I think it's not as good as 1st movie. Or maybe my perception has changed or my own mood was wrong. But in my review of the 1st part I did mention, how I liked some nuances in behavior, little gestures here and there, that were able to deliver complex emotions. It felt like 2nd part was lacking those. Or maybe they were not as impactful. But I do not think this is for lack of trying.
You see, the 1st part does match the kind of introductory nature of the book. Not like Herbert stopped describing a lot of complex stuff in 2nd part or following books, but 1st part was, indeed, heavier on exposition. It made sense, as well, since this was a new world not only for us, but also for Paul: he also needed to learn the ways of Arrakis. Then at some point it became more focused on character development and difficult choices. Very difficult choices. Extremely difficult choices.
This adaptation lost that, at least to an extent. Which is understandable, since in the book there a dozens of pages with Paul's inner thoughts and struggles about the future and the path he needs to take. It is literally impossible to put all of them into a movie format. But they kind of skipped those struggles for the most part. It's essentially 1 scene, and that's it. It also skipped very powerful scene of Paul morning his father, which was very important for the character, too.
Surprisingly, the TV show adaptation did manage to have both. They had visions, which did suggest complexity of the future, although did not deliver the burden either. And I believe Paul there also had a chance to mourn Leto, which made him more human. The show had its own problems, but these 2 things were handled a bit better.
The 2nd movie failed at those, but it is still a good watch. It is still aesthetically pleasing, and I think it was more dynamic compared to 1st part, again because of the nature of the original book. If you liked the 1st part, you will definitely like the 2nd one. But if you also read the books you may be a bit disappointed with Paul, who looked a bit... I do no know, despotic? Maybe this is intentional, though, since there will be 3rd part, and the character may be expanded better there.
