I refrained from reading this review until I had seen the film (yesterday). I can easily say I agree with the reviewer almost completely. The one bigger difference is that I enjoyed the first film a lot, despite its divergences from the book. The thing that gritted most in Part II was the complete butchering of Chani's character, turning her into an unlikeable, caustic non-Fremen atheist (along with the whole "lol, southern fundamentalists" shtick). Such a pity, because Chani is such a strong, grounded Fremen character in the book. Chalamet's performance here was also lacklustre, without confidence.
I also missed a better representation of the shield-melee fighting (the final battle was bland Hollywood fare), and the worm-riding seemed a bit too unbearable to be practicable (I imagined the worms travelling mostly on top of the sand when they are ridden, so there wouldn't be so much sand flying in their faces all the time). But there were a lot of amazing visuals and a lot of things done well, it wasn't all bad.
I didn't know about the switch to three films, but it certainly felt like it was building up for a third part (to be fair, even the book has a bit of that feel, though the sequel is quite jarring in its change of dynamic - in this case, the second film has built up to that in a better way).
The first Dune was the biggest slog I've sat through this decade, so this take makes me feel validated for avoiding the second one like the plague.
I refrained from reading this review until I had seen the film (yesterday). I can easily say I agree with the reviewer almost completely. The one bigger difference is that I enjoyed the first film a lot, despite its divergences from the book. The thing that gritted most in Part II was the complete butchering of Chani's character, turning her into an unlikeable, caustic non-Fremen atheist (along with the whole "lol, southern fundamentalists" shtick). Such a pity, because Chani is such a strong, grounded Fremen character in the book. Chalamet's performance here was also lacklustre, without confidence.
I also missed a better representation of the shield-melee fighting (the final battle was bland Hollywood fare), and the worm-riding seemed a bit too unbearable to be practicable (I imagined the worms travelling mostly on top of the sand when they are ridden, so there wouldn't be so much sand flying in their faces all the time). But there were a lot of amazing visuals and a lot of things done well, it wasn't all bad.
I didn't know about the switch to three films, but it certainly felt like it was building up for a third part (to be fair, even the book has a bit of that feel, though the sequel is quite jarring in its change of dynamic - in this case, the second film has built up to that in a better way).