The reviews are almost uniformly warm, and the praise clusters where you would expect: the scale of the action, the sandworms, Hans Zimmer’s score, and Villeneuve’s handling of material long thought unfilmable. Among the cast, Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is the name most often singled out, with several critics also crediting Zendaya’s sceptical Chani for giving the film an emotional footing.
The reservations are quieter but consistent. Sight and Sound finds the romantic leads underheated and the story shaped like a middle instalment; Deadline says the plotting drifts whenever Paul leaves the frame; /Film calls much of the running time repetitive before a strong third act; The Hollywood Reporter objects to a thin portrayal of the Fremen as an indigenous people. Most critics also note, without much complaint, that the film ends as a set-up for a third. The spread is narrow: nobody dislikes it, and the argument is only over how much it leaves unresolved.
