Culture Crash: The Highly Anticipated Part 2 We’ve All Been Waiting For

DUNE PART 2 is coming out on Friday, and I’m officially hyped to see it. I mean, I was always going to see it. I remember watching the first DUNE in this Denis Villeneuve reimagining of the book in 2021 when the movie went straight to HBO Max and really enjoying it, but I hadn’t seen it since. And then they decided to re-release DUNE in IMAX theaters a few weeks ago ahead of DUNE PART 2’s premiere. So I went. And DUNE went from a movie I liked to a movie I love.

The difference between watching a new release movie at home on a very good TV setup and seeing it in an IMAX theater where sandworms scare the heck out of you and a Hans Zimmer score can rock you to your core is hard to overstate. I remember finishing the movie the first time and thinking it was a little too long. After seeing it in IMAX, I was considering whether or not I should buy a ticket for the next showtime to see it again. Moments that I felt were dragging at home zipped by in the theater.

And all of this leads to this moment, right now, on the verge of DUNE PART 2 releasing in theaters. Early word out of screenings has been strong, and it’s easy to see why. While DUNE was mostly setup, previews and sneak peaks at DUNE PART 2 suggest the payoff from all that exposition is upon us.

Plus the young generation of Hollywood stars is all over this movie, as it stars Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet, Austin Butler, and Florence Pugh. And like its predecessor, this movie is being helmed by Villeneuve, one of the most exciting directors working today. Seeing DUNE in IMAX fully transported me to Arrakis, so now I can’t wait to see the spice flow in DUNE PART 2 on March 1st.