I just finished part 1 and, well, I’m kinda disappointed. It’s not bad, I think it’s actually pretty solid, but compared to the book it’s much worse in terms of story progression and characters. Some parts felt really rushed. I didn’t expect it to be better than the book, but I still expected better adaptation considering that (at least as far as I know) it was well received and I knew that it didn’t adapt whole book so I expected it to don’t skip too much. Is part 2 any better?
The second is watchable but is worse as an adaption.
The events in the first book are concluded in it. It’s not a trilogy adaption of Dune the book. Many of the characters have their actions and motivations swapped onto other characters. The ending changes some significant points. Feels like the third movie might end up being a freestyle attempt to start a “Dune Universe” IP rather than caring about the source material.
It’s kind of a mess but still fun in some bits. Not sure if I’ll bother to watch the third when it comes out.
Can you elaborate on how the 2nd movie didn’t follow the book well? Because in my opinion it was pretty damn close to the book…i did think that the ending in the movie was a bit rushed and not as clearly explained as in the book, and they clearly pushed off Paul’s demon sister baby to the 3rd movie, but other than that, it was pretty damn close? As far as book adaptations go, I felt this was easily top tier. It’s impossible to capture every single thing from the book. There’s just way too much shit that happened. Compared to adaptations that just straight up say “fuck you” to the books (witcher/3 body problem/silo) this felt very faithful to me.
I think the choice to set up Aliyah but ultimately leave her arrival for another time was a smart one, just as it was smart to not introduce Feyd until the second movie. Doing so really let him arrive in a big way, like “Oh shit, this guy is important.”
(Also good lord, Austin Butler steals the second movie so hard)
Not OP, but I didn’t like what they did to Chani. Kinda felt like that character got done dirty.
In the books, she was pretty much ride or die. The movie, not so much.
I think that’s a significant improvement. Chani being “ride or die” in the books is an awfully charitable way of saying that she basically has no purpose to her existence outside of Paul. The movie choosing to have her really show some resistance to the shitty / crazy stuff he’s doing gives her more inner life as a character. It also nicely sets up for Messiah where there’s definitely some tension between her and Paul (though never sufficiently explored IMO) over his choice to make Irulan his wife.
Since you are a fan of the books and you have already seen the first one, you should watch it, even you were disappointed with part one. You may find you like or you might be just as disappointed. Either way, it’s about a 3 hour commitment. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it again. If you do, you’ve found a movie you enjoy.
I never read the source material, so I can’t speak to the quality of adaptation. But I could not get past the casting and felt like the number of extremely famous faces detracted from the plot. The first movie I was somewhat able to be emersed in the world despite the main characters being the two most popular young stars of the year. But the second movie, I felt actors were cast in small parts they hardly got a chance to act in. Not that Christpher Walken can’t absolutely nail a small part. It just didn’t feel like some exotic Sci-fi world when every character was famous from 100 other movies.
Part 2 is done in the same spirit as 1. The characters and plot don’t get any better, if anything they become outright one-dimensional. Everything (facts, characters) are over-simplified caricatures of themselves — they like to take one thing that’s technically true and run it down into the ground.
The two things that bothered me the most is how Paul is completely robbed of any agency, and becomes this listless puppet with a sad smile, and how the plot revolves around religious fanaticism with only token mentions about prescience. Hell, I don’t remember if they even mentioned why spice is so important.
To be honest it’s killed any interest in me about seeing more movies. I mean I’ll watch them, I liked the image and music, but in a detached way like I’d watch an Avengers movie. I can imagine exactly how they’re going to be, shallow as fuck. Which is going to be completely stupid and pointless because the amount of political and sociological intrigue increases exponentially as you advance in the series.
I liked it well enough. I will definitely watch more movies in this version of the story and characters, year after year, or every few years. That was true of all previous versions as well though.
If you didn’t care for the first movie I don’t think the second will solve any of your complaints. I say this as someone who really liked both movies. I have criticisms, and I don’t think they’re close to being Villeneuve’s best work, but the worst Villeneuve movie is still better than most directors on their best day. But two is very definitely more of one, and if anything it amplifies the first movie’s flaws rather than diminishing them, so it’s very unlikely to address anything you didn’t like. That said, I will throw it out there that it may be worth watching anyway just to experience Austin Butler’s incredible take on Feyd Rautha, which is easily the best thing about the movie.
