Just saw Dune yesterday.
Pros: It's honestly not nearly as woke as the race swapped characters would suggest. The cinematography is great, and I think the cast was well selected (unnecessary race swapping aside). They did a great job of designing the costumes and the spaceships too.
I haven't seen anything in the way of woke pandering and politics thrown in your face, but Zendaya doesn't really do anything in this movie so who knows about the next one.
Cons: It's a bit confusing who/what everyone/everything is if you haven't read the book.
You will have to use the bathroom after watching it.
Better than I expected. Probably more consistent than the Lynch version, but that's ultimately half of why it falls short. The other half being that it's literally just half a story.
The cinematography is midwit great, i.e. it fools people into thinking it's deeper than it is. 2049 was the same way. Lots of long, unnecessary slow panning shots over drab, subdued landscape. Worse in Dune because sand dunes look the same everywhere.
I thought Paul was cast well surprisingly, given that I don't really like that French kid. Jessica felt a little weak. Gurney and Idaho were cast well too I think. I don't know about Thufir though. While he is a Mentat Master of Assassins, he's also old enough to have served 3 Atreides, so I think he just had too much vitality. I think Patrick Stewart or someone similar in age, build, and sci-fi acting would have been a better choice. There's also no Feyd-Rautha at all which is disappointing.
I get this with all of Villeneuve's stuff. I remember thinking Sicario was some of the dumbest shit I ever watched, particularly the ending - but I can't remember exactly why because it was simply not very memorable. I rarely abandon movies mid-watch but I did so for both Arrival and BR2049 because they were respectively incredibly boring and incredibly stupid. You wouldn't think so to hear anyone talk about his output, so the only explanation for the mismatch in content vs reception is the fact that it all looks so gorgeous and feels contemplative.
People are very suggestible. When presented with something that is very obviously trying to be calculated and contemplative, they rarely reach the conclusion that says 'wait a minute, there's actually nothing much worth contemplating here.' 'Midwit great' is a good way of putting it.