Just got back from seeing it. It’s a stunning film visually and the sound is incredible, some wonderful acting performances. Absolutely worth seeing at the cinema, a proper event film made all the better by the movie theatre sound and visual experience.
I enjoyed it but I did much prefer Part 1 (which is one of my favourite films in the last decade and I would rate as a 9 out of 10). I mean they’re constrained in terms of narrative by the source material (which I’ve not read but my other half has) but neither of us found the ending of the film particularly satisfying.
Spoiler
I mean I couldn’t work out why a nomadic people who were essentially the best hand to hand fighters going but who presumably had limited experience of flying spaceships around would suddenly be stealing the emperors fleet and going off for some kind of space dogfight against more experienced and capable armies representing the rest of the empire
Maybe I missed something
I hear they’re making part three now so it’ll be interesting to see where they go with it next. This one felt closer to a 7.5/10 for me, but I’m probably being harsh in comparing it to the first one which I loved.
I'd agree with this - I enjoyed it, it was a great cinema experience, and in terms of visuals, acting, production and sound design, atmosphere etc. it's leagues above most blockbusters (I watched Argylle the day before, and dear lord...) Any scene with the Harkonnens was a standout.
But some of the desert scenes felt a little slow, and emotionally it didn't pack much of a punch for me, which was a little disappointing when they had three hours to build things up...
Spoiler
... except when Paul has to betray Chani at the end, which was well done in not being melodramatic or overegged.
I also agree that the ending was too rushed and 'easy' for it to be truly satisfying - the Emperor/Harkonnens' entire army is dispatched without any real trouble at all, and pretty much just down to a full frontal charge with overwhelming force.
You'd think the Emperor and Baron would be pretty good at navigating life-or-death situations in order to get to where they were, but they both go out pretty tamely without seeming to try that hard to turn their situation around. I read the book too long ago to remember if it ends in a similar way, so maybe they were staying faithful to that, but considering they definitely strayed away from the source material elsewhere to make the narrative flow, I feel like they could've done more to inject some jeopardy and tension into Paul's victory. The contrast was maybe more jarring because in the first Dune, the Baron is very formidable and essentially 'wins', so the comedown here is stark.
The fight with Feyd was good, though - sometimes films really get the sound of blows landing spot on, and this was one of them.
Will definitely re-watch at home to see if being able to focus on smaller details rather than being swept alongside with the sensory bombardment makes me appreciate the film more or less.
