Dune 2 has been in German cinemas since yesterday. But can the long-awaited successor keep what it promises? We have summarized the first reactions for you.
Image: Warner Bros.
For once, critics and audiences are in agreement once again. Dune 2 receives absolute top ratings not only from professional but also from normal cinema goers. The film has a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes in both the “Tomatometer” and Audience Score. This immediately secures Dune 2 a place among the best-rated films of all time.
It looks similar on other platforms. At IMDb the average is currently 9.1 out of 10 possible stars. And that’s after more than 28,000 reviews, mind you. Only Metacritic is a little out of line. Although the user score there is also convincing (9.2 out of 10), the meta score is surprisingly low at 79 out of 100.
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What is being praised?
“Dune: Part Two is exactly the film that Part One promised to be, the rare sequel that not only surpasses its predecessor, but subsequently improves on it… One of the best blockbusters of the century so far,” says Polygon’s conclusion . Weaknesses that were evident in part one were successfully eliminated in the sequel.
The visuals are breathtaking, the action scenes are absolutely gripping and there is also an emotional depth that was missing in the predecessor. Many describe an “oppressive atmosphere” in the cinema – but in a positive sense. It is a great art to combine action and emotionality as well as in Dune 2. The excellent film music by Hans Zimmer plays a significant role in this.
What is being criticized?
Of course there are also critical voices. CNN’s conclusion says: “Part 2 gets entangled in the political density of author Frank Herbert’s world and marches unevenly through this part of the story before coming to a rather abrupt end.”
The Hollywood Reporter also draws a comparison between the book and the film. “The second part suffers from a nagging superficiality when it comes to its depiction of the Fremen, an indigenous people fighting for self-determination within the Empire; the film struggles to fully capture the nuances of Herbert’s anti-imperial and ecologically dystopian text.”