MOVIE REVIEW: Dune: Part Two

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Yo, this is Botter Milligan of this short box podcast and you are now listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone, welcome to episode 147 of the Oblivion Bar podcast, the official podcast of the fantasy shop in St. Charles, Missouri. I am your chosen one who shall bring about the holy war, Chris Hacker. And joining me this week is the only man who can make even a Benny Jesert blush, my co-host and BFF, Aaron Knowles. Long live the fighters! Free Arrakis! I don't know if you guys can hear Aaron just elbowed his mic, but he got excited because There's a callback to a Princess Mononoke. Welcome everybody to the Oblivion Bar podcast. This week on the show, of course, Aaron, what else could we be talking about this week other than the next installment in the adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel, Dune? Of course, this is gonna be the talk among many moviegoers. Aaron, we'll get into it here in just a bit. I don't wanna talk about it too much because I want actually just to kind of speak about this off the top. I want to speed through our news and notes, Aaron, that way we can finally get into this movie because there's a lot to talk about. Aaron, is there anything you want to say to kind of tease the listener about your thoughts? Don't give it away, but just tease. I'm excited about the sans and the spice on Arrakis. And I'm just wondering what the Mwadib is up to. Mwadib. That's a good walk in. Good job, Aaron. Did you have that ready or did you prepare for that? You know, I honestly didn't. I was like, I was thinking about it because when I was in the theater, I, were you working on it while you're watching the movie? No, I mean, I thought about it, but I was laughing when I heard him on screen. I just, I lost my shit. I audibly laughed and I, I didn't care this time because we've had multiple conversations about how shitty people are in movie theaters these days. And it was no different. Literally had a guy on the phone during Dune. Yeah. That's the unfortunate part about big movies like this is that it will bring out the filthy casuals who don't know how to act in movie theaters. I had a similar situation. We'll talk about where we saw this movie at, but the theater that I was in didn't have like the reclining AMC regal seats. I know, right? Oh, hashtag first of all, I know I'm telling you it was, it was a true drag, but this woman behind me, the seats did recline though. That's the thing. They like kind of, they were like plane seats. So he just reminded me. She just kept like leaning, like Anytime something cool would happen, she'd lean back and like exclaim. And I was like, it kept hitting my knee like this, like, yeah, exactly. Okay. So the person down the, like the row behind me kept putting their feet on the seat in front of them, which was in my row. It was like three seats down and every time they did it, it would go, what are you doing? Come on. Zero self-awareness, like no empathy. Fuck you. That's all I can say to people like that. Like you literally have no frame of reference whatsoever. I'm pretty sure the guy that was on the phone was the same person who like every five minutes was like Oh God. All right. Well, we'll talk about it here in just a minute. Let's talk about how people can support the show. Everyone, of course, we're on patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod for your contribution and support. You can have access to the grid, our patron, exclusive weekly bonus podcast episode transcripts, early access to these episodes you're listening to right now. And Aaron will give you a special shout out at the, at the end of each oblivion bar episode. And it is the best way to support the show. Hell yeah. Get so many frees, so many free things, you know, we take care of our Patreon members. because you guys take care of us and everything that we get goes back into the show. It is nothing that we keep on our own. It is all to make it better for you, for the programs who are subscribers to the Patreon and David. The programs and David. Shout out to David getting a shout out on the normal show. Usually it's on the Patreon show. Yeah, and we've actually got like a pretty good surge of new patrons, which is really cool. We've gotten like three or four in the last week or so, which is incredible. Thank you all for joining us. And kind of along with that, you can listen to Patreon exclusive content on Spotify. Just go to our Spotify page. At the top of that, there's a banner there. You can click, sign in, and bam, the grid. Early access to these episodes. Anything specially put out on Patreon will upload to your RSS feed on Spotify. I love how easy that is now. Yeah, super easy. I love how easy it is. Support the show the easy way over on patreon.com forward slash ability bar pod. The easy way. Aaron, give me one more. Give me a walk in News and Notes. All right, Chris. Are you ready for the news and notes? and notes. Odd news and notes segment. I'm just kidding. Our news and notes segment is sponsored. That's too much Chris for walking. We gotta levy the walk and talk. You never go full walk and. No, you can't. Our news and notes segment is sponsored by Omnibus, backed by some of the top publishers in the medium. Omnibus hosts an extensive backlog from Image Comics, Boom Studios. I don't know why I separated that. Boom Studios. Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, Ahoy Comics. Titan Vault and many more. If you can't hear my voice, I got a lot of good sleep last night. And most importantly, Omnibus supports in-app purchases. Download Omnibus now on any iOS device and follow them on social media at the Omnibus app. Omnibus, buy fans for fans. First up, we have DC Comics has officially moved their new comic book day back to Wednesdays. Aaron, round of applause. Let's get a round of applause in the mics. Thank God for Detective Comics and your move here. Announced that Comics Pro on February 22nd, DC made many comic book retailers and readers very happy by announcing that on-sale dates for its new books will return to Wednesdays in July. The news was announced by DC sales manager for the direct market, Dustin Kitchens. The company changed to Tuesday on-sale days in May of 2020, in part to its shift away from Diamond Comics distributors as its distribution partner in favor of lunar distribution. The move was seen as controversial by a number of retailers. with the remainder of comic publishers continuing to release on Wednesdays. And we talked a little bit about this before the recording. This is a no brainer, right? Like this is incredible news. Yeah, but I I'm more curious about your perspective. Okay. Cause you've worked in the retail portion of comics. So how does this make it easier for the comic retailer? Explain that to me. Okay. So basically every Tuesday and I'm speaking from my perspective from 2019. So everyone, as you know, as you heard from at the top of the show, official sponsor of the show is the fancy shop. That's where I worked for two years. I have nothing but great things to say about the fancy shop. And a lot of my, you know, thoughts on Diamond was because of my time there, the fancy shop. And why this is good for retailers, for local comic shops, is because when you get those all those new comics on Tuesday, because Wednesday is New Comic Day, what you have to do is you have to go through you have to separate all the trades, all the single issues, all the toys. all the merch, everything into separate piles, then you have to organize it and get it ready for being put out on Tuesday evening. What DC did when they moved everything to Tuesday was basically you made that extremely tenuous and tedious process twice a week for comic book stores. You had one day for just DC, and then you have, I would say Monday, Monday for DC, and then Tuesday for everything else. And it was just, I'm assuming it was just a madhouse at comic shops. So I'm... curious, because, okay, so to give you some background information for me, the comic stores that I usually go to, they only put stuff out on Wednesday. Like they wouldn't do like a Tuesday release. They would just do. Like they would say like, Hey, these are the comics that are coming out on Tuesday, but they would still put everything out, you know, sell it on Wednesday. So I never, I mean, maybe, maybe that was a later on adjustment, but yeah, I never saw anything ever sold separately on Tuesday. That was probably just the comic book shop making an executive decision. Go, no, we're not doing this. We're not putting out our comics on Tuesday. They there's something special about new comic book day. They call it a Wednesday warrior for a reason, right? Like there's something great about just going to your local comic book shop and just browsing those shelves every Wednesday. And I understand what DC was doing, you know, back in 2020 to kind of help out lunar and their process. But I think they've been with lunar long enough to where they can go, okay, we're becoming somewhat of a burden in the comic book world. Let's go ahead and switch this up and go back to Wednesdays. So that way everything's kind of dress, right dress and kind of uniform with the rest of the comic book world. Cause the last thing that we need in comics is someone going rogue, you know, like all one front. We need everyone on the same page. Unless it's Mark Brooks drawing rogue, then we're good. Yeah, yeah. Mark Brooks on rogue is good. Yeah. But any, like when it comes to the sales of comics everyone needs to be on the same page because yes, I don't remember who exactly said this. Forgive me if I'm misquoting here, but Comics have been on the brink of destruction and it's most popular since its creation. Like it has been both of those things since it became a medium. So what I find amazing though also is like it's held on, like it's held on the, and I love it. The fact that the comic book industry has held on to physical publications still. Yeah. Because as somebody who's worked in published news, I've been a part of many. print publications that have gone the way of just strictly digital because it's not cost efficient to continue to print. And if you look at old school comic books, man, what was in the back of them? A lot of advertisements, a lot of advertisements, and we don't really get that these days. Nobody's really advertising in comic books anymore. So it's not like a lucrative way of advertising anymore. You see some like you'll see like a Snickers ad every once in a while, but you're right. Absolutely. It's mostly just other comics advertising within comics. You know, if you're reading a Scott Snyder book, a lot of times you'll get advertisements for his other books and other publishers. How would you feel if you went into a comic, you're reading comic and all of a sudden like on the back page was just a bunch of advertisements? Like, would you feel nostalgic or would you be like, this is stupid? I don't know. To be honest, I nothing takes me out of a story more. then seeing like a full splash page of a big book. And then the next page is like an ad for USAA or something. Like that's why we- Why are we like just like at the back end because- Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that'd be fine. You know, that's cool. Like I get it. We do it here on the show. I think this is a weird deviation, but like we have sponsors and I think if it was up to me and we always partner with companies that we use and appreciate and know their quality. And we, you know, we love the product that we're selling, It was up to me. We would just talk on the show. Like if we could have no sponsors, that would honestly be the ideal situation. But if we're going to have sponsors, because we got to pay, we got to pay the bills, right? That's what Patreon's for. That's what, you know, the sponsors are for. It might as well be something that's pertinent to the listeners and to us. Right. Absolutely. So Aaron, take us into our next bit of news here. We're going to stay with DC. Awesome. We got some interesting news from James Gunn on the recently and also long expected Superman. movie that's coming out, formerly known as Superman Legacy, it's been retitled, okay, to just Superman. Yeah. Cool. Shocking. He also revealed our first look at the iconic S David Corrin Sweat's version will sport. Here is what Gunn said in a post on Instagram, overjoyed to be announcing the start of principal photography on Superman today, February 29th, which just happens to be coincidentally an unplanned. Superman's birthday. Uh, yeah. When I finished the first draft of the script, I called the film Superman legacy by the time I locked the final draft, it was clear the title was Superman making our way to you July 20, 25. And so, yeah, we see the, it's an interesting, I'm sure people, the listeners have already seen it. It's the beautiful red S that has like the, you know, almost, I mean, not almost, but very connected ends of the S. So very much referential to what we're going to talk about in a second. This reveals that at least the S takes heavy inspiration from Alex Ross's design from his and Mark Wade's classic 1997 else world's mini series, Kingdom Come, which Chris, you talked about many times on the show. Iconic. You love that run. Superman will launch the live action section of DC Studios, Gods and Monsters storyline. It's currently scheduled for a theatrical release on July 11th, 2025. This could change because of Marvel Studios, Fantastic Four. film, which I think they said is either same day or like a week. No, it's two weeks after it comes. So Fantastic Four comes out towards the end of July of 2025. And I could definitely see one or both of them kind of switching that around, moving around a little bit, because we'll talk about it here in just a minute. We talk about Dune, but 2024 is a very interesting year for movies. And I think what a lot of studios are doing because of the WGA and SAG after strikes from last year, they have completely reshifted their movie schedules, timelines. Yeah, absolutely. And what I'm seeing for 2025 is that it's going to be, we're going to get a complete influx of, can I say like IP type of films, you know, franchise driven films. This is like a re shuffling of the board because we saw a little bit of, let's be honest and Aaron, we're in the business of comic book movies, franchises, all the things. I think we can confidently say that some people are feeling a little worn out by some of the things that we're seeing from Marvel DC. Otherwise. Well, we got it. We weren't, we were in a slump. Yes. And we're, we're on the, we're on the egg. We're exiting. I think we're exiting that slump. Yeah, I, I agree. And it's because of this though, it's because they're taking the time to restructure some things and get out of the formula. There's a definite formula to what comes to these movies. And this next year, I think we're going to see something different. The interesting thing that I wanted to kind of talk about also with the, everything that's being shifted is where we had, uh, with nothing going on, these, like the writers and these producers and all these people who actually give a fuck had a nice break. They got to kind of like look and do like a reanalysis of the superhero, the film industry, what was good, what was bad. And they got plenty of time to either change some ideas around improve them, take a step back, maybe shelve some stuff. So I'm really looking forward to the, and it's unfortunate that we had to have this whole COVID and then the strike for SAG and WGA, but what's going to shake out of it at the end, I think is going to be a lot better for the audience, the customer and the industry itself. Yeah. Agreed. 100%. Let's get into our last bit of news here. Disney, I know you save this for yourself. You did this. You saved this. You did. You did. You want to take it? Intentionally, you son of a bitch. Go ahead, Aaron. Will you please? No, no, no. I want you to announce our brand new subsection to the listeners. I'll glance the subsection. OK. And then you go into the news. Look, it's all about making a connection and meeting in the middle. That's relationships, everybody. Tip to tip. That's right. Not to butt. All right. Disney releases the first look from Tron Ares. That's right. Big. Big news, everybody. Yeah. Leading up to the release of Tron Aries in 2025, just like we talked about, 2025 is going to be a great year. We are introducing a new subsegment of the show. Hashtag Trontok. If there's something to say about Tron, we'll talk about it here because we live for the programs now Chris Go into some Tron Ares news, please. Alrighty We have Ares is being helmed by and forgive me if I'm saying this name incorrectly Yokim running does that sound correct? I say it's a Joaquin Okay, Joaquin running and he's the director of Pirates of the Caribbean dead men. Tell no tales Maleficent Mistress of Evil and con Tiki Aaron are you you're giving me looks You're giving me looks here. Is that not good? Is that not good news? I, okay. I liked Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales. Sure. That's the one with, and I'm not looking at Javier Bardem. Is he the bad guy? Yes. And we'll talk about here in a bit. Fucking phenomenal. That guy is amazing. Okay. I love him. Uh, but yeah, I definitely not the most well-received of the pirates films, but still I enjoyed it. So sorry. Sorry for interrupting. No, no, you're okay. Con Tiki, I'm looking it up right now because I'm not familiar with that either. Okay. Maleficent, you know, obviously it was... Oh. Angelina Jolie. Thank you. Oh my God, how do you forget Angelina Jolie's name? I like Maleficent. I love the Maleficent films. So I'm not saying I'm expecting anything bad from this film, but I don't like this is, I'm already nervous because of... the low reception of both Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man Tell, Tell No Tales. But I think it's like the fifth or the sixth. Yeah. Somewhere. And, and then Maleficent. I don't know what Contiki is, but I'm hoping maybe it was well received or it's going to be well received. Cause I've never heard of it. It was Oscar nominated, but it was kind of relatively unseen. It was a foreign film from 2000 and I think it was 2012. Yeah. That makes me nervous. It's a little nerve wrecking. Like they're just like, who, who hasn't done something in a while? Wakeem? Okay. Can I make you a little more nervous? Yes. Jared Leto is gonna star in the film. Oh, we already knew that. Yeah, I know. We already knew that. The film follows a highly sophisticated program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with AI beings. The image came, there was an image that came from this announcement, and running actually said, "'I'm excited to be part of the Tron franchise "'and bring this new film to fans around the world.' "'Tron Ares builds upon the legacy "'of cutting edge design.'" Technology and storytelling now more than ever it feels like the right time to return to the grid now My main concern. Well, there are a couple concerns number one. Where's Daft Punk is Daft Punk doing the soundtrack? No, because they're broken up right now Aaron. They're not even a band anymore, which stinks but That's that's red flag number one Jared Leto being attached this red flag number two. I don't hate Jared Leto I think he's usually fine in most of the movies that he does if not slightly over-the-top, but he's not a bad actor I'll say And then like we talked about running kind of headlining this whole thing is slightly a little a little nerve wracking, but you know, anything could be good, right? Like who knows? So the supporting cast though is very interesting. So we have Cameron Monahan who is from Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and Shameless. We have Evan Peters from American Horror Story and Wandavision. Greta Lee from Past Lives. Jodie Turner Smith from Without Remorse. Hassan Minaj from The Daily Show. I think he was a host for a bit. And then Gillian Anderson from the X-Files. So pretty good. I'm more you say Gillian Anderson. I'm on board. We're back. One of my one of my childhood crushes. We are so back. Gillian Anderson's in this movie. It's going to be it's gonna be a Mary. Well, and I love Greta Lee too. Because Greta Lee Aaron, I've told you about past lives many of times when I favorite movies of last year. So that's definitely cool. We love having Peters. We love Cameron Monahan. All that's cool temperature check on Aries. How you feeling? I'm going to be excited no matter what. I mean the The teaser photo alone looks super bad ass and right up where we're looking. The only thing that throws me off a little bit about this is that we don't, I mean, if you look at the design, that's not your regular identity disc. Right, yeah, it's kind of like a triangle type of disc. Yeah. Yeah, so. So. So this must be like an AI type of program. Okay, so, you know, Core was an ISO, and that's what those creatures were in the first Tron. were ISOs weren't, wasn't that like an AI? Perhaps that'd be considered an AI. Yeah, maybe, um, an isolated out, I think it pretty much stood for like isolated algorithm, I guess we'll see, but maybe, maybe the artificial intelligence is one that is actually created intentionally versus the ISOs being unintentionally created and just kind of blooming. So we'll see. Maybe this is created from the ISOs perhaps maybe the ISOs created a version of AI in the grid. And then this Aries is what kind of came about that. Or it's just from a whole new system. Could be. Yeah. I mean, Aaron and I will tell you, I'm sure listeners of the show will know already that we're huge fans of Tron. So we'll be excited about this. We'll bring you another round of Tron talk whenever that eventually when we get more news, where's the Flynn? That's what I want to know. I would be very surprised if we see deaf bridges in this movie. I don't need, we don't need the flip. We just need a Flynn, a Flynn. What was the, what was the truck from trial and legacy? What's the son's name? I'm forgetting already. What Sam? That's right. Yeah. I wouldn't even mind seeing Olivia wild in this. That'd be cool too. So, Yeah, of course you wouldn't. You know. We want Olivia. Olivia! Alright everybody, that will do it for our News and Notes. Once again, thank you to Omnibus for sponsoring our News and Notes segment. Aaron, let's travel to Arrakis, get in your weird... What are these bugs called? What are they called? Like the dragonfly thing? Dragonfly ships. Put your head in the box! Let's get into our review of Dune 2. Before we do that though, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey everyone, Aaron Knowles here, co-host of the Oblivion Bar podcast. Have you ever wondered how you can support those who have served or serve our country currently? If you have, listen up. Shred the Stress is a non-profit that I started which is dedicated to supporting the mental, emotional, and physical health of our military communities using one-wheels, electric scooters, and other personal electric vehicles. You can support several ways, following us on social media at Shred the Stress on all platforms, donating to paypal.me forward slash shred the stress. or even choosing Shred the Stress as your Amazon Smile supported nonprofit. That's right, you can support Shred the Stress with every Amazon purchase. For more information, please go to shredthestress.org and if you need support, never be afraid to reach out. Let's talk about Dune 2. Aaron, spoilers ahead. Spoilers for not only Dune part two and Dune part one, but also some of the book as well. And I think this may be a good opportunity since we're saying this. How much of the books have you read? Because I know you've owned a lot of them. I've seen them at your house, but I don't like where's your relationship there with the books? I've read most of the first one. I haven't finished. I think I've read the like most of the first one, like two or three times. It's just so much like the sands of Arrakis, it's so dense and dry and dry and soul sucking. I'm not going to say it's a bad read. It's just not like, there are so many other things that I would much rather read. Yeah. Maybe this is the, what do you call it? Like the catalyst. This is the catalyst for me to actually go through and finish it because I feel like a nut. No, I feel like I'm missing out like on so much of the backstory in this movie. We'll talk a little bit about it because there are definite hints for the future. I want to say really quickly, same in terms of the book. So everyone listening right now, if you're expecting some kind of true insight from comparison of the books to the movies, sorry about you. This is about the movie. This is about the movie. We'll talk a little bit about the books, but both Aaron and I have read very little of the Dune books. So I think where I stopped was right around the time where Paul and. Shani are kind of like getting familiar with each other on Arrakis in the first one. So not even like halfway and kind of in a similar boat as you, Aaron. It's just a lot of names, a lot of places and a lot of adjectives. And I just I had a similar experience with Game of Thrones when I first read it. It was so dry and I just could not find a like a grasp on it. I couldn't wrap my head around the world and the significance of what was happening. And it wasn't until the show and House of the Dragon came out that I went back and read. Fire and Blood and I've read the first two books of Game of Thrones. And I agree with you. It kind of allows you to ground yourself because you understand when, you know, Frank Herbert is describing Arrakis and describing the significance between the houses, what that actually means while you're reading it, instead of like reading it, knowing not, not a thing what's happening and then having to reread it again. There are certain books that you can read and it's easy to, for your, um, your imagination to create like this landscape and these, and these places and these people. But Dune is one of those complex stories that honestly, in this day and age, it's a little difficult to imagine, like all of this in the middle of one book, which, you know, thankfully we do have the original Dune films. We have I mean, I don't know if you're aware there is a Dune television series that I believe is based off of his son. Yeah. His kids will talk about children of Dune. Yeah, we'll talk about your decision, which is in the book series as well. Messiah of Dune. Like there's a whole, there's a lot of books that, you know, it's a big series. And so I don't know, maybe again, maybe this is the catalyst for me to finally dive into the sands of Arrakis, like, you know, uncle Scrooge into his money and just, you know, go for a swim, like a big old sand worm. Well, I guess this is just, this is our excuse of saying that Aaron and I have a couple of smooth brains and we don't know how to take on high fantasy, but let's get into our thoughts on the film. So Dune part two. Aaron, what are your initial thoughts on this film? And we haven't talked about this at all, by the way. Everyone listening right now, we have not, we didn't text about it. We went and saw it basically at the same time on Thursday night, right? Yeah. So what are your initial thoughts on this movie? Epic. Yeah. I mean, immense, immensely epic. It's really hard to sum up this film. I mean, to be honest, I don't even know how long it was. It was- Two hours and 47 minutes. Oh man, it didn't feel that long. No, not at all. Shit. I, what was I watching that? It felt like it just would not matter. Madam web was just under two hours. That's it. Madam web was like, I like this, that felt twice as long as, Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But yeah. I mean, what'd you think about it? What were your feelings like walking out? It's, it's incredible. Yeah. Epic is a good way to put it. It is, I think going to be a staple for filmmaking for the next 10 to 15 years in terms of like practical the way to properly do CGI, cinematography, sound design. Everything about this is just base-filled and filtered to a point where, I think it's truly a testament on Denis Villeneuve, who we'll talk about here in just a moment, the director. The way he understands this property and the ensemble of people that he's surrounded himself with Hans Zimmer for the composition of music and the cinematography, I'm forgetting the cinematographer's name, I'll look it up here in just a moment, but everything about this movie, it feels like a level up for Denis Villeneuve and what he's done in his career. We'll talk about Denis Villeneuve and his kind of filmography throughout time. And it's funny to look back on it now because it feels like everything leading up to Dune Part II, including the Dune movie from 2021, was all in preparation for this movie. All of those movies did something or a couple of things really, really well. And what he does with this movie feels like a culmination of all of that, right? There's very few films that actually create an epic landscape, an epic adventure, an epic, like, again, like you said, high fantasy feeling. And that's, and this movie does that even just being set on one planet, you feel this cosmic adventure. And that itself is an epic feeling. It feels like, like if you think about yourself as just one of the P one of the, uh, the Fremen, you know, you just, it just feels like this entire universe is out there. And it's all coming to like a culmination in this moment, in this film. It's just, it's, oh, it's almost overwhelming, but it's still a beautiful feeling. And then throw on top of that again, Hans Zimmer and his, and his, and his score in this, as this, the scores, it felt like there was not a silent moment. Like there were silent moments, you know, quiet moments of this. Especially at the end, the fight between Fred and Paul. But. You don't feel it. You don't feel, uh, there's never a moment where you're left wanting for some kind of sound or music or you just, it's never an awkward moment. It's never an uncomfortable moment. It just all flows so nicely together. Quiet to, to apexing, like symphony to just, it's, uh, this is a, I'm sorry, I know I'm rambling, but this is a soundtrack that I would absolutely purchase on vinyl. Yeah. Gorgeous. Absolutely. Yeah, and actually so I want to go back a little bit Greg Frazier was the cinematographer He did zero dark 30 rogue one dune the first one dune part two and the Batman and the creator so Duh like you hear all those movies and what it's the first thing you think of Atmosphere right like those movies are they feel lived in like you were just saying a moment ago They feel real in the sense that like not many movies do I mean there are plenty of movies that I can think of I thought my head that I love that just don't have a sense of There's no base. There's no sense of reality around them. And I think from the very first scene of this movie where you have the Fremen being hunted by the Harkonnen, the threat level is real. Like the, the people around like the Harkonnen, the way they're hunting these people, it all feels very practical. It all feels very like these people are truly at risk, maybe outside of Paul and Lady Jessica, who we know have to live throughout this movie. We got to put on our film brains and go, of course they have to be in this movie, but like everybody else feels like they could very easily be killed because they're up against it. Yes, that from the first from scene one and I know we'll get into it, but from scene one, there's that part where the Harkonnen like sort of start to levitate because they're running away from a sandworm. Yeah. Like that was the initial moment where I just kind of like, I'll be honest, it almost took my breath away because I was like, oh my God, like you started floating. Did you think that it was practical? Were you like thinking, was that practical or was that CGI? Did you have that thought in your head as that was happening? I didn't even think about it. It just looked so perfectly done. It was so fluid. It was so like, like everything in this movie was so well done, whether it was cause again, we have films out there that are so jarring when it comes to the CGI and practical effects and the transition between the two. Yeah. And none of that occurred in this movie. Right. There's not one CGI like scene. where I didn't fully believe it and I wasn't in it. Yeah, I think I'm just gonna like, we can, you know, I'm gonna end my personal statement here with the fact that not a single time was, if it, well, I'll say this, if it weren't for the people in the audience who are making some stupid shit and sounds, I would have been completely invested in this movie. Sure. Like there was never a moment where I was like ready to leave. There was never a moment where I was ready to like, ah, this could be over. Check your phone. And I would. Or whatever. Check my phone, yeah. I would absolutely go back and watch this again. Well, that's a, that's a beautiful transition into how did you see this movie here? Now we talked about it last week on the grid about how this is a movie that you have to see on the biggest, the biggest screen, loudest theater you could find. How did you see this? I actually just saw it on a normal screen. And that's mostly a personal choice because I was kind of, I was kind of having like a bad day. As you know, like I texted you kind of like, I was like, Oh, I'm about to walk into uh, the movie theater. So it was, it was a, it was a, a choice. Cause at first I actually wasn't going to go see it at that moment. And so I just kind of made like a, you know, an immediate decision and went and saw it. Sure. What was the, was AMC regal. It's always a local theater in my neighborhood called Alpine cinemas. And you know, I do really like the staff that worked there. It's like a, you know, it's like a, uh, what do you, what do you, what do you call it? Yeah. Kind of family owned, like neighborhood owned local business. Yeah. Well, so I went the opposite route as we know, I am often about the immersion and the experience and we have a theater here in Indiana, in Indianapolis specifically, the IMAX, the Indiana State Museum IMAX. It is one of 12 theaters in the entire world that can show the 70 millimeter version, which is the version I saw. And it is the absolute top tier best way to watch a movie, undoubtedly. Like I talked a little bit about in the beginning when we first opened up the show about how there was people around me who were being kind of rude. But like for the most part, once the movie started, it felt like everyone was just immersed in the movie. I mean, you look around and people are just like, and it's one of those theaters that you have to look up and down and side to side to see everything at once. You cannot, it doesn't matter where you're sitting in theater, you cannot just like fully soak in the entire movie just looking straight ahead, which is the coolest part about a 70 millimeter. As we know, it's a little bit taller than it is wider. So you get so much more scope, and especially when you get that final battle scene between the Fremen and the Harkonnen and... the Emperor's armies there at the end of on Arrakis. You have these three sandworms kind of going at this. I mean, it's just it was all I did like it is incredible. I'm probably going to have to go see it again on one of those. One of the IMAX screens here in New York is like I don't feel like now that I'm in a like in a better mindset than where I was when I walked into that theater. Yeah, like I am glad that I am absolutely glad that I went and saw it when I did. Obviously, it makes. recording this earlier rather than later easier. Sure. But at the same time, I do feel like I might have missed out a little bit on the sheer scale of it. Yeah. But at the same time, I, you know, I wouldn't take back that first time. A second viewing is always great. We talked about that here on the show as well. Like the first viewing, a lot of times you're looking for, you know, little hints or you're getting kind of swept up in the moment of the story. That second viewing, a lot of times you kind of know what's happening so you can kind of pay attention to the details. which is really cool. I always love a second viewing. So enough preamble about kind of the lead up to the movie, Aaron, let's talk about the actual movie. Give us a summary for Dune part two. Paul Atreides unites with Shani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed house Atreides facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe. He must prevent a terrible future. Only he can foresee. Don't go South Paul. Do not go south. He keeps saying it throughout the movie. He's like, I cannot go south. And the moment he does, guess what happens? He drinks that, oh, I guess I, spoilers again for everybody. One more time, spoilers ahead. He drinks that earth. He drinkin' the juice. He drinkin' the juice, yeah. He likein' the juice. He drinks that blue Gatorade and all of a sudden he's become like this all-knowing, all-being type of guy. So this film takes place just over nine months after the events of Dune Part One, which we know from the Diary. What was that thing that Florence Pugh had a little dial that she has in the movie? It was like a the old timey What do you call them? Like the record player? Yeah. Yeah, like you kind of you turn it with a with a nozzle Yeah, it plays a plays an old nursery rhyme Yeah, it was like a like a log like a like a yeah like captains log start eight twenty forty nine Paul Atreides is attacking my father I just print. I just I just picture Princess Urula is how you say her name. By the way, everybody, we should probably give like a brief kind of like overarching warning that we're going to do a lot of mispronunciations. Aaron is usually the expert with this. We're going to fuck some names up. He's the expert. But I am. I think both of us are going to struggle with some of these words, but we got a budget of one hundred and ninety million dollars for this movie. Looks great. Like, again, we just talked about it. This movie, even with it being a budget of under a hundred, you know, under two hundred million dollars. It was awesome. 90 million of that was those popcorn buckets that everybody wants. That's right. They paid for this movie, it's strictly those AMC worm buckets that they, that was really one. No, no, I didn't see it at AMC. I saw it on iMac. So, and I had no interest. Like I understand the funniness of it, but like it is so impractical, those buckets to stick your hand through all those wires. Like it's already hard to get a like handful of popcorn in your mouth, like in general, but to have like. Sip through those wires. Oh, no, thank you. I saw somebody with a T-shirt there in front of the Dune movie poster with the bucket. And they have a T-shirt they made that says, I'm just here to fuck the bucket. Oh, my God, that's perfect. Oh, so the box office Warner Brothers is targeting 65 to 70 million dollars in Dune Part Two's opening weekend worldwide, which I feel like is going to be. That's a low estimate. I think they're kind of erring on the side of caution. Sure. Obviously, well, I mean, the amount of people that I've seen on social media, word of mouth, we all know word of mouth is like, it's the king. It is the, it is not the mind killer. Okay. And everybody's saying this thing is amazing. The the just the, what do you call it? The reaction videos alone of people walking out of the theater, just like I love them. Yeah. But most box office prognosticators believe that it could generate near the 90 million mark, which I think is a little bit. I still think even that's low. Sure. But well, the highest grossing movie of the year this year, I guess, opening weekend of the year is Friday Nights at Freddy's. They got 80 million. So that's a horror film and horror films a little more broad. You can take a date to go see a horror film, whatever. Like it's also one where a bunch of like it's like a bunch of kids and some young people have grown up playing Five Nights at Freddy's. Yeah, there's like a built in. audience for it, which of course there's one for Dune as well. But as we said at the beginning, Dune is a little dense. There are hardcore fans for this franchise, but it's not something- For the boomers. That's right. Yeah. The boomer nerds. This is like pre-comic nerds. These are like 1960s, you know, like space age nerds. This is almost pre-Star Trek nerds. Oh yeah, for sure. It is. I mean, it is. 1965 is when Dune came out. So this is like space age nerds for sure. And the box office revenues are actually pretty down. this year, Aaron, down 18% from 2023, with the Beekeeper, Bob Marley, One Love, and Mean Girls being the only movies to eclipse $100 million worldwide at the time of this recording. So if this movie makes close to $100 million in its opening weekend, it will be far and away the most successful movie of the year thus far. And that's not surprising. If this movie was to generate less money than the Beekeeper, for instance, that would be a giant loss for Warner Brothers. And it's funny, I wanted to pick your brain on this a little bit, Aaron. Warner Brothers for all of its woes, and there are many, they have had a couple giant movies of the last two years, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and this. How do they keep doing it? They're a hot mess all the time, and somehow they keep making these fucking bangers. What is going on at that, the Warner Bros? You know what? Give it to them, man. Give it to them. Give it to them. Yeah. Who cares? You know what? When it comes to... bangers just coming out consistently. Who gives a shit who's making them as long as we're watching them and enjoying them. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, recently there's not, there's no misses. Yeah. Well, I mean, there have been like mild successes. Obviously the flash bombed horribly. Suzanne fury, the gods bombed horribly. Sorry. I take it back. Yeah. They haven't been hitting 100% but the movies that have been, and Barbie was a critical success and it made a billion dollars. Oppenheimer, Made close to a billion dollars and it's going to win every single Oscar that it's nominated for here in a couple weeks It won a shit ton at SAG. Yeah, I mean it's going to it's gonna sweep So wonder brothers for again all of its woes old zazzy boy over there. Uh, david zazloff This unfortunately is just giving him more ammo to keep doing what he's doing Keep taking movies and shelving them or destroying them outright So, you know, we kind of talked a little bit about how this movie was delayed Of course, it was originally supposed to come out in november of last year but wonder brothers delayed the film because of the WGA and SAG After Strikes. I think for many reasons that was a good decision. Obviously the people in this film wanted to promote this film, so that's good for them. But also, could you imagine the Oscars this year with, I'm someone who like pays attention to Oscar talk and Academy Awards. Could you imagine Doom Part II going up against Oppenheimer? Like those two movies having to compete against each other, Denis Villeneuve versus Christopher Nolan, would be an insane. Like it would make great for talk like we could talk about it for months and months, but absolutely. Someone would get shafted. That's the point that I'm trying to make is that, yeah, those two incredible movies, one of them would not get it. There's not a universe where that's a good award show. Right. Yeah. You're going to have so many people like divided. You're going to have houses divided. That's right. That's right. Aaron, talk a little bit about the Neville new. I think this is a great kind of transition into the director. We talked a little bit about him before, you know, while we're kind of opening up this conversation. But I think it's very important that we spend some time on Dunian kind of his career and what he's done thus far and how again, how it's kind of built to doing part two. So to Neville news, uh, I guess filmography prisoners in 2013, enemy 2013, Sicario 2015 arrival, 2016 Blade Runner 2049, 2017, and then do in 2021. Now I will say what these six films have in common is that they all were, were kind of I would say they're all critically acclaimed. Absolutely. They may not all be the biggest winners. Commercially successful. Yeah. Commercially successful, but they're all critically acclaimed and they've all made impacts, you know, when they were released. So I don't think that there's really a critical way of, of commenting that he's had like really any of these being failures because I don't, I don't see that. Yeah. Well, and do kind of the main debate between, because I think the main debate right now in terms of like modern masters for directors, you know, you still have Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, a lot of these directors still living, but like today's top tier directors, a lot of the two names that get brought up often are Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. And I think the main difference between the two, I would say maybe the only difference between the two in terms of like success is that Christopher Nolan's movies make a shit ton of money. And Denis Villeneuve's up until Dune did not. We're seeing a lot of directors coming out with big hits. early on in their career. Whereas before when you had like Spielberg and Abrams, they had a lot of film. It was like just film, film. And nobody really paid attention because of their name to the ones that were like critical failures versus successes. Nowadays we have a lot of these bigger titles that we're seeing thrust upon younger directors and it'll break their career early on. They'll get blacklisted almost immediately. And to kind of make your point there a little bit, George Lucas, think about America Graffiti. That movie was like kind of critically acclaimed, but made $0 until Star Wars came out. And then all of a sudden American Graffiti is an instant classic. Yeah. It's like a household name now. Yeah, exactly. So June, 2021 received critical acclaim was a commercial success at the box office internationally grossing $435 million, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's also his highest grossing film to date. Dune earned him nominations for best adaptive screenplay, best picture with the film itself winning a leading six Oscars at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022. Villeneuve's films have also been nominated for 28 Academy Awards, winning nine, 21 BAFTA Awards, winning eight and five Golden Globes, winning one. He also was awarded the prize of director of the decade by the Hollywood Critics Association in December of 2019. So. We're talking about one of the most decorated directors working today. Like again, we just spoke on it. The conversation between Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve is kind of an intense one. It's like, you know, trying to pick between Coke and Pepsi. Like some people have preferences, but ultimately I don't think you're wrong either way. Although I will say Coke is better. And I like both. I mean, I truly could not pick between Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. They have films in their filmography that I absolutely adore, both of them, multiple films. I wanted to ask you though really quickly, because this I feel like is pertinent. You know, I love prisoners. Enemy is an early on kind of slept on a 24 film. Sicario is incredible. Also Josh Brolin is in that film as well. Arrival is great. Also was up for best picture of the year. It came out in 2017, or it came out in 2016, is up for best picture in 2017. The film I wanted to ask you about Aaron was Blade Runner 2049. Now, I want to know what your thoughts are on Blade Runner 2049. Still haven't seen it. Haven't seen it. Okay. That was what I wanted to know because people, listeners of the show will tell you, Aaron, you are a, just a true eighties head. You love all things 1980s and Blade Runner of course is a classic, you know, the, the original from that era. The, uh, I mean, it is hard to accept a new one after this long. The thing is, is that this movie doesn't even try to be that movie. Like there, there are very different, there are very specific differences between the Blade Runner. I know I'm a hypocrite from 1982 and this movie. I know I'm a hypocrite, okay? Watch it, dude. People are gonna be like, people are gonna be like, oh, you don't wanna accept a film after this long? Oh, hello, Tron Legacy. Yeah, I fucking know that, man. I know that. Listen, we are human. We are about, you know, we can contradict ourselves. That's fine, you know? All right, when is it? Okay, I'm gonna ask you, Chris, you being the voice of the people at this moment, how long do I have to watch Blade Runner 2049? Let's say until Deadpool comes out in July. You have to watch Blade Runner 2049 before the summer. And then we'll talk about it here on the show. It's a lot longer than I anticipated, but thank you. I'm not gonna make you watch it tomorrow because everyone listening right now, I know Aaron well enough to know that if you give him a deadline or you give him an ultimatum, he will not do it. So. Wow. Is that true or not? It's mostly true. I mean, I know you well enough to know this and I'm catering to you, my friend. I know you well enough to know that if I make you do it instantly, you will not do it. So. By the summer, we will talk about Blade Runner 2049 because I think you will love it. Like I genuinely think that it is, it's totally your vibe, right? My bag, baby. It's your bag, baby. Talk about the runtime, Aaron. All right, runtime of Blade Runner 2049, I'm kidding. Nope, nope. It's a joke. I know, but I'm saying it's funny because Blade Runner 2049 is two minutes shorter than this movie. It is literally, it's almost exactly the exact same amount of time. I didn't even know that. Runtime for Dune 2. Dune part two, excuse me. Excuse me. I'm controlling. It's Dune. It's still Dune. Just part two. It's two hours and 47 minutes. Villanueva said he will not release any deleted scenes or a director's cut, explaining, I'm a strong believer that when it's not in the movie, it's dead. It's painful for me. Sometimes I remove shots and I say, I cannot believe I'm cutting this out. I feel like a samurai opening my gut. It's painful, so I cannot go back after that and create a Frankenstein and try to reanimate the things that I killed. It's too painful. The movie prevails. I think I'm very severe in the editing room. I'm not thinking about my ego. I'm thinking about the movie. I like that. I can appreciate that. It sucks, but I can appreciate that. Yeah, I would love like an eight hour version of Dune One, Two, and Three. Like that would be really cool with a bunch of deleted scenes, but. Again, I agree. Was his face does it with all the fucking, you know, Lord of the Rings movies? Oh, Percy Jackson. Peter Jackson. Our Peter Jackson. Percy Jackson. Peter Jackson. Yeah, no, I agree. It is very admirable that he's like, this is the movie. And I will say, there's a kind of a caveat to that is that some directors don't have that kind of power. Like Denis Villeneuve, he has the right to go in the editing bay and go, this is the movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hopefully the studio trusts him. If anything, if Warner Brothers doesn't at least trust him, then we're fucked all the way around. We're fucked. But like Madame Webb, for instance, I think that movie is bad. And go listen to our review. It is terrible. Like I go into an automatic, like manic, depressed, depressive moment. Whenever we mentioned Madame Webb, that's how traumatized I am from that movie. Like it automatically lessens my energy level. Yeah. Oh, I get it. And but that movie was hacked to shreds like that. It was not only from its pre-production, but like at the end, there was a different movie that they created. And then at the end, Sony said, nope, just kidding. We're doing this because your movie is terrible and we don't want to put it out there and connect it to a bunch of other things. Right. So, Aaron, let's talk about the real main character of this movie. The real worm of this movie, if I can say. The shy Halu. The shy Halu. Right. And then, you know, we're talking about the sandworms. The ancient one. All right. So the essential in creating spice, the Shahalu generally grow to be about 450 meters long, which is about a quarter of a mile. To make a comparison, the largest animal on earth was believed to be the blue whale measuring at only 33 meters or 36 yards or about 7% of a large sandworm's length. Some of the Fremen believed that the worms from the southern pole of the regions of Arrakis could even grow to be 700 to 1000 meters. Holy crap. So that's a long worm. That's a long worm. Yeah. And talking about, you know, the worm that Paul finds during his kind of learning how to ride. worms. Right of passage. Yeah. Aaron, I think you mentioned that it was about a mile, about a mile, mile and a half long worm. He called it a Javier Bardem's character Stilger called it a grandfather worm. So it's an ancient, it was basically a shy Hulud. Yeah. Which, you know, one thing I loved about this, this movie, and we saw it in the first one that the religion that's on Arrakis is very much like kind of a, an homage to like Islam. Sure. So yeah, the it was a mile and a half long and it was one of the biggest that they've ever seen. Yeah. And the reaction of everybody like I think even Javier Bardem at one point says like, oh, not that big. Yeah. I love that. I love the reaction in that scene. Yeah. And it's like Paul didn't even flinch. He didn't like this is the game we're playing. Fuck. This is the worm. All right, cool. This is the worm. Heard heard that. All right. So the smell of the same worm has been particularly documented a strong flinty. cinnamon smell exuded from the beast, especially from its mouth, can be generally smelled as you're approaching it. The approach of the sandworm towards the breach point was often indicated by the dry lightning that frequently occurred in the area by the sandworms, a result of the static electricity being discharged into a positively charged air. So that's crazy, firstly. If you think about that, basically the lame way of saying that is that when a worm is approaching in a sandstorm, it creates lightning. That is wild. The lifespan of these sandworms is supposedly extreme, estimated in thousands of years. Fremen poised to ride the beast as it rolled its open scale toward its highest point could literally mount the worm. As long as its scales remained open, the sandworm could not submerge. Maker hooks, which we see in the film, were placed towards the front of the beast to control the lateral movement. As a result, worm riding became a viable, even sacred method of transport for the Fremen. So go ahead, Aaron, go ahead. I was just going to kind of... I didn't know if you were going to explain it, but like, I, this is something I kind of have researched in the past. And basically what it was is like their bodies are, are almost scaled, scaled. And so when they hook those, those hooks in, um, because you, you see it when he grabs onto the worm, he opens up this, this very susceptible spot and that's nostril kind of like, yeah. So, so the, the harsh sand at that speed of the worm swim, it's going to. Turn. So that part of its body is not exposed, is at least exposed to the sand. So that's why they're able to write it, you know, to write the, you know, the worm so that it's straight up so they can stand on it. And then they throw the hooks, they open them up on either side so that they can, you know, if they want it to go one way, then they basically make a vulnerable, sensitive spot on the left side. And it makes it, you know, it turns away from that sand obviously. So that's how they steer it. Incredible. That is such a cool way to explain it. And I think in that moment, again, being someone who has not read the books, in that moment, I'm trying to understand what Paul is doing in that moment. Why is he hooking them in their nostril? I mean, they make a really deliberate point of showing him hook and then pulling up. And I think a couple of times he misses or isn't able to pull it up all the way. And I just found that so exhilarating. And I found it really interesting in the movie how that scene... is followed up by an incredible scene between Shani and Paul, where they have to take down a couple of these ships. And he basically has to be like a scapegoat essentially. So that way, when the shield is down, when they have that Gallic gun, which is a cool gun, that gun is incredible. I mean, we could talk all day about the design and all the different aspects, what they created for this movie. But that gun, it's like a shotgun, but it's a Gallic gun at the same time. Yeah. Well, one thing that always blew my mind about this, and I would have to research it, But it always blew my mind that, you know, in every, generally in every scientific or science fiction movie that we see in movies that have large scale combat, you see a lot of fighters, like majority of them have weaponry. And in this, it was of, it's not like, there's very few projectile weapons, you know, they're saved for very specific occasions. And the sword play, they're taught to fight like, basically at a classier level, you know, at a more honorable level. Like you see even the emperor's guard have these large, you know, claymore swords. And it's like, I don't know. I, the law, it's just, it's very interesting to me. And, and I, again, so many aspects of this movie make me want to go and read it again. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So I may be misremembering this or heard it incorrectly. But from my understanding of the Dune world is that it takes place far, far in the future and earth was, I mean, it's in our universe, right? It's, it's a far future in our universe. And what they've done is they've disconnected them. I think humans become so accustomed and so focused on technology that eventually it overtakes what essentially what happens is humans start to deviate and get away from computers and AI and all these things. And they start to revert back to more like primal honor systems. Right. Like there's no more computers. There's no more guns except for the Harkonnen, who of course are, you know, they are all about just like overtake. There's no real honor in what they do anyway. So I need to read also because I'm pretty sure. And I don't know if they explain this in the first one or not, but I'm pretty sure they use creatures like worms and because the spice is actually what also allows like intergalactic travel. Yeah, it's a fuel and it's a drug. Essentially, it's like a mixture of like from my understanding, it's like mushrooms and oil mixed together. Right. So, yeah, I definitely need to. I know what I'm going to start reading these. Everybody to know the old Aaron to it. You heard it here live on the show. Episode 147, Aaron's going to read all of them and report back to us. Let's see. So let's I guess you want to get into the cast. Yeah, absolutely. Let's get into the cast. OK, so Timothy Chalamet, Paul Atreides, the exiled Duke of House Atreides, Fremen Siege named Maudib. Wadib meaning desert mouse. So the Fremen also see him as Lisan Al-Gayb. So that was the interesting thing is they were calling him the Mwadib. Almost as like their Messiah, but then he chooses like he chooses a creature that he does not know the name of, which happens to share the same name as the title that he is called unknowingly or knowingly. Yeah. So I think I, you know, it's, it's all very interesting. It bleeds into the prophecy that they keep saying, like all these things keep happening to Paul that are referential to the prophecy that Stilgar and all of his and his tribe believe. And some of it is his lineage and what he was given off the top and like them feeding into this quote unquote prophecy. And some of it happens by accident, which is the more interesting part. So I, and I want to also say this, like the, the Benet Jezaret, who again are kind of, I'm going to call them kind of like Dune's Illuminati. So they are a very powerful sect of soothsayers and prognosticators. They can see the future or they can see possible futures. And a lot of that is based off of the power they've gotten from the worms and also, you know, their studies. From what I do know, and I could be wrong, but this is going to go off of what I do know. the Bene Gesserit have been basically culling bloodlines and kind of breeding to create the perfect like leadership, almost like again, what the Illuminati supposedly do in our society. Yeah, political figures and such. Yeah, create political figures, create people that, you know, again, messiahic like figures, like all this stuff. And the reason that the Bene Gesserit told the emperor to basically have the house of Atreides completely just raised to the ground was because they were becoming uncontrollable, but also they were the most likely to breed the most powerful Bene Gesserit and like, like basically breed of children in the universe. And so that's why they went to kill like Timothy Shalem and the entire house of Atreides because the Bene Gesserit are afraid not only of Paul, but also His sister who is actually, I believe who is part of the prophecy as well. Yeah. You also have Zendaya who plays Johnny Fremen Siege, uh, named, uh, Si'haiya, uh, meaning desert spring, which was a beautiful moment in, in this movie as well. Rebecca Ferguson as lady Jessica, Javier Bardem as still gar leader of the Fremen tribe, uh, Josh Brolin is Gurney Halleck, which I, I don't, I have a hard time trusting Josh Brolin's character. I see the Thanos in him. I don't know. I just feel like his character is I don't know. It's just he's hard to trust. Well, everything he plays, almost every movie that he plays in, he has some kind of like authority figure who kind of works in the shadows a little bit, you know, like again, I made fun of Thanos here, but Sicario is a good example of that, too. So speaking of you brought up House of the Dragon and you brought up Game of Thrones earlier, Daenerys Targaryen, she had that one dude who ended up getting the skin like disease or whatever. He that's his kind of character reminds me of that kind of like from her old life in this new life and kind of becomes like a like a helper, like a vizier. Yeah. And and that's his character is kind of like throws me off like very Jafar. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Josh, Josh Brolin's main role in this movie is basically just to like he's like the last form of true Atreides, the House Atreides. Like everybody else is either like conformed or like Lady Jessica and Paul have kind of like accepted their role on Arrakis. And Josh Brolin is like, we got fucking nukes, bro. We've got nukes and they're right there. They are right there. You see them? They're literally like, we can see them. And you can totally tell the influence from when this book was written and the technology that was available when Herbert wrote this book, because he talks about nukes as being the top of the food chain, which it is the weaponry that the... that is saved and is used last case near, but you can tell like that to him was almost science fiction, like a nuclear weapon. So I find that interesting to look at it from Frank Herbert's perspective as like, oh, the royal family has access to 92 nuclear devices. And also like the holy war too, cause in the sixties America was quote unquote considered like a Christian nation, right? And like the old way. was slowly starting to, I'm not gonna say die, but there was some skepticism finally happening. Everything, I would say up into the 50s and 60s, a Christian family was like your basic. Like you went to church every Sunday, you did all these, you lived a Christian life because that was the way. And it was in the 60s and 70s where things were like, no dude, like chill out, peace out. Like we're hippies now. We don't need to necessarily, like agnostic lives were finally becoming more of the norm. Religion man, bro, bro So Stellan scars guard guys guard. Yep as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen head of house Harkonnen Austin Butler as fade Rautha Harkonnen Baron Vladimir's are Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's youngest nephew and heir Naberon to house Harkonnen Florence pew we all love a good pew. That's my wife. There she is wife she's if we get we get Florence pew and Christopher Walken as the first people we see in this movie and I was like fuck yes, this is my movie right here Princess Eroland. Yep, Dave Bautista who I fucking I'm sorry. I gotta say this I hated Dave Bautista's character in this movie not because he's a dick or anything But just because he's like such a bitch and I'm so used to Dave Bautista being like such a badass. Yeah Yeah, he's usually that like Dave Bautista has kind of true. He has the I would say besides the rock maybe like the true success of going from wrestling to the acting world. And Dave Bautista is an incredible actor and I love his inclusion in the series. And I think the fact that I hate Glosso so much in this movie is because he's an incredible actor. Yeah. It's a testament to him. Like the first scene that you seem is like where he's like, you know, he's the guy's like, I think you should get some sleep, my Lord. And he's just like, Gah, gah, gah. To bash his head into that system, yeah. I was just like, oh my God. So Dave Batee says, Glossy Robin, Harkonnen, nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and older brother of Fade Rautha. Basically he becomes the Duke of Arrakis from Baron Harkonnen. Yeah, they had that successful siege at the end of part one, right? And that's where Josh Brolin eventually gets his. come up and at the end of the movie, at the end of this movie, spoilers again for the end of this movie, but like they have that bout because you know, in the first one, Dave Batista's character gets the gets the upper hand. Yeah. Glasso runs like a little bitch at the end of that. Yeah. He's like calling for Paul. And then they start the frimmons are attacking. He starts just running. Yep. Fuck this. No. Charlotte Rampling as the Revan mother, Gaius. Helen Moyheim. Yeah, it's challenging, everybody. It's hard. All right. Hi. Yeah. And I am. I could watch Charlotte rambling just scheme. Like I love her in this movie and in this role. She is so fucking intimidating. Yeah. Like she's like, I never went to like private school, but I feel like she would be like the perfect like head mistress of a school or like a nun, like a sister in like a private Catholic school or something. She plays crazy bitch. Yeah. So the rumor is that there's actually a Benny Jesoret TV series coming to HBO Max in the next couple of years. And if Charlotte Rampling or Rebecca Ferguson is not in either one of those in any of that, it's going to be like a true disservice to this. Yeah. Oh my God. That when she the entire time when she's talking to Alia, it's just it's unnerving how good she does. I love when Paul tells her to be quiet at the end of the movie and she's like abomination. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Christopher Walken. Christopher Walken as Shaddam Karina IV, the Pardasha emperor of the known universe and house or head of House Karino. You're talking to me all wrong. It's the wrong tone. You do it again. I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron. Is that right? Let me ask you something. Does your mother sew? Boom! Get in a soda! Is your mother so? Get us some spice. You got Leah Sadow as Lady Margo Fenring. Goodness. Leah Sadow. Can we just like no words, just say Leah Sadow again. Leah Sadow. Thank you. Just we need a moment of silence for Leah Sadow and her beauty because she is insanely like I trust me. Austin Butler is public enemy number one after what he gets. In this movie, that whole scene was that the whole Harkonnen, like city scene was so wild, like they're like almost oily. Yeah, they look like the aliens from Prometheus. Yeah, exactly. They look like engineers. So they look like the engineers, but their whole planet, like they when they shoot off fireworks, it's like oil splint oil in skies. It's so crazy. You got Suhila Yakup. as Shishakli. Good job on that one. Thank you. And then you have Anya Taylor-Joy as Alia Atreides, Paul's unborn sister. Spoilers. Who we see. Yes. Who we see. I almost, I mean, obviously Anya Taylor-Joy age, you know, she's, she's born. She's, you know, she's, I don't know. There's something a little incestuous about the look that she gives her brother and says, I love you. Interesting you say that. That's a spoiler for later on in the series, everybody. Just keep that in mind as we go forward. Just so you know, there's things that happen. Stellan Skarsgård's body makeup took 8 hours to apply and 2 hours to remove every day of shooting. Holy shit. He didn't drink anything and took Imodium pills to avoid having to go to the bathroom during shooting days. Denis Villeneuve described Fade Rautha as a cross between a psychopathic killer and Olympic sword master, a snake, and very similar to Mick Jagger? Question mark? It moves like Jagger. Jagger had been attached to play the character... in Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed Dune adaptation in the 1970s. Butler was offered the role while having coffee with Velnu without needing to audition. He trained for four months in Budapest using a fitness regimen made by an ex-Navy SEAL member. What did you think of Fade Rautha's kind of introduction to this movie? We get like a kind of a exposition dump by Florence Pugh. And then we get, again, like you said, kind of this like gladiator sort of like Lawrence of Arabia homage, and you've got these drugged up House of Trady members. One of them isn't right. And then it's kind of like, again, it's apparently Baron's kind of gift to fade Rautha in this, in this moment to kind of like take on and be challenged for a moment. What were your thoughts while seeing it? Cause it's a total like deviation from the way the rest of the movie and the rest of these other, like basically both movies have looked. I think it was, I think honestly it fit really well into the, into the movie itself. It was a very jarring experience, which if you kind of think about the juxtaposition, the juxtaposition of this scene versus the rest of the movie. You have Arrakis, which has beautiful colors despite being this, this desert planet. Yeah. And then you have the Harkonnens planet where it's like this filthy, it's, it's poisoned, it's like they're, again, they're very industrial. They've ruined their planet. They've ruined their environment. Everything's black and white because of, you know, just their, their environment and I guess, cause their son too, apparently it's a black son. So that's like, that changes the pigment of the world. So they're very, I mean, it's almost a gladiatorial society. You know, they're warriors. And so we see this scene where, you know, where he comes into this ring to fight these gifts that the Baron has given him. And I guess normally because he is technically royalty, the enemies are drugged. So that it's not a fair advantage because they don't want to risk his life. Right. Like if one of them accidentally like fatally kills him, then that'd be like, what the fuck? Like it would be a stain on house Harkonnen. But he wants to show himself. He wants to use this true ferocity and that's the gift that Baron Harkonnen gives him. He gives him that moment to let loose and really test his visceral violent, like personality is skilled. He is. Oh, he's very skilled. And he's, but he's, but he's egotistical also right. Prideful. Yeah. And And I think that's what his eventual downfall is because Paul is not egotistical. He's almost his polar opposite. Yeah. And the Bene Gesserit know it because he is another person that the Bene Gesserit have been breeding to become another pivotal figure in the universal scheme. I was going to say he's one of their contingency plans. If Paul doesn't work out. And it's, and it's funny that you mentioned the Atreides is home world. That's beautiful. It's covered in forest and water and it rains. because it's the exact, again, it's very yin and yang. It's the exact opposite of Austin Butler's characters like raising and kind of background. So I think it's really well done, the way that they brought this scene out, the way that they, because he's so violent. Even the way they introduced like his pets, his lovely pets in his room and they're hungry, they eat flesh. He's like, they're hungry, they haven't eaten since, because there was no meal on the flight, you know? Like I love how well they, It was a very simple delve into their kind of culture and into his mindset, but it wasn't overly done like the past five minutes of me talking. Yeah, did you think that Deneval knew as a Kingdom Hearts fan? Because those little like little black, like faceless people, they look like the shadows, the heartless. They look like guillotines. You know, are they like shh, shh? Those things, yeah, they did look like heartless. Those things, and they were like growling the entire time. Yeah. Yeah, they had like a predator growl. It's something predator. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we had Stephen McKinney Henderson who plays and forgive me, Thieu Phieu Hawat and Tim Blake Nelson as Count Hasmere Fennering. Both film scenes for this film but ultimately were cut entirely from the film. They did receive special thanks in the end credits though. Oh. Yeah, that's cool. We'll see him in the future. We'll be at the Oscar party though. That's right. Yeah. Aaron, talk a little bit about Paul's younger sister and you know, again, the voice that Lady Jessica sees throughout the art. Excuse me. Here's throughout this movie. Alia. Yeah, you got Alia Atreides, who's, you know, she's basically I'm going to call her like the Quanto of this film. Quaid, open your mind. But she's not as accessible. OK, yeah. So Anya Taylor-Joy was confirmed to be playing Alia months before the premiere. Villeneuve. was surprised that her role had been kept a secret for that long, noting it required so much work to keep that secret. Her role had been revealed in a casting credit list for the film on Letterboxd. She showed up on the red carpet too, which was, I think, kind of like their first wave going, yeah, okay. She's in the movie officially. Thanks everybody for ruining it. Thank you. Dicks. Contrary to what happens in this film though, Alia does not appear in the first book. She's born in the following book, Dune Messiah, and plays a significant role in the second and third novels, Children of Dune, Children of Dune. Zune. Children of Dune. Yeah. The final act of Dune part two holds a host of twists and revelations, including that Paul's maternal grandfather is, again, spoilers, Baron Harkonnen, which he refills to the Baron as he kills him, which that was such an awesome scene. He's like, hello, grandfather. Hup! You know? Fans of the book would have known that the Baron's demise was inevitable, but the way that it happens is entirely different. And then in Dune Messiah as a child, Alia slays the Baron and becomes known as Alia of the knife. This bloodthirsty act is the only, is only the beginning of her downfall as she begins to reconnect with the power of her grandfather and descend on a darker path. This major plot alteration suggests that there could be a darker future ahead for Paul who might be the one to associate with his ancestors, darker abilities instead. So interesting. They deviate much more from the book than we originally thought. And that's, that's cool. I like when they do that because a lot of fans of the book series will often go in knowing exactly what's going to happen. And that could be, I mean, it's cool to see it in live action, but it can be slightly like, okay, well, that happened exactly like I thought. I think it's important for the directors and the writers to tell the fans that because yes, if you go into a movie and somebody says, Oh, this is going to be a, uh, the first, true adaptation of the first like amazing adaptation of this book to film. Right. And you go in and you're like, this is not what I wanted. This is not what I was expecting. At least if you tell the audience before they go into it, they can go in expecting some changes and not be as upset. Think about, yeah, like go into this movie, thinking about this is a re-imagining. This is a, it's an adaptation. An adaptation, it is a, you know, it's not a total departure, but it is not the same as you'll see in the books. Yeah, there's a very distinct difference between adaptation and recreation, right? Recreation is I mean, you could you could argue that Zack Snyder's Watchmen, the opening scene is a recreation because it is panel for panel, shot for shot. The exact same thing that happens in the comic. And then he takes deviations and other things throughout the film. This is an adaptation. So it is taking the source material and it's putting a new lens on it because there are multiple moments in this in this movie. And in this, and I would say in both movies where they deviate slightly from the source material. And I think, again, I think that's good because they get it keeps people on their, on their toes. So let's get into some fun facts here. So the true masterminds behind the plot to search the Atreides in the books, the guild navigators aren't brought up in the film at all. Their role is filled by the Reverend mother, Gaelys Helen Mohime. We both had trouble with that name. Charlotte, uh, Charlotte Ramblin, if everyone that needed to know exactly what I'm talking about. So Aaron, do this next one, because this is more of your, you got to do your voice too. Christopher Walken plays Emperor Shaddam IV. Coincidentally, Walken starred in the 2001 music video for the Fat Boy Slim song, Weapon of Choice. A song which includes several references to Dune, Don't Be Shocked by the Tone of My Voice. Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm. cool little reference. Have you seen that music video where Christopher Walken is flying and dancing? Dude, I grew up on that fucking movie or that video. I thought you might have a choice. I grew up on that fucking video. The language used by the Fremen is named Shaqespa in the novels, which derives from real life Arabic, although also contains parts of French, Greek, Slavic and includes heavy alterations to Hebrew and Sanskrit. When in Gilded Prime, when Fade Ratha is fighting in the arena it can be seen in black and white infrared color palette apparently induced by the black sun, apparently induced by the black sun the planet arounds. This is the first time that the Gilded Sun is shown in the Dune adaptations. Actor musician Sting who appeared in David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Dune as Fade Ratha turned down a cameo appearance in this film However, he did attend the New York premiere on February 25th, 2024. I didn't see him. So I don't know if he was there. Yeah, I didn't see. This is the second movie in which a character played by Timothy Chalamet proposes to a character played by Florence Pugh. The first time was in Little Women 2019. And I'm, I'm going to throw this out there. There were several times I was waiting for Timothy Chalamet to make some kind of Willy Wonka reference. Also the fact that Tim Lee Chalamet has been able to propose to the Florence Pugh twice. Public enemy number one, everybody. I'm blacklisting Timothy Charlemagne. I no longer am a Timothy Charlemagne fan. I will say this, okay, Timothy Charlemagne, he has no ass. That man has no ass. He's wearing that fucking, that suit, that suit, and he's got no ass in that thing, I'm sorry. Since Fade Routha kills Glossy Robin before the third act, and Paul kills both Baron Vladimir and Fade Routha, All that remains of House Harkonnen is Margo's unborn child. Once again, shout out to, uh, shout out to Leah Sadell. Yeah. All right. All right, Aaron, you're the fan. That's right. Uh, what else can we say? I mean, we, I don't think we talked a lot about the story itself. Unfortunately, we talked a lot about like kind of the references and we, we picked certain points. Is there anything else you want to say about this movie? I think like even though we went over spoilers and I think we went over certain plot points and we reviewed the movie as a whole, The value in this movie is seeing it for yourself, right? Like we could talk about all day about how it looked and how it felt and like certain things we liked, certain acting choices. I talked a little bit before we started recording, Aaron. I think this is like a changing of the guard with the younger cast and the newer, like with the older cast, you know, we got this younger kind of roster that we'll call them the freshmen of actors, right? You've got Charlamagne, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Lisa Doe, Anya Taylor-Joy. These are like... This movie is a graduation for them into true stardom. A lot of these were like rising actors who were like in the public, like the audience knew who they were, but I think this movie is like their linchpin into becoming full stars. And then you have, you know, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Ramblin, Christopher Walken. These are all established, bona fide stars that when they're in a movie and they're in a scene, they take over that scene. And I think what's really interesting about Doom Part II is that a lot of those characters take back seats. Like a lot of these characters that we see, they are never the focal point in any scene. Really. It's often them bouncing off these younger actors. And I think that's really significant. I think that this movie does a good job of, of showing off that there are like some older actors, younger actors. We even see it when, when the Fremen are kind of having the discussion between, you know, the, the tribes believing in this mess I had a character of the Mwadib. Yeah. And. And then you also have, you know, the Bene Gesserit and you have the mother, the Reverend mother for the Fremen. She becomes like the Brevin mother. So we have her even knowing and seeing and actually talking about it, that part of the plot that she's forming on her own outside of the Bene Gesserit themselves is to turn people to this old way and almost extreme, turn them into extremists of this religion to, again, for the holy war. You know, and so I find all of this to be interesting because this is a lot of stuff that we do see in society today. We see the schemers, we see the plotters, we see the people turning, using stories, using spoken word, using word of mouth, using faith as a weapon, using faith as a weapon. And I think that this, there's an interesting parallel here in the dune story where you have what could actually be this, you know, prophecy and what could just be. happenstance. Or how much is actually being manufactured. Exactly. The things that the prophecy is proclaiming, how much of that is Lady Jessica? How much is she leading on to what her powers are? How much can she control? And how much is in her head? We even see a bit of that from Paul at the end of the film where he goes up to this guy. He's almost turned up against. He either has to kill Stilgar or convince everyone to join his holy war. And he does this like parlor trick. He does like street magic on this kid. And he's like, yeah, your mother died when she was 12, your, or whatever, like your grandmother died when you were 12. She lost an eye crossing the storm. And you know, like you, and he turned into another man and was like, you have nightmares about this and like that's an okay. So that was one of my absolute favorite scenes because, because Paul is like, I don't have fucking time to waste. I've already gone too far. Like we've already wasted too much time. I need to get in there and like, uh, what's his name? Still guard, not still guard, but, um, gurney is telling him, slow down, slow down, slow down. And he's like, no, fuck this. And he goes up and he's like, he's like, if anybody wants it, come at me, bro. That was actually lady Jessica that said that lady Jessica's slow down. Yeah. Oh yeah. She did say slow down. But he was like, nah, fuck that. Shut up. I got your sound stupid. And like there is such a moment of power in this scene where he's talking to this, the entirety of these tribes, the North and the South tribe during this meeting, because they're telling him, you can't speak here unless you're a tribal leader. I'm not going to fucking kill this guy because I need warriors. Yeah. And also he cares for Stilgar, obviously. And he cares for him. I fucking love it. The other powerful moment was, and it was kind of a brutal moment, was you know how much Zendaya's character, Johnny, and Paul love each other. But Paul knows that he cannot, and she doesn't notice it yet, but Paul knows that I'm not going to be able to be with her. Yeah. The way to stop this war is art, it's just, you know, and exact freedom among her people. He can't be with her. He has to make some like executive decisions here and go, hey, this is something that happens that has happened probably a lot in royalties and in mergers and things like that, where somebody's like, and he loves her, but he says no matter what, I will always love you because she doesn't see it. She just like, uh, okay, we're in a fight right now, but then he's like, I'll marry your daughter, Mr. Emperor. Uh, so we can not kiss my ring. I'll take your daughter. Peace out. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm probably going to go see this movie again, which does not happen a lot, and I'm just, I'm so pumped for this movie, man. Well, let's, let's tie in my final question for you, Aaron, with your final thought. So of course this movie is one of three movies or possibly more. We don't know truly. I mean, if it's up to Dillenivelle knew, I think he has one more in him, but I think if it's up to Warner brothers and if they back up, the Brinks truck to his house. Bring that fucking rag. I bet you we get a couple more out of this thing or at least some spinoffs, which I think we should also give a quick kudos to Deneval New that none of this feels like franchised. Like they didn't like introduce a character and go, oh, don't worry about that character that you saw for 30 seconds. Yeah, we'll get a HBO Max series about them in two years. Or like, we're not gonna try to sell toys even though we got a popcorn bucket. There's not like some kind of special weapon that Paul uses against the Harkonnen because it would sell toys. None of that happens. Everything is for the movie. But my question for you is though, with the end of this film, which we see Shani kind of exit and hop on a sandworm and peace out, kind of going on her own, I found it very deliberate that Deneve Elnou decided to end the film that way with Shani kind of going off on her own. How do you feel about that ending? Do you feel like did you get like a lack of resolution from that? And then like, what are your final thoughts overall in the film? Very rarely. Well, I walk out of a theater with no issues. You know that I'm, I am a lover of resolution. And I think that this movie, I, I don't have any issues with this ending. It was, it's very much like she, obviously this is not the last time we've seen Johnny. We'll see her again in the future. But what's crazy about it is, you know, they both, they both knew like he loves her. She needs to go obviously do what she needs to do to, to figure her life out. And he has to go off and, and fight this. holy war that he and his mother and unborn sister have just created. And that's understandable. I think that that's a great way for them to kind of. And we see him taking off in the spaceships and going up to meet this fleet of other house leaders. And I don't know. It just it wrapped up very well for me for a cliffhanger. It wrapped up very well for me. And I really appreciated the thought that went into this, because, yeah, she just kind of like. is in shock and steps off and realizes like, this is not my place right now. Yeah. I think a lot of times when people, when they're hurt, oftentimes they think I'm going to run. I need to run away and regather. I can't let people feel bad for me. Or I know a lot of us, that's kind of our reaction is in moments where we should face and talk to someone and actually give what we're thinking and put it all out there for them. So they know exactly what we're thinking. What we do is we'll separate, we'll go into our shell, we'll run away, all these things, right? I don't know if there's a moment to talk to Paul in that because he is obviously being pulled in so many different directions and he's got the worm blue liquid in him. So he's doing all kinds of things. I think if they had a moment to talk for 10 minutes, maybe he could convince her of something. I don't think so because I feel like at this point he's almost in... He made his decision. He's accepted it. Once he drank that water and came back, the water of life, once he drank that and came back to life and saw... everything, like all of the possible outcomes in front of him. He knows what he has to do. And it's unfortunate because that does his scope of responsibility is now to more than just his own desires, which is Johnny. Yeah. Which realizes that throughout the movie. That's all he cared about, right? Like that. That's what he kept reminding her when he was as normal. Paul self was like, Hey, I love you. I want to be with you. That's my true motivation behind all of this. I want your people to be safe. And then as soon as he drinks that water, he goes, oh shit. Like, and that's why she told him she's like, stay who you are. And she doesn't think that that's who she that who he is anymore. And that may be true, but, you know, as of right now, it doesn't matter. He has a job to do. Yeah. Well, OK, my final thoughts are this movie is an absolute marvel. Like it is a true staple in film in terms of like what we're looking at going forward. It does everything correct, in my opinion. It is technically incredible. The acting is significant. And the fact that we got this ensemble, both new and old, could maybe never happen again. I won't say never, but rarely happens, if ever again. The fact that we have all of this congestion of true bonafide A-list stars, both, again, new and old, it would just take an unsurmountable amount of money and time and everything to get everyone back together like this. and Warner Brothers and everyone in this in the making of this film just planned it perfectly, maybe on accident, but maybe possibly on purpose to get all of this incredible talent at one time before they hit their peak. Right. I just had an, I think this is a movie that you should go see in theaters for yourself multiple times on the biggest screen in the loudest theater you can and just be happy that we have this type of film in today's world. Like it, it just, it made me happy on every level. And I was enthralled. Like you spoke on a little bit earlier about how like Madam Webb was just under two hours and felt like four and how this one was almost three and felt like an hour and a half, like a tight hour and a half. Like it was just enthralling from start to finish. The action is incredible. This movie is not going to be for everybody. I don't think like you're not going to be able to take grandma to see this and her have a good time with it. But there's something about it that I think if you kind of have an appreciation for Bell News filmmaking, the cast, Bill News views, Bell News views. Yeah. The way that he made, I think truly what is the most impressive thing about this is how digestible he's made Dune. Right? Like absolutely agree. Yeah. We talked, we talked about it many times throughout this conversation about how Dune is this very dense, heavy, heady type of story and how both of us have had trouble getting into the books and how, how incredible not only the first film is, but how this film is better. Like, do you, is this movie better than one? Yeah. I mean, but also let's give, let's give credit to Frank Herbert for, for a story that still feels relevant. I mean, that's the true definition of great. high fantasy, right? Like it's relevant at any point in history. And I think you could say that about a lot of things and how a lot of people have seen like star Wars in this. And it's like, star Wars got this from dune. It wasn't the other way around. It's not like Denis Villeneuve took inspiration from, or maybe he did maybe a little bit from star Wars, but like, it's all, it's like, what came first? The chicken or the egg? Like, it's that kind of thing because these are two complete, I see the inspiration and maybe some understanding there, but like, honestly two very different stories, very different type of storytelling, very type, very different levels of science fiction and fantasy. And I don't, I mean, I wouldn't even compare the two as, you know, somebody who's been around for a lot of it. I wouldn't even compare the two. Yeah. All right. Aaron, let's finally write this thing out of five David A. Winer's, which of course is a documentarian writer, director of In Search of Tomorrow, In Search of Darkness, Dune Part Two. Aaron, how many David A. Winer's you're going to give it for a strong for a strong for a strong for. OK, this for me. I was thinking about it as I was walking out of the theater, because again, I had such an incredible experience with it. And as many people know, the only movie to ever get five stars, five David A. Weiner's, is Top Gun Maverick. I gave it to it last year. Was it last year or two years ago? Time is weird. I think it was two. It's a construct. It is. Yeah. And I was thinking, is this five stars? Is this truly a perfect film for me? Is this what I want when I go to the movie theater? And the answer is yes. But I will say... I think the only thing that caps it is my interest in like the other, like I think again, like the digestibility of it, like it's, it's digestible for most audiences, but it's not like I'm not going to turn on Dune part two on a Saturday afternoon and watch it passively in the background as I, as I could for like Top Gun Maverick or Roadhouse for instance, which I think is another five star movie. Don't ask me why I think Roadhouse is a five star movie, but it is Roadhouse. This is a strong 4.5 for me. Strong 4.5. If we had like the point two fives, it would be a 4.75, but we don't do that. So I very much feel your strong 4.5. I think for me, it's, I was wrestling with a four, 4.5, but I think honestly. The only two things that hold me back are yes, this is not something I would put on in the background, whereas there are movies that I could absolutely put on the background and still love them and still come and walk away and watch them. And. Some of them are just going to sit down like this one is me like, ah, you know, I have to be kind of like in the mood for it. Yeah. But it's still an incredible watch. And also on top of that is, and I'm going to say it, some of the casting choices. Okay. Do you have a, do you have a specific one that you're kind of Christopher Walken, man? Is that a good, is that a positive or a negative? It's honestly, as much as I love Christopher Walken, it's a negative. Like you can't put somebody like that in a role and, and not. I can't take his role serious. You're going to get some heat for this, I think, because Krister Walken, that casting was very popular, I think, among folks. I will say that in the books, apparently he's like a 30-year-old just really out of shape dude. So Krister Walken is obviously in his 80s, I think. He looks very old. That's fine. But I could not, okay, because the thing that detracted from it was as soon as he was like, Baron, explain to me why Madib is not dead. You know? And I just... Audibly laughed. Yeah, so fucking loud. I felt embarrassed. It would be like I could be L Jackson being this movie like there are certain actors that When they play a role they are just playing themselves like they are just yeah The Rock for instance is a good example of that too Like when they show up in a movie, they are not whoever they are the Rock playing this person Yeah, you might as well put Kevin Hart in the role of the Emperor. He'd like come here. Okay, that's a little egregious But I think I get what you're saying. It's waiting to me explaining me explain to me why? explaining to me why my deep, what's the name? What is the name? What explaining to me why my deep is still alive. That's like Chris Tucker. I think you're doing right there. No, that's, that's Kevin Hart. Okay. All right. Well, anyway, that'll do it for our review of doing part two, that conversation, obviously a long conversation. Aaron, can we briefly do our two segments here? Like, can we, can we agree that we're going to keep it like somewhat brief for the end? Yeah, I'll do it. We'll do it brief. Okay. All right. Let's get into my favorite segment of the show, Aaron's Arcade. It's time for Aaron's Arcade. Welcome to Aaron's Arcade. Aaron. It's sponsored by GFuel, whether you're a casual gamer, content creator, an everyday Joe or an e-sports pro, GFuel sugar-free antioxidant, vitamin-fortified focus, enhancing high-performance energy products will give you the edge you need to fuel your grind. While stocking up at gfuel.com, use our code O-B-P at checkout for 10% off your entire order. That's O-B-P at checkout. And also remember, it stacks when they're having sales. I have a, I think I need a GFuel after that conversation. Yeah, I had a G-Fill during the conversation. Nice, you came prepared. I did, I knew this was gonna be, I had it refrigerated so it was nice and cold and crisp when I sat down, that's why I'm so energetic right now. But I'm gonna talk about Genshin Impact. I know I haven't talked about this game for a long time, but I'm just letting you guys know, I'm back in Genshin Impact, and I say this because currently Respawn Products is doing another invitational, another recruits invitational, and I was invited to participate. I'm one of 110 people from the beginning. So that's what I'm involved with right now. If you guys are curious about what I'm doing, I'm doing a lot of stuff about, uh, social media management, brand management, how to build your brand for smaller streamers, individuals who are trying to build an audience. So I'm doing some things like that to help out people in the community cause I'm not really doing this. I'm probably not going to win. I'm not very much of a streamer, but you know what? If I could have fun while I'm doing it and participate and help others grow their brand as well, I'm going to, I'm also going to learn some skills. I'm using this as an opportunity. to work on some video editing so that I can come into the Oblivion Bar, you know, I guess Arsenal and start using some of our products to make things even better. Huh? I said the Arsenal of two, the Arsenal of two, you know, because I want to back up my buddy Chris here and I'm going to use this time as I I've kind of decided because right now I'm in my retirement process. I'm looking for a job. I'm going to use this time to create some actual skills. that I can use for this show and why, what better way than to give myself a quick timeline of learning some skills over the next month. Yeah. So with that, let's go into my favorite portion of the show, Chris's Corner. It's time for Chris's Corner. Chris's Corner is sponsored by the fantasy shop since 1981. The fantasy shop has been the best place to find comic books, graphic novels, board games, role playing games, card games in the greater St. Louis area. Check them out at fantasy shop online.com and make sure you stop by and say hello the next time you're in St. Louis. Aaron, I'm taking a page out of your book talking about a video game this week, talking about sea of stars, which is available on all platforms. It's basically everywhere. It's not specific to any certain console. Shout out to Kenny. patron of the show, good friend of the show. He actually recommended this to me a long time ago. And I kind of sat on my hands for a bit, but over the last month or so, or I'd say the last two months, I've been playing it. And I absolutely love Sea of Stars. So let me give you a little bit of a kind of a background on Sea of Stars. From Sabotage Studios, Sea of Stars is a retro style role playing video game centered around two heroes named Valerie and Zale. Valerie and Zale are solistic warriors, adventurers who have control over the eclipse magic. Their power is the only magic able to harm dwellers. Otherworldly Monsters created by a godlike alchemist named the Fleshmancer. This game is actually set in the same universe as Sabotage Studio's first game and the previous game, The Messenger from 2018. So Aaron, as the subject matter expert in all things video games, have you played any of Sea of Stars? Have you heard of it? Are you familiar with it? I've heard a lot about it. I have not played it and everybody talks amazing about it. I can't. wrap my head around anything that sounds fun that has a character called the flesh banter. That just sounds inappropriate. I saw that movie. I've seen it six sequels. Um, yeah, no, I've heard really, really good things about sea of stars. I've heard some amazing things because it's supposed to be just a really fun, amazing RPG. Uh, but no, I haven't. My backlog of games is so large right now that I cannot even grasp the idea of buying anymore. Well, can I convince you to buy this one? Because you would love it and it's not very expensive. I think it's like, I think it's 1999 right now. It's incredible too. It's very, it's like well-made. It's totally our vibe again, like it's our bag. It's old RPG, very old Final Fantasy style, but it's like modern in the ways that matter. Like some of the facial features and magic and the special effects and the monsters even. Like, you know, back in the old Final Fantasy days, the monster would be like this like nice piece of art that they would fight. And it would just kind of like dance, like poly around. It's very similar in this game where like the characters and the backgrounds are all very simple, but like very intricate and beautifully made, but the bosses are also very like complex and their moves are super awesome. And it's just like, I've struggled with video games because a lot of the video games I enjoy are older games, like Final Fantasy, for instance. And this game, I think it... It breeds new life into my love of RPG because it has that old school aesthetic with like a new vibe and I absolutely love it. So I cannot recommend sea of stars enough. I highly recommend it for everybody. If you're looking for like a new RPG, if you have that itch to play some RPG and you haven't checked out sea of stars, go check it out. It's very good. I think I'm going to go see if it's on steam. It is. It's on everything. It's on steam. It's on Xbox, PC. It's on obviously PlayStation. That's where I played it. So. Everyone that'll do for episode 147. Geez Louise. That is a monster of an episode. Apologies for everybody that if you're still with us, thank you so much for being with us this long, but yeah, very long episode. We had to get to do dune part two credit, right? We had to make sure that we covered at least every facet that we could. So thank you all for listening to episode 147, 148. Aaron, we are bringing on a great creator. One of my favorite creators of all time. We had a great conversation with Tom King coming on the show on for the third time. He's been on the show twice before. This is his third time by himself. The first two were with Elsa Chardier to talk about love everlasting. The second time was with Mitch Garrett's talking about the Brave and the Bold, their winning card series through that. So Tom King coming on to talk about Helen of Winhorn, talking about Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow, talking about Wonder Woman, talking about Animal Pound. Aaron, this is your first time meeting Tom, at least through the podcast. We obviously have met in real life. What are your, how was that conversation for you? Did you have a good time with it? Yeah, he's a good dude. Like he's just a real guy. You know, he's a guy's guy. He's a real guy. He's a real dude. You know, he's my dude. You know, yeah. No, I had a good time talking with him. I didn't. I honestly, there are certain creators and I think I can't even say there's certain creators because I feel like we have all these creators on the show. And we just like kind of click with them all. Yeah. And he's one of those guys that maybe clicks a little bit more than others. Like, you know, just those certain guys like Daniel Warren Johnson and Chris. Christian Ward, like, you know, we just, they just do. We could talk, they could come on and we could talk to them about everything other than comics. Like that's how you. Exactly. Right. Like. It doesn't have to be a comic-esque conversation, but it's going to be a fun one. Yeah. And we, but we do, obviously we talk about comics. That's the main reason why he's on because he is one of the best writers in the world. So, but that is next week on the Oblivion Bar podcast. Look forward to that conversation. Aaron, take us out of here. Subscribe to our podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio. Wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, that's where we are. Thank you to our patrons, Alex, Alice, Aaron, Botta from Short Box, Cassidy, Chris from the Botta Boom Pod, Chris J, Christie, David, Elliot, George, Craig, Greg, Craig, Greg from First Issue Club, Haley, Ham Six, Jake from Spectales, Jake S, Jason, Jeremy, Kenny, Kyle, Lozi, Mac, Miles, Mike, Robert, Travis, and Brad Leeson from Common Book Couples Counseling. Jesus. Christ, that was as long as the episode. Follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky, and threads, hat, Oblivion Bar Pod. Thank you Omnibus for sponsoring the show. Use the link in our show notes to upgrade how you read comics digitally. Official merch of the show can be found at our website, www. Thank you Kevin Siegler for all of our Oblivion Bar art. He's at the Zig Zone on Instagram. Thank you Dream Kid for all of our musical themes. Thank you DJ Skyvac for our grid theme. Thank you Fantasy Shop for sponsoring the show and don't forget to tip your bartenders 20% or more or we'll make you fuck a popcorn bucket. The Dune one specifically. So thank you all so much for listening to our review of Dune Part 2. We'll see you next week for episode 148. Disney has, Didney. Didney! Didneyland. We gotta stop that. That's gonna be. This is gonna be the stinger at the end of the episode for sure. No! Didney! No!