I was hoping this would enhance its predecessor in retrospect. Unfortunately, not only does it fail to do that, it doubles down on its flaws and brings some of its own.

It wants to be an epic commentary about religion and leadership, but it's superficial at best and baffling at worst. Paul Atreides went from being a flat protagonist to an incoherent one (his transformation happens due to contrivances rather than organic character development), while the Harkonnens are still as menacing as wet paper towels.

The performances are somehow even weaker this time. Timothee Chalamet lacks the charisma to be convincing as a larger-than-life leader, Zendaya's acting arsenal consists entirely of Derek Zoolander faces, Christopher Walken is miscast and looks like he's about to fall asleep, and Dave Bautista yelling his lines gets annoying very quickly. Austin Butler is the only actor bringing some energy to the proceedings.

Couldn't even bring myself to appreciate this as a theme park ride movie, as I did with the first entry, because the horrendous pacing left me numb.

I'm tired of half-baked movies coasting on pretty visuals, being longer than they need to be, and having the structure of a TV season.