Cinepals - DUNE: PART 2 Non-Spoiler Review!

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

Jaby Koay and Achara Kirk share their non-spoiler thoughts and review of Dune: Part 2.  Dune: Part Two is directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Arrival, Bladerunner 2049) and stars Timothée Chalamet (Wonka), Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Euphoria), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One), Javier Bardem (Skyfall, No Country For Old Men), Josh Brolin (Avengers: End Game), Austin Butler (Elvis), Florence Pugh (Black Widow, Oppenheimer), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Catch Me If You Can) and Stellan Skarsgård (Andor, Thor).    The video version of the podcast as well as other movie reviews and reactions are also available on our youtube channel www.youtube.com/@cinepals.   SOCIAL MEDIA ~JABY KOAY~ Twitter & Instagram: @JabyKoay   ~ACHARA KIRK~ Twitter & Instagram: @AcharaKirk

What's going on, everyone? I am Jabby Kouye, joined by Achira Kirk. What's up? This is our non-spoiler discussion for Dune Part 2, directed by Denis V. Nouve. Did I say it wrong? No, you didn't, you got it right. Okay, it stars, Timothy Shalema, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Batista, and Christopher Walkin. I almost said Nolan for some reason. Stellan Scarsgard. It's remarkable. What a stellar cast that they got here. It's continuing where Dune Part 1 left off.

Achara, why don't you take it from here? So, yes, it is continuing where Dune Part 1 left off. Young Paul Atreides, finally getting in with the Fremen, learning their ways, and also stepping into his destiny and the prophecy. There are some posters that you can see if you're watching the video and not listening to this on the podcast. There are some posters behind us.

At some point, all of those posters will be Dune posters. All of them. Dune Part 2 is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. 30 minutes in. I'm like, this could be another one that's just up there in the top tier. I love this movie as well. The first one, I remember watching, just feeling absolutely floored. What a cinematic experience that was, and especially to get to watch it in IMAX.

At the end of June Part 2, I was gutted because all I wanted to do was just sit in the theater again and just have them replay it. Yeah, for sure. Because I just wanted more. I kind of compare Dune Part 2 to like a very beautiful, smart woman. There are some things that go over my head and she's like, I talked about that. I'm like, I'm sure you did.

I just didn't understand what you were saying. But dang, you're beautiful and so many things you're saying is so smart. There's a lot of information going on in the film. It's one of those things you kind of have to watch a couple times and you might want to revisit Doom Part 1 in order to fully get what's going on in Doom Part 2, which I like, I like that there is a bit of the onus

on the audience to keep up with what's going on and it's not just totally handholding you through and through. Denis Nevehnev is a very intelligent sci-fi director. He knows how to capture you with the visuals and the world building, right? And right away, you're into it. Also with the music and everything. Like, the Hans Zimmer score is incredible. So you're already like, oh, my God, I'm so invested in this world.

And it's so easy to kind of get wrapped up and caught up in looking at everything that's going on because it's just beautiful. But then also, you know, there's a lot of information that is being relayed. I feel like he gives just enough so that you're intrigued but also still kind of keeping track. Almost right away, I was like,

this is definitely better than part one. I guess I can only make it akin to the experience that people had with Godfather. You know, you watch Godfather 2 and they're like, how did you beat Godfather 1? You know? And it's like you need Godfather 1 to appreciate Godfather 2.

Absolutely. You cannot have one without the... You can't have part 2 without part 1. Yeah. Right? And that's the same case here, I suppose. Although I did think about it while watching and I'm like, could you have just dropped us in the beginning of this story and

would we have been lost? And I think that there are certain details that you definitely would miss, but I feel like the film still did a really good job of being somewhat self-contained. You know, you follow things through. They catch you up enough in the beginning. You're like, oh, I can kind of follow. Obviously, you're going to get way more information and be able to appreciate the story a lot more if you watch part one. Yeah, I think with part one, it gives you a sense of like exactly what's going on, the political climate, and you get to hang out with the characters for longer, so you really care about them more. That's a foundation, yeah.

Exactly. It's a really strong foundation. And so when you get into part two, you're like, I'm already at a nine. Yeah. So part two pushes it over to like a 12. Sure, sure, for sure. With Denis Vinov. Yeah, Vinov. His films, like, they don't rush Blade Blade Winner 2049. It was like, that felt like a slow film. With Dune part one, I remember thinking, this is slow, but I am enjoying this thoroughly. It doesn't feel like two hours and 40 minutes, but it still feels slower. Now, with Dune Part 2, what makes it different from Part 1 for me is how economical it is with its use of that two hours and 40 some change minutes. With Dune Part 1, I feel like there is a version where I'm sure there were some Wonder Brothers execs

who were like, could we like compress this to two hours? And I'm sure there's a version out there like that that exists. And you could conceivably do that. It wouldn't be the same experience, grant you that. But there is a way to do it. With this, I don't think there's a way to compress this to two hours and it makes sense. No. So much happens. So much happens in the two hours and 40 minutes that by the time you get to the end, you're like, that was two hours and 40 minutes? That's crazy because it feels more like two hours. I was actually a little bit concerned because I guess I didn't know that there would be another part, but there has to be because I mean, while you say it is self-contained, there's a whole other part to this story. And like, I need to know.

As everything was like ramping up, I was like, there's no way they can fit more in this. Yeah, yeah. They've already put so much in here, but not in a way that felt like, oh, my God, you know, it's rushed or anything. I think, like you said, it just feels economical. Yeah. What I mean by it itself contained is like, just like the first film, it's like, yeah, there's more to tell, but it did a fairly decent job of getting me invested in what's going on. And then leaving it in a place where it's like, okay, if the story stopped here,

I still feel like I got a substantial film. It feels like a proper chapter. Yeah. It's like a full chapter of this character's life or his arc. Yeah. And that's done for that part. Yeah. You know, where Spider-Man across the spider, yes, across the Spider-verse, where it cuts off.

It's like, I feel like I got half a film. Because it was. Yes. You know, they just stopped you halfway through the story because they did. And it felt like that. And it was very frustrated. It's like, I love the film. But I mean, when people ask me, like, how did you feel?

I'm like, well, I don't know how I feel because I've only seen half the movie. Here, you feel like you've got a whole thing. Now, as far as the direction goes with Deney, he's just such a magical filmmaker when it comes to how he points the camera. Like, if you're paying attention to it, from the very first time you see things going down, he does some Spielbergian things that I really appreciate. The first time we're on the dunes, the sand. Yeah.

It's like a long take of like a lot of things going on in the frame. And it's just rack-focusing between different actions happening. And I was like, this is so cool. Like, so much is happening in camera. If you guys have ever been to the desert, it does feel like that, just the expansiveness of it. And what I love about how he directs this movie is that he loves to use those, like, massive shots where you get to feel the full scope of how big the desert is and how small and insignificant you are when you're, like, just standing in amongst the dunes. You can see so much and you really get a sense of like Arachis when you're watching it.

Yeah, I want to piggyback on that and talk about scale. You have a character in the foreground to give you a sense of scale and then this enormous thing happening in the background. And it's awesome. And it happens like five or six times in the film and I'm like, how the hell did he do this? Because it looks surreal. For the most part, I'd say 99% of the film, the CGI looks stellar.

Yeah, it's stunning. And one of the things I love as well is just how everyone involved in creating this movie, this story, they created worlds that were characters upon themselves, you know, like, Iraqis is very much Iraqis with the colors and the sand dunes and everything. And then when you go onto other planets, they have their own personality as well, and everything just feels very specific. In that specificity, that's where the magic happens. And it's like, oh, my God, I'm in, I've been transported. You know? He's one of those few directors like Nolan who has the ability to paint a beautiful

picture while demonstrating some amazing action. Like the action is so thrilling in this film. And I think, you know, it has also to do with the fact that you're invested. You're invested in the story of what's going on in this world in Dune. You're invested in the characters and their journey, their plight. And you get invested in the relationships even more in this story than I imagine that you do in the first one. And one of the new things to Dune in the this chapter that I did not experience in the first one is comedy there was like actual comical moments like laugh out loud moments where I'm like wow like he got everything I want in a movie in this movie like all of it there's this stuff that happens in the film it's not a spoiler but it's just

an action thing that they do where they surprise people by popping up out of the sand yeah and I thought that the way that that was shot and executed looked so phenomenal it's like some kind of military thing i don't understand but it feels lived in that's the big thing it's the specificity of all of the the characters and and the groups of people as well right like they all have their styles the costumes the looks everything and so you know exactly oh yeah here come the fremen and they're about to like go crazy with their special style of like martial arts because they've lived in the desert for so long they know all of the tactics to survive so not only are you getting like a great story and great action

and a lived-in world, it also is diving into certain ideas that I would say illicit conversation in real life, in particular about religion. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. Like, I had no idea that was coming. And that is another thing that speaks to me. Yeah, like, and on top of that, there was like colonialism as well and like. Sure, yeah, but yes, absolutely. But the religious aspect speaks to me, if you grew up Catholic like I did and then eventually move away from the church, it hits you in a particular way that is hard to explain to someone who didn't. and go through that. Sure.

And it's like this indoctrination that you're sort of wrestling with. And so when you see the arguments unfolding in the film, I'm like, I know what both sides feel like and look like and experienced it. And the idea of recontextualizing things unfolding to fit your religious narrative is so real. It's like, it's awesome that they threw that into the film as well. Yeah. And I think there's also like very strong themes of what is destiny, how much of it can you control.

What do you have agency over? and all of that. Timothy Shalameh did a fantastic job of portraying the character as he's kind of going through all of those trials and tribulations. Yeah, I mean, his character definitely has, he's going to different places emotionally and mentally

and he's really grown on me as a person. Like, I remember watching him in the first film and thinking, oh, he's pretty good. After watching him in Wonka and then this and seeing what he did in both of those films, I'm a huge Timothy Shalami fan. Oh, God, yes. Like, he is remarkably good.

I bought him completely. And I thought, like, all of the actors did a fantastic job in this. So, one of my minor complaints, because I have four minor complaints, one of my minor complaints is Zendaya's acting. I would say 70, 80% of the film, she's stellar. Now, I know that most people who watch this are going to disagree with me. I am very well aware of that going in. I'm a very persnickety individual, and I'm aware of that as well. Zendaya's acting, I felt like a good 20, 25% of the time.

time. I wish she had done less. It felt like she was going bigger than she needed to. It's like the camera's already this close. There's already enough story stuff to help facilitate our understanding of what she's going through emotionally. I felt like she was giving way too much sometimes. And that's my only acting complaint in the entire film. I know you don't agree with me. I know that you don't agree with me. And so a charl loves everything. I will kill you. I don't love everything. But I like, I really liked her performance. Everything otherwise from her And everybody else across the board, I loved the acting. Harviar Bardem, this might be my favorite role from him.

Oh, God, he was so good. Yeah. Austin Butler, I haven't had too much experience with watching him and being aware that I was watching him. Because I watched a show called the Shania Chronicles. Oh, yeah. She wasn't, the Shinar Chronicles. Yeah, I didn't realize he was in that. Yeah.

You probably heard me say this multiple times. I was friends with his mom until she passed away. And I was friends with his sister until she moved out of this. She used to live, they both used to live in this building. I watch him, I'm like, it's so weird because I, I knew your family. I've never met him. This film was like my first proper experience of watching him and being aware I was watching

him and I was gosh darn impressed. Yeah. He committed a hundred percent. And it was very believable as whatever that's supposed to be. I'm like, I don't know what that is, but it's awesome. Well, yeah. He's Fade Rother and he completely was like, okay, I'm going to make this character and he's going to be just like scary and disgusting and cool at the same time.

He nailed it. for Warkin is one of those actors that I love. I just never know what he's going to give me, you know? And so when I watched him in this film, I was like, okay. All I can say is he surprised me in great ways in this film. He was going places, and it's obviously according to the script, right? And according to what Denis Vee V-Vo wants. V-Nov.

According to what Denis Vinov wants, like, it's all based on that. But I thought that his performance was actually really cool. cool to watch. Because I've gotten so used to watching Christopher Walken just be Christopher Walken, you know. Yeah. The Christopher Walkenness was like a little bit pulled back. Very much. Yeah. Very much. One of the most standout characters in any Dune film is the music. And it was unbelievably strong here as well. I was hearing more like electric guitar in this score than in the previous one. It was different. There was still, there were still aspects of the previous score that were included,

but there was a lot of new music that was also really incredible as well. I loved it. The music was just so special and so new the first time around that it's hard to beat that, right? I'd say that at worst, part two's music comes remarkably close to the quality that I felt with part one. Well, I think as part one with those amazing vocals paired with the drums and the way it like vibrates, through your entire body, especially if you're watching it in a movie theater with an excellent sound system, which we were lucky to do. It wasn't like anything we'd ever heard before. Yeah. And so you can only have your first time once. Right. And so, yeah, I think it was just

so special, like you say, that part two, it's like, okay, yeah, it's there again, plus others, but that was the most unique thing. Well, I noticed that the iconic Dune sound from part one was dialed back and it wasn't as present in part two and i think that has a lot to do with just hansimmer's personality more than anything i think he's very well aware of what gets copied or made fun of in the zeitgeist because after inception he noticed that that sound that inception has was being duplicated everywhere like everyone was using that sound yeah because he's a genius right and so he i i feel like he sought to really uh depart from like in many ways what he did with part one No, I think it was used well and strategically in Part 2 because it's like connected to certain characters.

Sure. And the story is going in a different direction. And so it makes sense to have different music to reflect that. I understand. But sometimes you just want to hear the Zelda theme song. And it's like, why won't they play the Zelda theme song in the Zelda video game? Why are they saving it for the credits? What the fuck?

Like sometimes you just want to hear the song. And so like with Dune Part 2, there were moments where I'm like, I just want to hear that song again. I just want to hear that sound. Play the music! Yeah. What else is there to talk about the action? Okay, so. Oh, yes.

When you're dealing with like explosions and guns and stuff like that, spaceships or whatever, the action looks great. Perfect, if you will. When it comes to the hand-to-hand combat, that is where I was starting to take a little bit of an issue. The way some of the action was covered. There are certain films you watch, where, especially today, where it accentuates the action but still also allows you to feel like you're part of the action.

And it felt like they were favoring the latter over the former instead of trying to hit both. And I don't see why, with how painstakingly meticulous, everything is in this film, they didn't get the fight scene perfect. Right. I mean, I would say for me, as someone who has a much more pedestrian appreciation of fight scenes than you, I think I was like 90% this is amazing. Like you said, there were certain moments where I was like,

I don't know exactly what's going on here. But a lot of the time, I was just like, oh, my God, this is thrilling. This is gripping. Like, I feel so nervous for some of the characters. And, like, there were definitely, there were even moments. I literally had, like, my hands over my face because I was just like, oh, I'm so nervous for everyone. Yeah. That was the thing is while I was watching the fight scenes, especially, like, the biggest one that's in the film, I had to actively take my martial arts fight scene guy brain and put it over here.

because I was so emotionally invested in what was happening. It was so emotionally charged and the stakes were so high for this combat. I was like, you know what, it's fine? Like, while I'm not happy technically, emotionally, I'm still there. And I think that's the most important thing, right? Because you've often said so yourself that a fight scene should tell a story.

It shouldn't just be a fight scene for the sake of like, oh, we're doing some cool choreography or like cool camera angles or whatever. Story should come first. Yes. And so definitely in the fights and the movie overall, it's like the story is the most important thing. Yeah, and I think they hit that pretty strong. Yeah. It's just like when you're watching a film and you just like everything is so perfect, it's like for that to be the thing that falls short, it's like, oh, it's so frustrating.

But it was only like just a minor fall short, I feel. But those are really important scenes. That's the thing. Like the scenes are so, they're not throwaway scenes. they're super important and that's why I'm like oh damn it oh so close so close movie so close I don't want you guys to think like oh the fight scenes are bad because they weren't they were for the most part they were very very good and very engaging I had to disconnect a little bit from some things I was noticing like like placement as opposed to it feeling like there was momentum

like I'm going to put my arm here so you can block it things were just not momentum enough it's that simple it's it felt like i'm gonna put my foot here you're gonna react okay keep going like i said the emotions were so strong in spite of it that i just went with it anyway so it's not it's still one of my favorite movies of all time it's just like that's like a little oh that could be better and probably like 90% of you guys are going to be like i don't know what jabby's talking about yeah because you got like i i thought it was pretty cool yeah the other things i can't talk about yeah so that's it the other thing the other The other stuff has to wait for the spoiler review.

This is not to be like the longest non-spoiler review we've ever done, but I feel like this movie warrants it. That's the thing is there's so much to talk about with this film without even getting into anything deep. You're going to be in for a treat when you get to watch it. Anyways, thanks so much for hanging. I'm Jabby Kui. This is.

Achara Cook. Peace out.