David Calder

Left the theater disappointed. They did the book justice mostly but left much to be desired leaving out a few key details that gave certain characters more impact on the story and development of Paul, while also changing certain details that took away or altered completely what transpired in the book. Aside from this there is also an aggravating overture throughout the movie that I suppose is supposed to give the audience a feeling of mystique but in reality actually interferes with characters dialogue in certain moments and honestly just becomes annoying by the end. I get that it's a lot of material to cover so I kept asking myself: "do these little details really matter?" Spoiler: they cast dr liet kynes as a woman. While that doesn't entirely matter, what does matter is for that character to come across as strong in comparison to the offworlder atreides, and unfortunately they took out the one scene in the book where they have dinner with the guild, kynes, and smugglers. This one scene is important because it's supposed to highlight the difference in cultures between the fremen and off worlders. Instead of including these details that gives the reader a feeling of respect for their culture and how hard life is there, everything feels rushed to get Paul as fast as possible to the Fremen by the end of the movie and everything gets glossed over. I understand they want to make this into 2 or 3 parts but the movie is already 2 hours and 35 minutes, we could have gone a whole 3 hours to squeeze in these important details. In consolidation of my thoughts: the Duke should have had more impact and instead feels cut short, Kynes was a man, Paul doesn't cry for his father in the tent with his mother, Paul doesn't fight Jamis and kill him immediately upon meeting him, the Harkonnens had red hair, there was no mention of Mentats or their importance or how Paul had Mentat abilities. On positive side, they got the world building down pat pretty well as far as ornithopters, caladan, arrakis..just slight changes in details that aggravate.. this is starting to feel like a rant though and I'll just say if you go to see it, be ready to feel meh by the end of it.