50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

For a director who has been working since the '90s to make his best film in 2024 is quite a feat, but that is what Denis Villeneneuve managed with Dune: Part Two. After being entrusted with the cursed franchise by Legendary Pictures, Villeneuve managed to pull a totally serviceable Dune film together in 2021, which nailed the casting, aesthetics, and lore, while condensing hundreds of pages of detail from Frank Herbert’s original novel into something that felt not nearly as long as it could have.

But the true success of this enterprise would be measured from the second film, Dune: Part Two, where the director had to yank all the threads he wove in the first picture and go out with a bang. No prizes for guessing that he managed it.

Dune: Part Two sees Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) embrace his destiny as heir of House Atreides and the prophesised messiah of the Fremen, climbing through the ranks while training to become a leader who is both warrior and psychic. The film charts every beat of his story with urgency, and the path of Paul’s ascension, as he saves and claims the desert planet of Arrakis, is one of the best put to screen.

The visual design of the movie is phenomenal, even dipping into experimental black and white and living to tell the tale, and the blend of practical sets, on-location shooting, and computer-generated elements makes it tangible, believable, and more arresting than any other sci-fi epic.