TCTTS said:
The first hour and fifty five minutes or so = all-time, absolutely mesmerizing masterpiece. One of the most stunning sci-fi films I've ever seen, up to that point.
The last forty minutes or so, though = a little meandering, lacking the focus/promise of everything that came before. Very much a wandering sand walk through the desert, both on screen and in terms of plot.
At least in my opinion.
Basically, once Paul and Lady Jessica were 100% on their own, after Duncan Idaho and Liet-Kynes both died, it lost a bit of steam for me.
That said, on my eventual rewatch, I have a feeling the final act will likely play better. I think my biggest issue was with the marketing. Because the main trailer 100% sells a massive, Braveheart-esque desert battle as the climax, with a blue-eyed Paul flipping and slicing his way though enemy soldiers, absolutely going off. For months, and up through a decent chunk of the movie tonight, I assumed everything was leading to that climactic conflict, solely because the trailer billed it as such. But then, once we got that sequence as a vision instead, I knew something was off, but was still not at all prepared for how "small" the actual climax was. Even with everyone and their dog saying the movie ends in somewhat premature fashion, in the moment, I was still thinking, "No way this is where they end it."
But again, now that I know, hopefully it'll play better the second time. If anything, the final fight was a great character arc moment for Paul, and I'm always preaching about how that's what matters most. So it definitely delivered in that regard. Now, I just need to sit with it for a while, then give it a good rewatch before finally settling on my thoughts completely.
Sorry to dig up an old post, but I'm just now coming to this thread.
I frequently check my watch in a movie, just to gauge where I'm at in the story, and it was pretty clear to me at the 2 hour mark this was how it was going to end. Not specifically because I have not read any books, but because we hadn't even met up with the Fremen yet and Zendya hadn't even been introduced. It was pretty clear, IMO, that there wasn't time to set up a big climax. Plus, the Part 1 subtitle made it pretty clear this wasn't going to be a completed story.
I don't know man, I wasn't surprised at all. I'd agree that the trailer used the fight scenes in the visions to make it seem like there was a big battle coming, but at some point in this movie given the lack progress it was clear to me.
All that being said, I 100% left the theater last Friday thinking that the audience reaction to this was going to be pretty bad because of this. I was happy to see that I was wrong!
