movies

Mostly OK but largely underwhelming after how good first part was. My main gripe is that some of the changes were just baffling and some boil down to having Zendaya more prominent role for the sake of it. Spoilers ahead.

The good:

• Jessica change after becoming reverend mother, her ruthless abuse of believers and complete disregard of social norms when talking to Alia was top tier,
• Showing the division between believers and sceptics among Fremen,
• Skipping Leto the Elder,
• Skipping Jessica/Gourney drama,

The meh:

• Feyd Rautha while acted well was just Jared Leto Joker,
• Stilgar going full moron,
• Giedi Prime color palette was annoying,
• Paul changing water of life was almost glossed over and had to make room for Chani giving her tear to bring Paul back,
• Correct me if I'm wrong here but book Paul wasn't fully aware of the consequences of going on revenge path before becoming KH and it's the opposite in the movie which is going to make Messiah part even weirder,

The wtf:

• Chani drama at the end is extremely bad writing. It doesn't stand the test of "would two adult people who talk to each other do that?". It's unnecessary too since Chani could be similarily displeased with instrumental use of Fremen but the acting makes it obvious this is about marrying Irulan (who's the tragic story here, not Chani ffs),
• There's no Spacing Guild in the last scenes, therefore there is noone to explain how big of a deal to prescience Kwizatz Haderach is,
• The end where Landsraad rejects Paul ascendancy and everyone immediately hops on spaceships to do battle. Like get some rest, maybe have a drink and orgy, I don't know.