By The review embargo has now lifted for Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” and the response is superb with some calling it the first awards-calibre major film of the year.
With 90 reviews counted, the film is sitting at 97% (8.7/10) on Rotten Tomatoes, a rather incredible number and considerably higher than its multiple Oscar-nominated predecessor at 83% (7.6/10). Of those 90, only three were negative.
Here’s a sampling of reviews from top critics on the aggregate site:
“A sci-fi epic for the ages: a sweeping tragedy of mythic proportions, a cautionary tale of the perils of zealotry. It’s a towering feat of sci-fi cinema that will put Dune: Part Two in contention for the pantheon of greatest sequels ever.” – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
“Villeneuve has outdone himself. More importantly, he’s done justice to the scope and scale and sheer weirdness of a stoner-lit touchstone’s back half without, pun intended, sanding away its edges.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone
“After somewhat laboriously placing those chess pieces on the board in the first Dune, Villenueve and co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts send them into strategic alliances and conflicts, and the results are often breathtaking.” – Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“Villeneuve has made a serious, stately opus, and while he doesn’t have a pop bone in his body, he knows how to put on a show as he fans a timely argument about who gets to play the hero now.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Part Two picks up where the first instalment left off, literally and figuratively, delivering another stunning set of gorgeous visuals and exceptional action sequences.” – Tim Grierson, Screen International
“Stands in stark contrast to so many other shallow blockbusters of recent years.” – Matt Singer, Screencrush
“Plagued by a nagging shallowness when it comes to portraying the Fremen… the film has difficulty fully embracing the nuance of Herbert’s anti-imperial and ecologically dystopian text.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
“Not only does this new movie pick up exactly where the last one left off, it also carries over the strengths and weaknesses that made the previous chapter so astonishing to look at but stultifying to watch.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire
Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux also star in the film which is all set to be biggest release of the first quarter of the year.
“Dune: Part Two” opens in cinemas everywhere on March 1st.
The post The “Dune: Part Two” Reviews Are In appeared first on Dark Horizons.
