Visually and musically stunning like the first movie with excellent action scenes. Casting superb for the most part. Aside from Walken as Emperor, which in my opinion was not a great cast. Nothing against Christopher as an actor, but he just doesn't seem all that well in that roll, but still good enough to get the job done. Also, I am not the biggest fan of Zendaya. Visually she's a good cast for Chani, but her constant angry face and little chemistry with Paul is distracting. Chalamet and Ferguson absolutely nailed the roles.
My main issues with the movie are incomplete or reduxed storytelling and that the director decided not to include possiblly some of the most important and fascinating elements and scenes, at least for me, from the story.
The werding way. I was disappointed, since the technology was available, that the directoror did not incorporate the (Bene Gesserit) werding way martial art of Paul and Jessica, where the moments were so fast that it almost appeared as teleportation. This should have been in the movie, to emphasize how incredibly skilled, mysterious and god-like Paul and Jessica would be to the fremen (and the viewer).
Jessica's reverend mother transformation was not explained properly and seriously underperformed by the writing. The explanation of the magnitude and significance of what Reverend Mother is was not construed properly in the movie. Reverend mothers were seriously overpowered beings with strong powers and influence. The fact that there was another hidden reverend mother on Dune was not signified properly. The transformation in the book was much more poignant and there was very little explanation to Jessica's daughter Aliah, and the Abomination. Jessica's role was seriously deminished in the second movie.
Kwisatz Haderach, I found the significance and explaition and the powers were inadequately explained and explored by the movie. As mentioned earlier, the significance of powers of Reverend Mothers. But it wasn't shown how much of a big deal the Kwisatz Haderach actually was and how much more powerful he was. His precience, past memories should have been more visually and nuanced.
It felt like the director was too cautious or afraid to explore the more mysterious and transcedental parts of the story, which in my opinion are the core of the story. Without it feels almost pointless and like a different plot, where Paul just fights to free the Fremen and Jessica gets a nun spiritual job with the Fremen. While Paul is shown as a gifted fighter with some sort of special abilities, that don't look all that different to anyone else. Where in fact Paul's fighting when using weirding way would almost be incompreheble to the Fremen.
In summary, the movie is a visual feast with a theatrical presence of a masterpiece, but fails capture the magnitude of the main characters and their abilities and in essence what the power struggle (not just for spice) is all about. Could have been a 10/10.
My main issues with the movie are incomplete or reduxed storytelling and that the director decided not to include possiblly some of the most important and fascinating elements and scenes, at least for me, from the story.
The werding way. I was disappointed, since the technology was available, that the directoror did not incorporate the (Bene Gesserit) werding way martial art of Paul and Jessica, where the moments were so fast that it almost appeared as teleportation. This should have been in the movie, to emphasize how incredibly skilled, mysterious and god-like Paul and Jessica would be to the fremen (and the viewer).
Jessica's reverend mother transformation was not explained properly and seriously underperformed by the writing. The explanation of the magnitude and significance of what Reverend Mother is was not construed properly in the movie. Reverend mothers were seriously overpowered beings with strong powers and influence. The fact that there was another hidden reverend mother on Dune was not signified properly. The transformation in the book was much more poignant and there was very little explanation to Jessica's daughter Aliah, and the Abomination. Jessica's role was seriously deminished in the second movie.
Kwisatz Haderach, I found the significance and explaition and the powers were inadequately explained and explored by the movie. As mentioned earlier, the significance of powers of Reverend Mothers. But it wasn't shown how much of a big deal the Kwisatz Haderach actually was and how much more powerful he was. His precience, past memories should have been more visually and nuanced.
It felt like the director was too cautious or afraid to explore the more mysterious and transcedental parts of the story, which in my opinion are the core of the story. Without it feels almost pointless and like a different plot, where Paul just fights to free the Fremen and Jessica gets a nun spiritual job with the Fremen. While Paul is shown as a gifted fighter with some sort of special abilities, that don't look all that different to anyone else. Where in fact Paul's fighting when using weirding way would almost be incompreheble to the Fremen.
In summary, the movie is a visual feast with a theatrical presence of a masterpiece, but fails capture the magnitude of the main characters and their abilities and in essence what the power struggle (not just for spice) is all about. Could have been a 10/10.