Dune: Part 2 tries to balance the book’s canon with creative license (spoilers)

When I watched the start of the Denis Villaneuve’s first Dune movie (2021) with my youngest kid, it was a special moment that took me back decades.

I’ve been a superfan of the Dune universe ever since I read the books decades ago and the first film prompted me to re-read the first trilogy. And as I watched Dune: Part 2 this week at a special Warner Bros. screening, I know I should have been overjoyed to see that the curse of bad Dune adaptations was lifted. But I had to suppress feelings of becoming a supercritic. I think you should see both movies, but as a sci-fi devotee, I have to wonder whether the films — which are so well done — really do justice to the Frank Herbert novel that first debuted in 1965. (To explain some of this, this review is full of spoilers).