I will start this off by mentioning that I’ve only seen the first movie and now the second. I have not read the book; therefore, this review is not going to compare the movie to the book.

Dune Part One had a tough job. The movie had to cover the first half of a huge book and make it accessible to as many people as possible. A movie has that unique responsibility since it is by and large more widely received than books are; therefore, a lot more people who are unfamiliar with the franchise or background of the movie will be giving it a shot. Dune Part One did not do this part all that much justice, however. Dune Part One did the bare minimum; it explained just enough for this movie’s plot to make sense. However, that is not how you build a movie franchise; you need people to understand the worldbuilding, or in this case, the galaxy-building. Star Wars did this properly by starting with A New Hope. A New Hope gave you what you needed in the beginning scroll and thrilled you with an adventure. Think about it, would you care about ten-year-old Anakin Skywalker if you didn’t know he was going to become Darth Vader?

Dune Part Two did not have to deal with this, however, as it was the sequel. Everything you need to know came from the first movie. So I will focus on that from here on.

To start out with, the timing and plot progression of Dune Part Two seemed perfect to me. This is extremely important in a nearly three-hour movie. Part One had a lot of explaining and setup to do, so the plot progression was not the best; they did not make the best use of their nearly three-hour runtime. This movie was set up to be pure action and plot progression, which is exactly what you would expect given the plot; you would not expect any lulls in someone’s grand plan for war and revenge.

Part Two did more to show off other characters’ and factions’ points of view. This alone helped build out the lore and explain the setting to the viewer. We see more from the Harkonnens and even get to see things from the Emperor’s point of view. While it does not hand you every detail of everything you see, everything that does get brought up does get explained. The movie even throws in a plot twist.

While I may not be all that well-versed in the extensive Dune lore, I’m excited to see where the movies take us next. Right now, it looks like it should continue right where it leaves off, which happens to be a very exciting cliffhanger. The movie is also not just emotionless action—it follows the typical sci-fi characteristic of exploring morality in situations we cannot find ourselves in at the present. The plot is, in essence, a tug-of-war on Paul Atreides’ conscience, something that he is thankfully aware of.

All this boils down to a wonderful and engaging adventure that I eagerly await the next chapter of. I highly recommend Dune Part Two, even if you haven’t seen Part One. The movie gives you plenty to go off of and is a great enough standalone experience that you don’t technically need to see the first one. That’s just how great it is!