what is going on there citizens of the reject Nation we are here right now at IMAX headquarters
as we just had our real reject private exclusive Dune part two event this was something that uh
we were so excited to be a part of I'm not like a shill for Studios but if there's one thing I would
be a shill for IMX probably the IMAX experience oh 100% I I saw like The Dark Knight and iMac like
10 times this was before the channel ever exist existed on IMAX the way I would explain why it's
important to see this movie on IMAX is because there are films that are converted to be able
to be screened on IMAX and then there's the other Camp there are movies that are specifically shot
with IMAX cameras Dune part two is one of those films meaning this is the version it was meant
to be seen in definitive they shot this whole movie with IMAX camera so you get that expanded
aspect ratio you get the best quality the best sound this is not me just doing the hype train
this is literally the version that our director our director captain my captain V I still not
pronounce his last name he intended for us to see it in this format and for a movie like this which
is so much about sensory immersion experience it more than delivers and enthralling you in that
experience it envelops you in the frame we want to talk about the visuals we want to talk about
the story we want to talk about cast there's a lot that we got to dive into but we got a
limited amount of time we're going to be here for let's just dive right into it guys so yeah
it picks up immediately I would say like two and a half minutes after there's a counter after the
first movie leaves off where you have Paula trates Timothy shalamay and Rebecca Ferguson
they're venturing off to learn the ways of the fman people and then you got the heart conin or
Harin I've hear two different pronunciations right G what is it is it hard conin I think harinen is
what people agree upon we're on a limited amount of time we got to getkin final answer so we got
the they want to continue spice production but they also want to wipe out the F there's a whole
lot of political Warfare and all these things happening right now I don't know where to begin
because the movie is so like overwhelming so let's just get the most obvious thing out of the way the
visual experience here the visuals here they're carrying over from what we got from Dune part one
whatever you saw from there they are expanding upon it and you get to see some other parts of
the Galaxy I just want to talk about the sand the the writing the sand worm scene could like
this sequence I think is going to be talked about for such a long time the way I would liking it and
it's strange to say but you know whenever you see Tom Cruz doing these like crazy stunts and
you're like wow they got the camera there you get to really feel like you're with really feel the
perspective of this death defying act right now yeah yeah yeah it evokes that exact same visceral
response as an audience member yet it's not real but it feels real you know yeah absolutely like
that it speaks to just that level of immersion and the way that the movie does take its time to
really live in these events and things like that so that you can feel the struggle the growth of
the character in a physical form because it's not you know the talkest of movies necessarily
especially when it comes to the content and that's what partly is so great is you do have
these breathtaking scopic moments of action that also you know are rousing in a character sense
in the sandworm sequence is movie Magic it's movie Magic and there's more movie Magic to be
had there's a little bit more action than the last movie and there's a variety of different kinds of
action set pieces but they're always grounded in the emotionality of the characters everything is
so much about the emotion first and foremost and that's what makes for the most rewarding action
scene so while you're getting these like beautiful visuals laced around with this impeccable sound
design I don't know who the cinematographer is I I always think every wants Roger deacons when
it looks good but I know it's not Roger deak I almost I I wanted to commit his name to memory
because he shot I believe in this get the first dune so like there's such a a beautiful pet of
colors and visuals across this frames obviously as augmented by the scope of IMAX but really like
the composition and the way it brings you into the world is impeccable I haven't read the book you've
read the book or you've read most of the book I've read the book but I mean there are people
who know the book much better than I do I've shotgunned it The Once and did my best to hold
on you know well when the credits were rolling you said something John is the best at putting into
words what I'm trying to say that's what usually happens in these discussions I ramble John says
it efficiently following after my ramble you you give me everything to work with and then I spit
out a cube that's how we work together the first movie this is how he was saying I'm just trying to
say what you're saying there we go is that the first movie has like a lot of political angles
and there's a lot of political commentary while you have like the benesty and a little bit more
of the magical stuff secondary or third and this movie is a bit of an inverse now the political
stuff is all still there the magical side and the the mysticism is way more at the Forefront and at
the same time it surprised me because it's so much of a deconstruction of Prophecy and relig religion
deals so much with power uh how religion can manipulate take control of people that it deals
with fanaticism so much on its mind that is not in a black and white context it even though there's
some great black and white scenes in here but it's not true it's not it's not all orange there's so
much on its mind that it's kind of crazy to see a blockbuster that follows up the first one while
doing themes that can be like controversial to touch on uh because you know religion is a very
sensitive thing but this is a madeup religion so maybe there's a way they can do it but you
metaphor all right seen thise someone read the book like this is chosen one this is Timothy
he's going to rise to be the special and you know lead some new age of salvation for these people or
whatever reset the balance of life in this galaxy Den villo has talked a lot about how he wanted
to honor the original intention of Frank Herbert which was to make it a cautionary tale to to make
this more of a tragedy to deconstruct that myth rather than just give you a direct translation of
it you know and weirdly being prepped for that before watching it I thought actually made the
film more effective the movie is long in the first hour of this film is so much with really showing
Paul at trades earning his way with learning the culture of the fman when occasionally you
cut back to the har conans on their Planet you could really see like Light Side Dark Side you
see you know literally but there's so much Beauty with the fman that you're like oh wait but Denny
keeps saying it's a tragedy so you kind of just like worry and and the way it does come upon you
it's an Insidious way it creeps up on you it is tragic and it is unsettling like this is one of
those movies that I'm like wow for a blockbuster as beautiful as it is it does leave you with a
feeling of not like cheering it leaves you with like a almost Disturbed feeling even though the
it's not disturbing visually without spoiling the movie yeah yeah you're you're like what is the
achievement you know like are we truly ascending or is this turning into something more twisted or
is this turning into something that could could be treacherous you know and and they let you Teeter
at times on that you know question especially through Paul because he is the center figure of
so many of the circumstances that are happening I think with that in mind Timothy shalam is an
actor who can often go a little bit back and forth for me this is one of my favorite performances uh
he's ever done I really liked him as Paul tradies in in Dune part one but specifically here he goes
through a very distinct transformation needless to say I thought he was powerful in a lot of scenes I
think for the most part he's a very powerful actor there's a lot he has to kind of sell you on with a
certain level but especially in the last half of this movie and for me it really worked it works
again so much in terms of the story the characters the themes he's aware of the programming that he
has had his whole life and and so much of this is about can you fight against your programming
can you fight against quote unquote manipulated Destiny what happens if you try to go against that
and you could feel this like internal struggle and what happens if you try to surrender is it should
you surrender and I think he carries the weight of this film so much on his shoulders that it was
the most impressive one of the most impressive performances I've seen him do I liked him more
here than they did in Wonka that's usually what people will say when they walk out of this movie
is is po traes or won which one there very two different sides of sham right there I but I agree
no I think the transformation he goes through is is is really strong and as somebody who you know
saw the first movie was like yeah he's fine I like him he's he's fine was one of our disagreements I
remember yeah like I I thought he gripped me more here and like the position his character is in it
makes sense why the character is the way that he is and I thought that the Transformations here
and the questions that he's grappling with were pretty compelling and made that character grow
in a way that felt very tangible to me and yeah just watching somebody try and figure out like
where am I in this whole system of things can I take control of it can I impact it in a way
that takes some weight off of my conscience and maybe creates a better path forward and I think
that's a very compelling question to ask while also watching someone physically transform in a
way that might be counter to that there's a lot of Shades he has to play and I think he's well
cast here Zena gets like five minutes more screen time than the last no she's way more in this film
that was something I was a little bit I don't know if the right word was apprehensive but I
was that was a little apprehensive yeah the first movie yeah you have such mysticism surrounding her
so like what's it going to be like when you're just actually with her as a character and is
it going to feel perfunctory is it going to feel forced because there's so much like Destiny love
between the two of them I think they have really good chemistry and some of my favorite scenes are
actually with them because so much of what this movie builds upon without going into spoilers is
their relationship specifically Zinda brings a very naturalistic quality to the performance she
works off Timothy shalam really well their romance is so important and integral to the overarching
themes and she also represents a different side of the fman because they make it really distinctly
clear that there's two sides to the fman here the ones who really believe in in in the one what's
the word the one to save us I forget all the fancy D made so smart she's not one of the people who
believes in that so while there's the the romance with Paul trates she's not drawn to the the
mythological things he's just a man to her then you got Javier bardam's character coming back here
who does believe in those things who is of the more fundamentalist sect yeah and Javier bardam
is he was like funny in the first one man he is surprisingly hilarious at time a lot of jokes in a
way that doesn't pull you out of the movie though it it actually works oh yeah yeah yeah he he is an
interesting presence because obviously he has his Stern Javier Bardem quality but he does equate to
one of the most welcoming and warming presences throughout the entire two movies I think what
people really want to hear about too Austin Butler my man I I mean I thought he was pretty terrific
I mean he doesn't spend a heck of a lot of time on screen but he is a a feral creature of a character
most certainly he's Matt Smith meet Stell and scarg guard what he's doing in this movie yes
he is there was a detail I thought was nice that they add to he's like well this is Guy directly
related to stellen scars guard so we better have that accent and the the trailers do tease a fight
between between him and Paul he has it quite a few times I would say the emotion to that
fight was like gripping as hell yeah absolutely what's going happen this is a movie where where
the action sequences very much have like that emotional weight and that's a lot of what drives
them they might not be as extensive maybe as you would expect at certain points some some of them
are certainly but yeah there's always that heft of the circumstance and Rebecca Ferguson to me is a
very underrated actress uh still there's a line I remember in the first movie where they say someone
says to her I think it's Oscar as like you know you're I know you've been working things through
the Shadows but you don't see that in the first movie oh my goodness and then here you really
get to they pull the curtain back on that and you get to see what they mean by the power of the Ben
andester who work in the shadows CU you're cutting between three camps here the fman Paul dealing
with like Paul's the center of it all the freman the har conin and then you got the benesty Rebecca
Ferguson's role here commands the screen she may be my favorite performer across both these movies
is cuz again the way she embodies the character the struggle of the character the weird mantle she
has to occupy in being a conduit for these various prophecies and whatnot and that's the thing about
the the shifting tone of the political nature of the movie is you see that like the politics are
almost like short-term circumstances and then the mysticism the stuff that Benny jesser the
stuff that she is directly involved with is like The Guiding hand of all those politics
across Generations in a in a really wild way and she's able to carry all of that in a way that
feels quite believable but also very emotionally resonant all right John we got two minutes and
we got to get here so we got to speed through the criticisms that we probably have about this movie
or like M criticism about it uh Dave Bautista to me was one of the little disappointing parts of
the film to me I felt like they really set him up in the first movie and here he just kind of felt
like yelling angry Drax and you want more yeah yeah and we've seen Dave Bautista do a variety
of roles at this point for that story he's been telling about Den Vu was one of the first people
who came to me on set and was like you are such a you know expressive performer lean into that
you know to not really have that utilized here is a bit of a bummer I know the character of Austin
Butler's comes in in the book but if I didn't know there was a book I would feel like oh they just
like they should have given this screen time to day Bautista it does feel like they trim him down
for that to give him because I think this movie even though it is a long movie it doesn't feel its
length at the same time there's this other version where I feel like it probably could have used like
an extra 10 more minutes to like flesh out a few more choices the movie makes sure yeah especially
there's like a plot twist that comes inett I mean not plot just for book readers but like
there's a big reveal of sorts that I didn't see coming and when it happened I was like oh [ __ ]
for the journey here for the time we were here in the film maybe I'll get more from it on the
second viewing I didn't quite understand the the the point to incorporate it in this like
at the time it happens I'm like oh [ __ ] but in the by the time I like I don't really understand
why that's here in this film yeah there's certain things that that carry context that's worthwhile
but that might not exactly hit narratively the same way you would expect my other last thing
that I probably had a a little bit of a a gripe with was that in the first movie I felt like
the har conens were posing and scary like truly villainous you felt their presence throughout and
this movie has a bit of a different structure in terms of how they spend their time cutting between
stories and maybe that had something to do with it maybe because Paul's also this like snowball
effect of always upgrading throughout this entire experience I didn't really feel like they were as
scary while there's a lot of tension in this film while there's a lot of suspense a lot of gripping
things that have a different kind of horror that was a missing quality for me it's easy to forget
a little bit about just how Treacher and evil they are meant to be or or portrayed as being
when you have mostly just their foot soldiers to deal with throughout a lot of the early parts and
mid parts of the movie until kind of later on one thing I would say is like I'm very excited to see
how this unfolds for me on a second viewing it is a middle chapter to something so you do have
that sort of interesting effect of like okay this is kind of finishing the one book but it's clear
that this is going to continue this is at least going to be the two towers or the Empire Strikes
Back or whatever or the best DC movie since the dark yes and uh and so like I could see like the
first movie he just has all this discovery and has all this stuff you're being introduced to
whereas here you are spending a lot a lot a lot of time on araus you're going even deeper into
some of the more sort of theoretical aspects of the story and so I could just imagine maybe not
having the same level of like Sheen in terms of like oh my God this imposs everyone Hypes up how
impossible this book is and now that we know it's not impossible there's just a different impact
upon you know going in again so not to say that even if you have high expectations they won't be
met but you know it is there's like a layer that doesn't apply anymore because we know that this is
you know something that we're capable of doing and doing well I feel like this is definitely
a film much like the first one that will unfold on repeat viewing and give you more the more you
give to it oh a th% at times I think the PG-13 rating does work against all his throat slicing
minor criticism and then for a movie that feels like it's rated R yeah and uh Christopher Walkin
is good but I always felt like I was watching Christopher Watkin those are like minor things
everyone's good and this is still like it's not just a repeat of visuals from the last experience
this is totally no they build on it this is one of those movies that you have to go to theaters
to watch it yeah there are some visual flares that are beautiful that aren't what you're expecting to
they find a way to give this film its own visual tone and language with some more subjective other
kinds of imagery that are really breathtaking and if you can see it on IMAX again this is do
yourself a favor do yourself a favor go get lost in this world anyway reject Nation are you excited
for the Dune part 3 I know I am um because it it has to come it just has to at this point leave
your thoughts down below uh thank you to IMAX again for having us and we'll talk with you all
soon