And Denis Villeneuve has delivered not just one of the best films of recent time, but one of the best science fiction films of the last decade.

Now context before we dive into Dune Part 2, I have not read the Dune books, I haven't even seen the 1984 film, my experience with this world has purely come at the hands of what Denis Villeneuve has delivered with Part 1 and Part 2.

So I have no preconceived bias, I have no attachment to this world or in-depth knowledge that years of fandom can give you.

So now that that has been made clear, Dune Part 2 is, in my opinion, one of the best science fiction films I have ever seen.

A film layered in complex characters, a gripping story, visuals that make it one of the best looking films I have ever seen, and sound design that takes over the entire film, and a Hans Zimmer masterclass with the score.

We're just going to dive deep into all of it, and get to the bottom of why Dune Part 2 is a science fiction masterpiece.

Before we do though, we are getting close to 100,000 subscribers, we're only like 10k away now, it would mean the world if you could help us get there as soon as possible.

Shameless plug aside, let's dive into Dune Part 2.

Now I just want to say, we won't have any major spoilers in this video, like character fates and whatnot, as the film has just come out, and it deserves your ticket.

I'll only dabble in very mild spoilers.

But absolutely nothing major, so you're pretty well safe watching this video.

Anyway, Denis Villeneuve is one of those filmmakers where if he makes a film, and you're a pretentious knob like me, you've just got to go and see it.

Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 have always been major favourites of mine, and it's largely due to how he manages to turn every frame of a film into a wallpaper.

Every shot is carefully crafted, visually striking, and even if the story isn't necessarily hooking you, the visuals sure as hell will.

Not that this is a problem with his films, he often gives you thought provoking material with incredibly deep and complicated characters, and it's clear he's brought that love to the Dune franchise.

Part 1 was an incredible film, it swept the Oscars and deservedly so, but it did very much feel like a Part 1 ending rather abruptly, without much payoff.

But Part 2 picks up right where it left off, and retroactively actually makes the first film even better.

Something I love about Denis Villeneuve is how he doesn't rely on dialogue to progress the story, to explain how characters are feeling.

So many films these days are presented in a way that spoon feeds the story and how the characters are feeling through cheesy ass dialogue.

Denis Villeneuve actually came out in an interview recently and said straight up that he hates dialogue, so he uses it sparingly and lets the visuals tell the story, he lets the subtleties in the actor's performance convey what needs to be conveyed.

And there are several moments watching Dune Part 2 where I noticed characters hadn't spoken in a long time, but not a beat of where the film was going was missed.

Everything was conveyed perfectly, and when a film looks as good as this, it's a joy to sit through.

Now, if we are going to praise the film's visuals, which we of course are, credit must be given to cinematographer Greg Fraser, who before this film had worked on films such as Rogue One, The Creator, The Batman, Dune Part 1, all of which are visually some of the best films of the past decade.

Between Villeneuve's direction and Fraser's cinematography, this is simply one of the best looking films I have ever seen.

The colour palette, despite being mostly set in a desert setting, is vibrant and interesting.

CGI is used when needed and not relied upon like most blockbusters these days that tend to look like a shitty video game cutscene more than anything.

Denis Villeneuve is responsible for some of the best science fiction films of recent time, with Arrival perhaps being one of the best, and of course Blade Runner 2049 being right up there too, one of my personal favourites.

And there's no doubt in my mind that he's gone and added two other contenders with Dune Part 1 and Part 2, and I think Part 2 may just be his best contribution to the beloved science fiction genre as of yet.

So, let's dive into the details of Dune Part 2.

Why is it so good?

So the basic gist of the story is we pick up straight after the events of Part 1.

Paul Atreides has spent more time with the Fremen, Paul battles with visions that only he can see whilst those around him question whether or not he is the saviour that they think he could be.

Paul is then left with the dilemma of choosing between his love of Shani and the fate of the universe, all whilst the Harkonnen who killed his family tighten their grip on Arrakis and close in on the Fremen, leading to an epic climax.

That's the story in a nutshell.

It's ten times more nuanced than that, but of course we're trying to keep things relatively spoiler free here, because you need to go and see this movie.

Movies like this need to do well, otherwise we're just going to keep getting that factory line superhero crap that we've been getting the past few years.

So again, if you haven't seen the film, please go and see it, that's the whole reason this video is spoiler free.

Anyway, it must be said that Timothee Chalamet is absolutely incredible in this role.

In the first film he played this nervous, timid young man, and we see a lot of growth for his character across the journey, but throughout part 2 we really see Paul completely transform into a character that demands power, demands respect that can be followed.

Seeing that transformation play out mostly through visual storytelling with a major powerhouse dialogue scene sprinkled in between was honestly incredible.

In the first film I really liked Paul, you know he was likeable and a decent enough protagonist to latch onto, but the character became ten times more interesting in part 2 as things got more complex, relationships were formed, and by the end I was completely on board with everything he was saying or doing.

I was getting actual chills by the end of the film when he'd stand in a room of people and shout commanding, inspiring dialogue, which is something as someone who didn't read the book, did not expect to come from this character.

And Timothee Chalamet delivers these lines with such power and gravity that it's honestly hard to not get on board with the cause.

So, when you lead into the films climax, you are right there with it, you are invested.

Now, this film obviously deals with a massive ensemble cast, I mean just look single character is integrated into the story with extreme precision, every single character serves their own unique purpose, nobody necessarily feels wasted.

Some get less screen time than others, such as Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken's Emperor, but the time they do get is extremely important, there's no fat on the bone here, it's all meat.

Like, it's an incredibly long film, it's nearly 3 hours long, yet I still don't think there is anything I'd cut.

Characters that do get a lot of screen time, such as Rebecca, Shani, Baron Harkonnen, Stilgar and Gurney all work extremely well to help propel the character journey we go on with Paul in this film.

Each character serves their direct purpose, it never feels like they're just there, because well, they were around in the first movie, they might as well be here now, which is something that a lot of major films with huge ensemble casts end up doing.

Characters were only around in Part 2 when they needed to be.

There's a massive Hollywood name in this movie, I'm not gonna spoil it for you, it's one of the biggest names around right now, she's in the movie for 5 seconds.

If that doesn't tell you characters were only on screen when necessary, I don't know what will.

My point is here, to simplify it, there is no time wasted, and for a film that's almost 3 hours long, that is rare to see.

Films that long can often get overindulgent, have scenes in place because the director can't drop their ego, but there's none of that here.

It's just a different kind of sci-fi blockbuster.

Now, a lot of people have talked about Austin Butler as Faye Rauther, and it's for a good reason.

Austin Butler is kind of just the guy right now, and although it took him a while to enter the film, when this dude shows up, things go to the next level.

He's a brutal sociopath, he kills without reason, and he's brought into the film to essentially put an end to the Fremen as things haven't been progressing as well as the Harkonnen had hoped.

And when he enters the movie, things just dial up to 11, and the film becomes even more entertaining than it already was.

So, although the film is without a doubt a slow burn at times, much like Part 1, when it gets going, it does really get going, more so in the sequel than the original.

That's what I love about these Dune movies though, they are a slow burn, and because of that, they're not going to be for everyone, which is fine.

But a lot of people these days are afraid of a slow burn because they don't have subway surfers at the bottom of the cinema screen to keep their TikTok induced minds occupied, and I love that this movie just doesn't give a shit about that.

It has a story to tell, and it'll take its time in so because that's what the story requires.

It will let those small unspoken moments linger, creating a more immersive and authentic journey as opposed to something to stimulate your mind every 5 seconds, although trust me, you do get that stimulation, some of the action here is absolutely unbelievable.

But the scope of this world, the lore, the visuals, are just next level because everything is just so rich, well thought out and executed.

Like this movie managed to actually give me chills because a dude rode a worm.

Yes, I know that sounds super sus, actually saying that out loud, but if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I mean.

I think Denis Villeneuve with Part 2 managed to do what a sequel should do, seamlessly continue the story from the first, all whilst upping the stakes, upping the action, the character journey, the story itself just going bigger, bolder and grander than its predecessor.

The first film was burdened with setting up this incredibly rich world, establishing the characters and conflicts within it, but Part 2 was free of those constraints and can just let it all fly.

This is what a blockbuster sequel should do, it honours and builds off what came before, it respects it, instead of trying to subvert your expectations and derailing itself like many major blockbuster franchises tend to do nowadays.

Again, Dune Part 2 is just different.

There were times where I was watching this movie where I was instantly slapped in the face with realisation that this is cinema.

Now yes, I know it's kind of a meme to say that at this point, with Martin Scorsese shitting on Marvel movies, even though he's absolutely right, let's be honest, but we've only really had a couple movies on that blockbuster scale in the past few years that truly made me feel like I was watching something that was just on a different level, Oppenheimer being the most popular and recent of all of them.

I've seen a lot of people say that Dune Part 2 is one of the best science fiction films of the past decade, and I find it incredibly hard to disagree with that.

But when you bring it into the discussion of best sci-fi films of all time, as many people have in fact claimed, I think that's where things are a little more up for debate.

When you think of the greatest science fiction films of all time, just to name a few, you think of Alien, Aliens, Terminator 2, Blade Runner, and of course the list goes on.

Like you are in serious of competition to even compete with sci-fi films of that calibre.

And I think Dune Part 2 is definitely somewhat in that conversation.

I'm not going to make as bold of a statement to say that this film is as good as the sci-fi holy grail films we just mentioned, but I think it definitely has a place in the conversation, which I think is really impressive.

Denis Villeneuve's Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 made a massive ripple in the sci-fi space.

Dune Part 2 has definitely made another one, and it's perhaps the biggest one of the three.

It's probably one of those cases where in 20 years time we look back on Dune Part 2 and really can say without it sounding ridiculous that it's one of the best science fiction movies in history.

Recency bias of course comes into play if we were to make a claim on that level today.

Because let's be real, the films that stand the test of time and remain beloved over an extended period of time are the ones that we consider genre royalty, and we're always quick to dismiss the possibility that a brand new film could even rival a 30 or 40 year old masterpiece backed by nostalgia, status and time.

For example, many people actually claim that Blade Runner 2049 is better than the original Blade Runner, which I'm not going to lie is a claim that I don't mind and I'd love to have the argument, but just saying that out loud it feels like the mob are going to come after you.

So I feel like Dune Part 2 is one of those films that people might scoff at the thought of it being one of the best science fiction movies to ever exist, but I think in time that notion will grow stronger and stronger.

A recent comment I saw about Dune Part 1 and Part 2 is we're actually seeing a modern day Lord of the Rings level franchise play out right in front of us and we might not even know it yet.

And I actually found that comment to be really really interesting, because there is no denying the quality of this franchise, Part 1 didn't sweep the Oscars for no reason and Part 2, it's probably going to do the same if not better.

We're undeniably seeing a major franchise of insane levels of quality play out right in front of us, and given how Part 2 ended, no spoilers of course, it is absolutely open for a third installment to cap off a trilogy, which really could install that notion that we are seeing a new iconic film trilogy on the level of Lord of the Rings being established here, I mean we're two thirds of the way there already.

Denis Villeneuve often gets labelled as one of the best, if not the best sci-fi filmmakers working today, but screw that man, he's just one of the best filmmakers working today period.

Don't believe me?

Go watch Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Prisoners, Sicario, this guy is next level.

What he managed to build and establish in Part 1 was simply phenomenal, but the way in which he took that and ran with it running alongside the source material, and made it palatable to people who know nothing of the source material, like me, is masterful.

There is no way before seeing this movie that I would have wanted to dive into a book about people with blue eyes that ride sandworms, but I'm genuinely about to start reading the books.

The only other franchise that has ever, ever made me do that, is Game of Thrones.

And at its peak, we all know how good Game of Thrones was, we just, you know, pretend season 8 never happened.

But what can I say, honestly, these Dune movies stuck with me, long after the credits rolled, which is a true sign of powerful cinema.

So, to bring this one all together, Dune Part 2 is a science fiction masterpiece.

Bringing together an incredible and nuanced story with characters that you can't help but sympathize and love, as well as characters that you can't help but hate.

Not to mention incredible direction from one of the best filmmakers working today, working in tandem with one of the best cinematographers in the business, and the always incredible Han Zimmer bringing this world to life.

Dune Part 2 is an improvement on its already outstanding predecessor, and is a blockbuster unlike what we really get to see in the modern day.

And I think when more time passes we'll look back on this one as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

Please, go and see it.

We need more films like this.