Blockbuster Cinema - Dune: Part Two
Dune: Part Two has been out for a few weeks now, and boy, is it a time to be alive if you’re looking for a massive film to get excited about—similar to the previous successes of Barbenheimer, Avatar: The Way Of Water, and Top Gun: Maverick—which is marking a slight return of highly popular and financially successful films that aren’t drenched in the MCU.
I’ve been Dune Pilled and have managed to see Dune: Part Two twice in theaters this month, and I imagine I’ll see it at least once more before its theater cycle ends.
Sci-fi and films in that type of world have interested me since I was a wee lad. Few things have blown me away during a first viewing than when I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day (thanks Dad).
I’ve heard of Frank Hebert and Dune since my Sci-Fi interest came to fruition–with both of my parents loving the books and, like most, having a disappointing theater experience in 1984 with David Lynch’s Dune.
Many have thought this series would be impossible to adapt, given its dense subject matter and failure to do so in the 1980s, but most, including myself, were excited to see an auteur like Denis Villeneuve—more importantly, a director without studio interference—take a shot at it back in 2021 with Dune: Part One, a film I enjoy and sets up the soon-to-be trilogy nicely.
As you could expect, Dune: Part Two is everything Dune: Part One did right but dials it to max capacity with its technical, story, and acting capabilities.
It’s nice to see a Sci-Fi film of this magnitude accomplish so much and reign in the blockbuster title. It’s an accomplishment that I imagine many people felt during the early 2000s with the Lord Of The Rings.
There’s a lot of pessimism regarding cinema nowadays. Whether it’s the overabundance of streaming and their control over an IP, the lack of mid-budget movies, the challenges theaters are facing, or the never-ending superhero craze, I try to remain optimistic since there are still plenty of great films being made.
Times have changed, and that blockbuster feeling isn’t as much of a reality anymore, but when it does happen, i.e., with a Barbenheimer or a new entity in the Dune Franchise, that should cause some optimism for any film fanatic.
On the Indie side, plenty of studios—such as Neon or A24—routinely take chances and pump out great original films for us to enjoy that many people overlook unless you’re hyper-online or into this sort of thing.
I’m usually nihilistic and gloomy about everything, but there are fantastic films out there if you look, and on the larger side, we’re still getting great pieces of art to appreciate, like Dune: Part Two.
SO! Go out and watch it on the big screen. Enjoy it.