Overall I found the 2nd installment in this series to be quite entertaining. The film is obviously very beautiful and comes complete with an amazing Zimmer score. I really enjoy sci-fi and was a fan of the original film. There is really no reason why I wouldn't just enjoy the hell out of this movie given my particular taste in films but I have to say that I wasn't as wowed with this as I would have liked to have been.
There will be spoilers in this writeup so if you haven't yet seen the movie and want to, maybe watch it first and then come back to talk to me later.
You have been warned!
I presume that you don't need a background as to what is going on in this movie so I will go ahead and skip to the thing that I have a problem with as far as this movie is concerned. They are quite petty, I will admit that.
Does this have to be a "tween story?"
Timothée Chalamet is a decent actor and I guess to a certain degree he was necessary given the source material. However, I do not like films getting turned into "Twilight", so to speak and it is impossible for me to not feel this way when we have a 130lb guy that is meant to be our badass protagonist.
Any time there is an action movie where superpowers aren't involved I always have to roll my eyes when someone who was the size I was when I was 15 is kicking the crap out of everyone he encounters. This isn't to say that someone that small couldn't be a real fighter hell, look at some of the really small people in boxing, I am sure they would make quick work of me in a fight. However, I don't find it realistic that someone that small could be a force to be dealt with in inter-galactic warfare. Perhaps as a tactician, but as an actual soldier? Sorry, I just don't buy it.
Emperor is defeated entirely too easily
The big showdown in Part 2 is when Emperor Shaddam comes to Arrakis to finally address the problems in person. Now I am not someone that has read all the books and I don't claim to know all the lore but the way they present the Emperor is in a way that he is not to be fucked with and can squash anything in his path.
Sure the native inhabitants of Arrakis have figured out how to harness the power of the sand-worms to trick them into attacking the Emperor's setup but wouldn't the most powerful figure in the story, good or bad, have at least some element of defense that they could put up a decent fight? Prior to the "final battle" we are treated to about 30 minutes of arguments about how it is "suicide" to attempt this sort of attack against such a powerful enemy, yet they cut through the Emperor's defenses in something like 5 minutes.
I get that the Emperor needs to be defeated as far as the story is concerned, but this seemed like too much of a "walk in the park" for a group of people that have been seriously struggling with the Emperor's advances on their planet for quite some time.
Also, what's with the swords as a primary weapon? We have already established that there are a litany of explosives and other such ranged weapons so this doesn't make any sense to me.
It's a really long film, was this necessary?
Die hard fans are going to chastise me for this, but I feel like almost any film on any subject shouldn't be nearly 3 hours long. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to do my usual and complain about there being unnecessary filler in this movie although there is some. Unlike some other epic films that I have really looked forward to such as Lord of the Rings, I feel as though the Dune movies have been really long for the sake of being really long, and not because they needed to be really long.
Obviously this is my personal opinion and others are going to disagree and this is fine. I ALWAYS think that a film, once it goes over 90 minutes, that there better be a really good reason for doing so and I just don't feel as though this movie accomplishes that. Despite having seriously looked forward to this film for quite some time I found myself saying "sheesh, just get on with it already!" at multiple times during the movie.
So like I said, these slight gripes are petty and purely subjective. I am not trying to say that this is not a good film because it is a good film. It just isn't perfect the way that I feel it could be. It is a visual masterpiece and is up there with the best science fiction movies of all time. I just don't think it is perfect like a lot of fanbois out there suggest that it is.