Arakkis Redux

Paul Aetrides is no saint. Dune is amoral. There are no god people. The Harkonnen and the Bene Gesserit and the Aetrides are all related. The Fremen are the ones that are fair game for all colonizers. Dune Part Two is s much of realpolitik and unlike the first edition - where there is some cause for empathy with Paul and his mother as refugees - the cynicism of Frank Herbert is in full flow herein. Visceral and real. And great action sequences in IMax

15.5/20

Dune - Resurrected

 In a huge improvement from David Lynch's version, Denis Villeneuve brings the realpolitik of Dune back to the big screen. Uncluttered and far more nuanced than the likes of Star Wars, with none of the pedantic Star Trek genre nor the incessant intrigue of Game of Thrones, Dune is faithful to the storyline. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) flee from the aftermath of a Harkonnen plus Federation attack, to regroup and reclaim what is owed to him, through an alliance with the Fremen. After a long time, a movie thats definitely a must watch

16/20

The Spectacle that is Spectre

James Bond (Daniel Craig) kicks off his search for the elusive secret organization Spectre in the midst of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. The search takes him across to Rome, where Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) engages him in a cat and mouse game that finally culminates back in London. Bond affictionados are in familiar territory (or are they?) - the title song (by Sam Smith, male), the Bond girls - Lucia Sciarra (Monica Belucci), and Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), the latter highly accomplished in medicine and hardly a wilting violet by any stretch of the imagination, the gadgetry from Q - and Bond inevitably taking some liberties with them. In the balance of things, Spectre is an understated good watch, with Daniel Craig showing clear signs of ageing though. That for me was the only point of disappointment with what was otherwise a fine movie.

15/20

Galactic Hotch-potch

Guardians of the Galaxy – well, I refuse to review this one. As I write this, I am looking at mindboggling ratings on the *leading movie review sites* for what is really a smorgsbard of an intergalactic thriller (that I am sure Marvel aficionados are well aware of) that does not have a speck of originality save the tepid bursts of mild humour. I quite liked Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) but, for the most part, he careens through a chaos of a plot, that, surprise surprise, is succeeding wildly at a commercial level. All the best to this Galaxy

9.5/20