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There is an almost unlimited list of items to praise about Denis Villeneuve's follow-up to 2021's "Dune: Part One", but we must start somewhere.

Fans of the director's 2016 masterful slow-burn, "Arrival", will appreciate Villeneuve's ability to give imposing physicality to large-scale objects sitting in vast areas of land. In "Arrival", viewers only truly experienced this via a single mysterious spaceship floating above the ground in Montana, but its intimidating presence was undeniable.

In the world-extending "Dune: Part Two", Villeneuve and his team take this up several notches, impressively presenting their vision for a diverse range of spacecraft and machinery, including things that fly, things that dig and things that kill. This imagination and creativity, supported by unerring sound mixing, contributes to an immersive cinematic experience that won't soon be forgotten.

Of course, none of this would matter in the absence of a strong story. Fortunately, "Dune: Part Two" builds sumptuously upon the foundations laid in the first film, with change aplenty for Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) to endure. The death of his father and the end of his house at the hands of the grotesque Harkonnens have left him with no option but to learn the ways of the Fremen, the blue-eyed natives of the desert planet Arrakis. Aided by the self-interested efforts of his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul fights for acceptance amongst the Fremen, always aware through his visions that his actions may have a devastating impact on Arrakis and beyond.