Steven Spielberg hails 'brilliant' Dune: Part Two

Steven Spielberg has heaped praise on the "brilliant" 'Dune: Part Two'.

The legendary director – who has helmed classics including 'E.T. The Extra Terrestrial' – has described Denis Villeneuve's epic as one of the best sci-fi movies that he has ever seen.

During an appearance on DGA's 'Director's Cut' podcast alongside Villeneuve, Spielberg said: "It's an honour for me to sit here and talk to you.

"This is truly a visual epic, and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters.

"Yet the dialogue is very sparse when you look at it proportionately to the running time of the film. It’s such cinema. The shots are so painterly, yet there’s not an angle or single setup that’s pretentious … you have made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen."

Spielberg reserved acclaim for the special effects in the desert-set flick, which stars Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson.

The 77-year-old filmmaker said: "This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie.

"For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water. The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life.

"You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid."

Spielberg also described Denis as one of the best directors in the history of Hollywood.

The 'Jaws' director explained: "Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list and we know who a lot of them are. Starting with [Georges] Melies and [Walt] Disney and [Stanley] Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen I include in that list.

"[Federico] Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members."