Accidental Aesop: Letting paranoia overrule your reason and logic will blow up in your face. It is revealed in this film that Mohiam (who felt that the bloodline has been growing too powerful to control) convinced Shaddam (who was growing jealous of Leto's popularity) to orchestrate the destruction House Atreides, which kicked off Paul journey to becoming the Muad'Dib and ends up overthrowing the regime those two belonged to, turning the whole storyline into a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by their own actions.
Feyd threatens to take Chani for his own if he wins his duel with Paul. Is he being sincere, or given that he seems to care for his own concubines, is he just trying to psyche his opponent out with trash talk? Either would be perfectly in-character for him.
The flashback depicting the Baron playing with baby Jessica has been subject to two alternate interpretations. Some see him as tenderly playing with his daughter and take it as evidence he Used to Be a Sweet Kid, while some take his stoic expression while doing so as evidence he was always the abusive sociopath he is now.
Alternatively, he may have felt genuine love and affection for Jessica but regarded such emotions as weaknesses within himself, explaining why she never knew him. He had her sent away.
In the book, Paul marries Irulan purely for political reasons and Chani fully understands. The movie implies Paul is doing it for the same reasons but with the wrinkle of Chani being heartbroken and leaving for parts unknown in protest of Paul's ascendance. However, audience members found themselves reading Paul's declaration of love preceding his demand for Irulan's hand in marriage differently:
Some find it to be a half-assed attempt to cover for himself before he pursued another, more powerful woman now that he's mad with power.
Others believe him to be sincere, but hoping that Chani believed him before he went through with his plan, which is most likely what the movie was going for.
Another group thinks he knew Chani wouldn't be behind his plan and his words to her were an Anguished Declaration of Love before he knowingly drives her away.
When Jessica tells Reverend Mother Mohiam that she “chose the wrong side”, Mohiam remains astute and replies to Jessica that she of all people should know that “there are no sides.” Was this Mohiam’s way of admitting defeat to Jessica but showing no regrets of her choice? Or was Mohiam subtly implying to Jessica that she made the real mistake and that Jessica only won….for now. Considering how things will end in the future for the Atreides family which isn’t good, and Jessica’s legacy among the Bene Gesserit a millennia later is simply remembered as “Jessica’s mistake,” it’s very likely Mohiam either knows or foresees how hollow this victory is for the Atreides in the future. Implying that Jessica and Paul may have won the day, but Mohiam and the Bene Gesserit will get the last laugh.
After Jessica drinks the Water of Life, she visibly goes through a massive shift in her character and becomes The Corruptor to Paul. Was this Jessica truly embracing her newfound role in the prophecy? Or was this Alia influencing her mother? Ultimately making her the true corrupter to Paul and Jessica? Considering Jessica seems to confine an awful lot to Alia anytime she makes a decision and much of Jessica’s role in the film seem to mirror Alia’s role in the novel, it’s very likely Alia is the one in control and is influencing Jessica.
Ass Pull: Aside from being a stark deviation from the books, the revelation that Reverend Mother Mohiam orchestrated the destruction of the Atreides, by convincing an initially unwilling Emperor not less, offers more questions than answers for her actions in the duology. In the first movie, she demanded the Baron to spare Paul and Jessica, the implication at the moment being that this was the most influence the Bene Gesserit could exert to save the Atreides bloodline and a possible Kwisatz Haderach candidate from a plan of extermination they had not pushed — she almost says this outright in her statementent to Jessica that their order did all they could and that a path has been laid for Paul if he's the One. Now, with the notion that the whole destruction of the Atreides was her own idea all the time, her actual plans for Jessica and Paul becomes downright inscrutable. If she was still planning to make her continue the Bene Gesserit breeding program, this would require at the very least that they never discovered her role in their clan's betrayal, which would otherwise lead to a hostile potential KH unleashed on them — exactly what ends up happening in the second part.
It's very satisfying to watch the cowardly, murderous, bullying thug Rabban be reduced to a pathetic, terrified wreck with ease by Feyd-Rautha and forced to kiss the latter's boots when Feyd arrives to take command of Arrakis.
After how incredibly evil they've both been—and how much power they've also lost over the course of the Fremens' uprising, the Baron and Rabban—the former's suit being cut on the Emperor's orders specifically—each being snuffed out by Paul and Gurney respectively is appropriately karmic—and especially with neither getting any special fanfare and both going out pathetically too.
Especially regarding the Baron's death at the hands of Paul. Given how some longtime book fans were let down with Alia killing the Baron without him getting to meet Paul in the original book, seeing the film give Paul the final blow against the Baron was more satisfying for them.
After how he got tortured by her prior—and with how she underestimated and betrayed him as well, seeing Paul get to project his "SILENCE!!!" onto a powerless Reverend Mother Mohiam is also pretty satisfying too.
Given how he betrayed his supposed surrogate son Duke Leto and conspired to take down House Atreides, which tore Paul's family apart, it's satisfying to see the once dreadful Emperor Shaddam bowed down and forced to kiss Paul's ring when he won the duel challenge for the throne.
Creepy Awesome: Jessica becoming a sinister and manipulative cult leader after her Face–Heel Turn was pretty widely acclaimed by the fan-base, who found her new personality fascinating and making her both utterly terrifying and really cool.
Paul post-Face–Heel Turn as well. The film treats his acceptance of becoming the Dark Messiah to the Freemen as both horrifying and awe inspiring in equal measure.
Everything about Giedi Prime, from the fashion to the architecture to their sun to even their fireworks, is made to be as sinister, alien and downright "evil" as possible. It's also amazingly cool and distinctive and damn visually impressive, and as a result are some of the most memorable scenes in the movie.
Speculation abounds about Tim Blake Nelson's still undisclosed character in the otherwise fully revealed cast, with the most popular options being either Count Fenring, who is similarly absent from promotional materials in a way that reminds of his own role in the book, or Edric, who would be making an early appearance in order to set up the film adaptation of Dune Messiah. Whatever his role was, his scenes were cut from the final movie and the character remains officially unrevealed.
Another popular theory, although less serious, was that Count Fenring would be played by Kyle MacLachlan, Paul's actor from the 1984 film, in a suprise meta-cameo. It didn't happen either.
The film's plot lacks the book's time skip, which means Jessica is still pregnant when the story ends. Some fans felt cramming Paul's whole Fremen training, the rallying of all Fremen tribes, and the whole Muad'Dib insurrection's timeline (including its final victory) in a duration of less than nine months was implausible, and speculated Jessica used her Bene Gesserit abilities to slow foetus Alia's growth, which made the whole story less rushed according to an in-universe calendar.
Feyd-Rautha finally returns to the big screen after forty years and does not disappoint, being a badass and surprisingly honorable warrior who steals every scene he is in, thanks to Austin Butler's mesmerizing performance.
Post Face–Heel Turn Paul Atreides. He has some of the most badass scenes in the movie, with his speech upon arriving South being one example.
Fountain of Memes: Stilgar's Monty Pythonesque fanatical devotion towards Paul, frequent uses of Insane Troll Logic to convince others that Paul really is the Lisan al-Gaib, his many comical scenes that provide a welcome bit of levity to an otherwise dark film, and a highly memeable still of him staring at Paul's first Sand Worm ride in wide-eyed shock quickly made him a favorite target of memes.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In Romania, the movie got popular enough to cause the general audience become interested in the source material, with over 9000 books being sold in less than two weeks from the premiere of the movie in the country.
He Really Can Act: For anyone still convinced that Timothée Chalamet is an OK actor who coasts through films by being a Pretty Boy, his stellar performance as a Truer to the Text Paul Atreides blows that misconception out of the water even more so than the duology's first half did, which had some people still on the fence about his casting. Special note has been taken of the second half of the film where Paul's demeanor noticeably changes and he begins leaning more heavily into what he thinks the Fremen expect him to be, the internal rage and confliction of which Chalamet executes perfectly.
Many critics and viewers were very pleased that the film added depth to the female characters and gave them much more to do than the original source novel did. Jessica and Chani in particular were praised; the former for her gradual descent into manipulation and conspiracy as she fights to ensure the safety and future of her children by any means necessary, and the latter for her skepticism about Paul's role as the 'messiah' of her people and her eventual rejection of him altogether, both for leading the Fremen into an intergalactic war and for his apparent abandonment of her to marry Irulan. Irulan's expanded role was also well received, as it's made clear that she has authority and influence besides being a bargaining chip for her father, and she's even able to negotiate her marriage to Paul somewhat on her own terms.
Many of the criticisms of the second half of 1984's Dune are expertly addressed here; namely that it's a sped-up hard-to-follow mess which also crams Paul and the Harkonnens into "good guys and bad guys" roles that they don't have in the book. In this adaptation, not only is there tons of emotional build up to the final confrontation with the Emperor's Sardaukar which is missing from the 1984 film, but Paul is accurately portrayed as the Dark Messiah taking up a role he doesn't want to and which he knows will end in unimaginable suffering and bloodshed in much closer ways to how he's portrayed in the book, allowing to potentially adapt the rest of Frank Herbert's Dune canon, where the 1984 film's Happy Ending with Paul being a straight up Messianic Archetype and becoming The Good Emperor with zero hint of a holy war to come didn't leave much room to do so.
A lot of fans walked away from this film shipping Paul and Feyd-Rautha, despite the reveal that they are cousins, partially due to their fight at the end where Feyd-Rautha congratulated Paul on killing him. It also crosses over with Foe Yay Shipping due to them being enemies as well.
The fact that the one line of dialogue Alia speaks to Paul on-screen is a borderline sultry "I love you" can fall under here, which is also pretty easy to sell when Alia is portrayed by the ever-ethereal Anya Taylor-Joy.
Jerkass Woobie: Rabban. He's undeniably a monster, but he's ultimately just desperate for his family's love and is constantly mistreated by them. Even his death comes off as somewhat poignant.
Love to Hate: Feyd-Rautha is a creepy, sadistic, cruel despot-in-training who revels in spilling blood but his sense of honour and Austin Butler's charismatic performance means he's also extremely lovable.
Memetic Loser: Stilgar is memed on as an easily duped excitable idiot who forgets his cues, thanks to his constant simping for Paul and the climax where he takes a while to celebrate Paul finishing off Feyd-Rautha... which isn't far off from the truth.
Misaimed Fandom: Much like what happened with the original work, there have been several fans of the new film that seem to miss the point that Paul taking up the mantle of a Dark Messiah and starting a holy war that will cost billions of lives is NOT a good thing. The Harkonnens and Emperor getting their comeuppance for their betrayal and destruction of House Atreides is cathartic after seeing what monsters they were. However it doesn't change the fact that Paul losing his innocence, leading his friends to war and abandoning the love of his life for political gain is nothing short of a tragedy as opposed to a glorious victory.
Older Than They Think: This isn't the first Dune adaptation where Baron Harkonnen is killed by Paul instead of Alia. The Affectionate ParodyBehind the Dune (an erotic adventure game based on Dune (1992)) allows to do it in its counterpart to the throne room scene.
Special Effect Failure: While the whole Harkonnen planet sequence scores itself right into Visual Effects of Awesome, the crowds look strangely animated, almost like a crowd from sports videogame from the Seventh Generation, a sore spot in an otherwise excellent sequence.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Like with the first, this film contains several plot points that diverge from the novel, including Chani rejecting Paul after his Altar Diplomacy proposal with Irulan, Mohiam being the true Big Bad of the story, and Alia not yet being born by the end of the film yet being in communication with her mother telepathically as if she was. This is certain to cause some die-hard fans to reject it. Another point of contention is the complete removal of Thufir Hawat's character despite Stephen McKinley Henderson's well received performance in the first movie (it's been confirmed that scenes featuring him were filmed, but Denis Villeneuve's strong opinion against movie re-cuts makes it really unlikely that they'll ever surface).
Austin Butlerrevealed in interviews that he couldn't shave his head to play Feyd-Rautha as he had another film shoot scheduled immediately afterwards which required him to have long hair, and he wouldn't be able to grow his hair back in time. The hair and makeup team created an incredible bald cap for him that also covered up his eyebrows. It took three hours to properly apply it.
To say nothing of his introductory sequence on Giedi Prime, which was shot in infrared to mimic the light of a black sun. The result is that every shot contains a stark, almost bleached monochrome that perfectly complements the Harkonnen aesthetic. There's also the various seamless transitions from regular colors out of the black sunlight to the monochrome.
that he couldn't shave his head to play Feyd-Rautha as he had another film shoot scheduled immediately afterwards which required him to have long hair, and he wouldn't be able to grow his hair back in time. The hair and makeup team created an incredible bald cap for him that also covered up his eyebrows. It took three hours to properly apply it.