Got around to watching Dune 2.

Been on the list for a while.

Two things stopping me.

  1. Paul
  2. Chani

Let’s be clear: Denis Villeneuve's vision of Herbert’s books makes me love movies again.

Visually stunning, the storytelling is deft, and caputures the immensity of the vision while still making it about smaller stories.

It’s what the MCU could have been before Marvel bloated the genre with cash grabbing nonsense.

I don’t find Chalamet or Zendaya relatable.

It’s watching a couple of kids who got lost on their school’s field trip to Joshua Tree and stumbled into a military recruiting depot, ending up on the front lines because someone screwed up the paperwork.

Their casting as fierce warriors is slightly less believable than Pauly Shore’s war epic, In The Army Now.

I knew that from the first movie, so no surprises.

Bit more surprising?

That I could thank the Marine Corps for my ad-free experience.

Pop quiz: which force do they represent?

  • Harkonnen: bloodthirsty sadists who kill with impunity to gain power.
  • Sardaukar: bloodthirsty minions of the Emperor who kill with impunity to maintain order.
  • Fremen: bloodthirsty fanatics of Paul Atreides who kill with impunity to bring about a new order.

Killing in the name of an emperor, a prophet, or a country: it’s all still killing.

Everybody’s killing someone.

It’s all just a matter of charter.