Mostly OK but largely underwhelming after how good first part was. My main gripe is that some of the changes were just baffling and some boil down to having Zendaya more prominent role for the sake of it. Spoilers ahead.
The good:
Jessica change after becoming reverend mother, her ruthless abuse of believers and complete disregard of social norms when talking to Alia was top tier,
Showing the division between believers and sceptics among Fremen,
Skipping Leto the Elder,
Skipping Jessica/Gourney drama,
The meh:
Feyd Rautha while acted well was just Jared Leto Joker,
Stilgar going full moron,
Giedi Prime color palette was annoying,
Paul changing water of life was almost glossed over and had to make room for Chani giving her tear to bring Paul back,
Correct me if I’m wrong here but book Paul wasn’t fully aware of the consequences of going on revenge path before becoming KH and it’s the opposite in the movie which is going to make Messiah part even weirder,
The wtf:
Chani drama at the end is extremely bad writing. It doesn’t stand the test of “would two adult people who talk to each other do that?”. It’s unnecessary too since Chani could be similarily displeased with instrumental use of Fremen but the acting makes it obvious this is about marrying Irulan (who’s the tragic story here, not Chani ffs),
There’s no Spacing Guild in the last scenes, therefore there is noone to explain how big of a deal to prescience Kwizatz Haderach is,
The end where Landsraad rejects Paul ascendancy and everyone immediately hops on spaceships to do battle. Like get some rest, maybe have a drink and orgy, I don’t know.
Chani drama at the end is extremely bad writing. It doesn’t stand the test of “would two adult people who talk to each other do that?”. It’s unnecessary too since Chani could be similarily displeased with instrumental use of Fremen but the acting makes it obvious this is about marrying Irulan (who’s the tragic story here, not Chani ffs),
I think it makes more sense in the books (if i remember correctly)
Book spoilers
The movie shortens the timeframe Paul and Jessica spend with the Fremen from multiple years down to months. Probably due to wanting to keep Paul’s sister Alia as an unborn child, rather than having to cast a child actor to play this difficult role. And maybe to also keep the stroy a bit simpler, since the second part already has a lot going on.
This also means that Paul’s and Chani’s first child Leto doesn’t exist. Who in the book gets killed by an attack on the sietch (and Alia gets taken hostage by the emperor).
Imagine losing your child and then your husband goes on marrying the daugther of the person in a way responsible for your childs murder.
All good points that I wouldn’t have an issue with as changes to the original if movie script followed through with that premise. To add to your argument - in Villeneuve’s version Chani has no relationship with Jessica who’s a concubine and could introduce her to space royals / feudalism. They also removed mentions of how brutal Fremen social norms are - there is no mention of wife of Jamis that Paul had to take in (as well as their child, and another child that Jamis got in the same way Paul did).
Even with all this setup it is made clear to the viewer that Paul is aware that Chani will have trouble understanding marrying Irulan. This could be resolved by having a talk beforehand. For some reason Paul decides to deliver these news to Chani in some smug power trip.
Yeah, i think in general the change in time frame throws off all kind of things and while keeping Alia as an unborn embryo works quite well, some other parts suffer. I also would have liked to see Jamis wife/children, since that could have given even more emotional impact than the more general mourning sequence we got. But i can also understand that this would have added yet another story line to an already full movie.
Interestingly enough i recently watched the old Dune movie as comparison and was suprised that out of the slightly above 2h run time they spend 1,5h to reach the point where Dune Part I ends.
Never looked into it but it looked like Lynch planned for a much longer film and had to cut production short, hence much more exposition up until that point.
yeah, Chani shit was completely unnecessary, especially in a world where official concubines do exist, loved Feyd Rautha though, generally it’s more chaotic than first movie, also looks like some content was compressed in time, which is annoying, Paul left me unimpressed, like all this macho-ing after drinking the juice, aside from this he’s just walking, where? why? pure chaos
I agree that leaving Chani’s reaction open to interpretation as jealousy instead of anger at Paul’s manipulation of the Fremen is bad, but I liked Chani’s arc otherwise. And I wonder if they’re setting it up for Paul’s transition to the Prophet in Messiah to be a reunion with Chani.
Mostly OK but largely underwhelming after how good first part was. My main gripe is that some of the changes were just baffling and some boil down to having Zendaya more prominent role for the sake of it. Spoilers ahead.
The good:
The meh:
The wtf:
I think it makes more sense in the books (if i remember correctly)
Book spoilers
The movie shortens the timeframe Paul and Jessica spend with the Fremen from multiple years down to months. Probably due to wanting to keep Paul’s sister Alia as an unborn child, rather than having to cast a child actor to play this difficult role. And maybe to also keep the stroy a bit simpler, since the second part already has a lot going on.
This also means that Paul’s and Chani’s first child Leto doesn’t exist. Who in the book gets killed by an attack on the sietch (and Alia gets taken hostage by the emperor).
Imagine losing your child and then your husband goes on marrying the daugther of the person in a way responsible for your childs murder.
All good points that I wouldn’t have an issue with as changes to the original if movie script followed through with that premise. To add to your argument - in Villeneuve’s version Chani has no relationship with Jessica who’s a concubine and could introduce her to space royals / feudalism. They also removed mentions of how brutal Fremen social norms are - there is no mention of wife of Jamis that Paul had to take in (as well as their child, and another child that Jamis got in the same way Paul did).
Even with all this setup it is made clear to the viewer that Paul is aware that Chani will have trouble understanding marrying Irulan. This could be resolved by having a talk beforehand. For some reason Paul decides to deliver these news to Chani in some smug power trip.
Yeah, i think in general the change in time frame throws off all kind of things and while keeping Alia as an unborn embryo works quite well, some other parts suffer. I also would have liked to see Jamis wife/children, since that could have given even more emotional impact than the more general mourning sequence we got. But i can also understand that this would have added yet another story line to an already full movie.
Interestingly enough i recently watched the old Dune movie as comparison and was suprised that out of the slightly above 2h run time they spend 1,5h to reach the point where Dune Part I ends.
Never looked into it but it looked like Lynch planned for a much longer film and had to cut production short, hence much more exposition up until that point.
yeah, Chani shit was completely unnecessary, especially in a world where official concubines do exist, loved Feyd Rautha though, generally it’s more chaotic than first movie, also looks like some content was compressed in time, which is annoying, Paul left me unimpressed, like all this macho-ing after drinking the juice, aside from this he’s just walking, where? why? pure chaos
I agree that leaving Chani’s reaction open to interpretation as jealousy instead of anger at Paul’s manipulation of the Fremen is bad, but I liked Chani’s arc otherwise. And I wonder if they’re setting it up for Paul’s transition to the Prophet in Messiah to be a reunion with Chani.