The first great movie of 2024. While that’s ittedly a low bar to clear (“Better than Madame Web, you say?!”), I also think it’s better than the first movie. It addresses all the major criticisms of Dune: Part One to make a film that’s faster, livelier, funnier, and more intense to really stick the landing of this story (while still leaving the door open for an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sequel novel, Dune: Messiah).

Oddly, by addressing those criticisms, I think these films will work even better as a duology. If Part One is chilly palace intrigue while acclimating to Arrakis, then Part Two is the life of the Fremen with the tension surrounding Paul’s choices, questions of faith and control, and the fate of the universe. Part of that is payoff, but part of it is simply moving the setting to the desert and forcing our characters out of their comfort zones. It makes for a thrilling sequel that I’m eager to see again on the big screen