Your points are sound. Yeah sure, Dune is one of the best selling science fiction novels of all time so many people have indeed read it but compared to the overall general population I would be very surprised if more than 5% of the general population has read it.

My wife saw the movie with me and she has never read the book and she told me that she was pretty much "lost" and felt the movie was "slow" until the surprise attack on Arakeen.

Thats the problem theres such a deep back story to a lot of the characters that were bought out in the prequal books.Plus the sequels what are they going to do keep bringing back all characters in Golem form again and again?

This is really well made and funny as hell.

Some info on the next Dune film (part 2),

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/denis-villeneuve-dune-2-filming-summer-1235182350/

So I finally saw it. I enjoyed it.

Good to hear! Have you read the book? If you haven't and you still enjoyed the movie that means that Villeneuve did a great job with his adaptation!

Having said that, I can totally understand why someone who has not read the book might find the movie to be "slow".

Yah, I read the book and watch the 1984 version back in December. I am going off my memory, the basic "feel" of it all. I only read the book once.

I actually found this movie much more enjoyable than that version. The lack of any type of special effects regarding the space travel is a bummer, but I never got a vibe off the book that any of that was important. Only the fact that is was possible, and why it was possible.

There was more "pre-Harkonnen takeover" in the book, and I felt they could have done more with that. Wasn't there a discovery of a special garden in the book that was thought of as a great waste of water, that was tied into later with the desire to bring lush life back to Arrakis? They only had that one guy watering the palm trees in the movie, so I thought that was a missed opportunity.

I read an article or two about the actor playing the Baron, like he was all "Moar nekkid Baron!". But he was barely in the movie. It was a non-issue for me.

I felt the pacing was about right, It didn't feel like it was dragging or rushed.

I think Stellan Skaarsgard did a great job as the Baron and his portrayal is much more faithful to the book compared to the way the Baron was portrayed in the David Lynch film. The Baron there behaved more "over the top" for cinematic effect.

Christopher Walken cast as the emperor in Dune Part Two:
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/christopher-walken-dune-part-2-emperor-shaddam-iv-1235265416/

Yeah I read that yesterday. I know Walken will be great as he always is.

His performance was adequate for the material he was given.


Wheels

His role was really tiny. He didn't have much to work with to be honest. Having said that, Jose Ferrer was more memorable as Shaddam IV in the Lynch film.

Everything about the Lynch film is memorable - in that it was so bad it's hard to forget it.

Dune 2nd part was pretty good, nice picture, good sound, good acting.

It made me quite uncomfortable sometimes though, when I realized Paul was half Muhammad, Half Gaddafi.

I hadn't seen how much medieval inspiration was in the story when reading the books.

What still baffles me though, is having chosen Chalamet as the hero of an action movie. It's pretty hard to believe this matchstick is a feared knife fighter tbh, even if his acting is great.

You obviously have not read the book because you would have known that from the start had you read it!

I have read the books. 35 years ago though.

Somehow it didn't make me as uncomfortable at the time, most likely because muslims weren't bombing and beheading us in our own cities by then.

Yes, I think that is an excellent point you bring up.