Technically excellent (especially the sound) which is why it almost gets a heart, but virtually nothing else worked for me. Paul’s transition from sheepish boy to arrogant autocrat was rushed if not glossed over completely, outside of Javier Bardem the performances range from okay (Rebecca Ferguson really fell off here from the first movie) to fucking atrocious (I’m a Zendaya stan but her as Chani might be the worst miscasting in the history of film based on what I’ve heard from people who have read the book and even as a non-reader it translates for me too, she’s so much worse than I her being in part 1), the film doesn’t work at all as a standalone since there’s virtually no lore or worldbuilding outside of some basic Fremen stuff that’s artificially political for no reason and is never leaned into (Villeneuve has the opposite issue of Nolan in that he refuses to explain anything that’s happening on screen and the viewing experience suffers massively for it), the score gets so repetitive and boring, it’s wayyyyy too long, the writing is weak to nonexistent to Marvel-tier one liners that are completely ill-befitting a Villeneuve t, and worst of all the entirety of the movie is like three scenes repeated ad nauseum: emotional conversation in the desert, Harkonnen attack, cut to the baron sitting in tar and Dave Bautista looking like a lost puppy, rinse and repeat. And it’s downright shocking and unforgivable that Paul Atreides’ future sight is in the movie for about 10 seconds and never comes to have any plot relevance or emotional impact. Isn’t that a damn central hook of the novel? 

The best scene is Austin Butler in the arena and he’s in the movie for like 10 minutes total. Which brings up another huge criticism I have, call it the Oppenheimer Dilemma: hiring big name actors to pad out a cast list and giving them absolutely nothing to chew on. Léa Seydoux is so underused here it’s damn criminal, so is Florence Pugh, ATJ gets a cameo, half the cast may as well have stayed home. It’s the Zendaya/Timothée show whether you like it or not, which makes it feel more like a soap opera than a serious philosophical sci fi epic with the level of effort they’re putting in. At the end of the day Dune is just not an interesting world for me: the politics, the character dynamics, the homogeneity of character designs, the bland repetitive color palette, nothing about it speaks to me or evokes any sort of emotion. I’m 3 films deep and planning to watch the Jodorowsky documentary soon and maybe I need to read the books to get the real vibe, but it just ain’t for me. 

I’m honestly so sick of these Villeneuve blockbuster adaptations. He needs to get back to directing original material very soon. His movies these days are guaranteed to look great and have less going on under the hood then a stripped-out Prius. Style can be and often is substance, but not when the frame of the movie is setting it up as a grandiose treatise that delivers on none of its promises. Despite having similar critiques, I prefer part 1 at this point by a wide margin for how it builds and explains, how it introduces characters and then gives them relationships to dive into. I haven’t seen it in a while but I it feeling more full, more alive, and more vibrant. The more I think about the visuals in both films the more I lean toward part 1 as well. I was chuffed to hear that part 2 opened with a Harkonnen ambush scene and then it kind of fizzled out with no weight behind it. There are cool moments and techniques and all the explosions looked incredible, but I wanted so, so much more. 

I take back all the complaints I had about people overhyping EEAAO, because that movie actually mostly deserved the praise. Maybe it’s my bad for buying into the hype machine but my disappointment with this movie was immeasurable. People saying it’s the best sci fi ever made need to donate their brains to science because we as a species must know what’s going on there. It’s hard to decouple my opinion from the experience I had watching it: Air & Space Museum in proper aspect ratio IMAX, hanging out having a blast with my best friends, playing Cine2Nerdle while we waited, but I can’t pretend I enjoyed most of what happened on screen. Dune 2’s a wet noodle and I’d almost rather watch Lynch’s adaptation - which should tell you all you need to know.