before dying in the world's shortest fight. I mean if you're gonna go down the cliche action route of "Well look who's back from the dead" vs "I'm avenging everyone you killed", at least make it a fun fight to watch? They build up this history between them and then it ends in two swings of a weapon. Same with the baron. I can't even remember how he died in the books and I know killing him wouldn't be hard but they had Paul basically come in and euthanise him.
Also I know he's very much a believer in the books too but they turned Stilgar into a meme basically. People in the cinema were laughing at most of his scenes which felt a bit out of place for an otherwise serious movie that didn't really use dark humour.
I didn't intend to write all that
EDIT: Also found it weird they left out Feyd trying to cheat in the final fight. I thought they were planting seeds for that with the drugged prisoner thing because he clearly didn't want to fight them 'fairly' but it just didn't happen.
It's not okay though. These people should be rounded up and forced to watch love island on repeat until their eyeballs bleed and then we'll laugh in their faces and rejoice with a screening of wavelength with port.
Oh I recently ended up being subjected to an episode of a really shit reality TV show, I was questioning a lot of my life choices that led me to this point.
The strange thing is that the original is slower than 2049.
Nothing really provokes his decision in the film. It’s just like he gradually, grudgingly, accepts his path.
I think there is substance in the style, personally.
Is it not partly because he didn't foresee the sietch being attacked?
Yeah I get what you're saying - those directors are also amongst my favourite and I'm not saying Villeneuve is a Tarkovsky or a Malick re-gen, but I appreciate what he brings to the blockbuster genre (essentially).
Really? Villeneuve was said to have played down their exaggerated evilness. In part 1 the Baron even says all he cares about is income. I actually thought that was one of the reasons why Dune 1 was better - the Baron was shown to be brilliantly cunning and patient and was thus a great foil to Atreides (and David Dastmalchian was great in his scenes), whereas yeh, part 2 had the very unconvincing psychopath guy. You need the creepy darkness, though. That's part of the fun, especially as the whole thing is a bit cartoony anyway and obviously very religious-y. Duncan, Stilgar, Gurney etc were/are a bit silly but largely fit with the universe (Stilgar is pushing it, though). As do the Harkonnen (for the most part - baldy fraud can feck off). That super weird spider gimp in the first film was a really cool extra.
Thanks to their attention span crashing from addiction to reels and tiktok.
Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 are both brilliant Sci-Fi.
This may be it actually, I probably wasn't paying enough attention due to worm anticipation.
Prisoners is better than Blade Runner 2049 for me. Blade Runner looks fantastic, though.
I enjoyed Prisoners but BR2049 was incredible especially given how rare it is for a sequel to one of the best films ever made to be so good.
