diamarkin

As with every other attempt to bring this book to the screen, if you haven't read the book(s) you'll be lost very quickly. It's mainly set on a desert planet, so most of the scenery is stark and super dusty. It uses terms like Gom Jabbar, Kwisatz Haderach, Shai halud & Bene Gesserit. Hard enough to remember when you read the books and loved them, almost impossible to catch in this movie which when all is said and done... is really just one long setup for sequels. Almost no character development with only two standout actors in it - neither of which plays Paul Atriedes.

I'll keep this fairly blunt. Johhny Depp was a mistake for 2 reasons.1. He phones it in! Even the cgi animals act him off the screen.. and they are ridiculously absent for the vast majority of this movie. He's about as emotive as a brain-dead sea anemone & can't decide on an accent - which he mumbles whenever he lands on one in the moment. 2. His Look/Costume...It's shocking - I can almost understand the logic that dictated his look being stark and blonde - almost, but he can't pull it off. There's nothing malevolent about him. I could go on about the bland but let's talk about everyone else. The two romance sub plots have huge holes in them and are barely given a nod within the movie. The search for a mother sub plot is also very thin, and I have to really question as to why 'Fantastic Beasts' was even included in the title, because the beasts rarely were included in the movie.

I am an avid admirer of J k Rowlings work, and I am very happy to re-watch the first in this series many many times, but this one needed way more of her magic to justify my ever bothering with it again.

On a very basic level this movie has no real story line, no continuity and no common sense. It's stated early on that military groups have been sent in and disappeared - so of course you send in a group of untrained females - at least a couple of whom are emotionally broken. They suspect the "phenomenon" is biological - so of course they don't take hazmat suits, or even breathing filters. Immediately upon entering the Shimmer they wake up in their tents which are placed unreasonably far from each other and state they have lost several days...then nothing else is said or done about that missing time. They are not at all worried about their inability to communicate to the outside. With no idea of the dangers they are facing, THEY SPLIT UP constantly and of course - get into trouble. Even after they're aware of some of the potential dangers - they settle down to sleep in unfortified structures, and set no sentry watches.

All of this set me up to nit pick within the first 30 mins of the film and there were a plethora of nits requiring serious picking. Banal acting, shocking plot holes, too much money spent on CGI and not enough on decent script writing. It's been said before, but the ending of this movie was prime evidence of the screenwriter falling into a coma and I found the entire movie a gigantic yawn fest.