I'm new to Dune. I think Villeneuve is a good, but not great director. BR2049 is one of my favorite movies, though. Just came out of Dune and I was bored out of my mind. The pacing is really slow and the movie is at least an hour too long. It's your standard hero's journey so far, but with really bland characters and way too much exposition.
I felt like the movie didn't trust the audience. Every object and its use is explained by characters talking about it or watching a instruction video. Remember that flying thing from K's car in BR2049 and how nobody needed to explain what it does because it was self evident? There are similar flying things in this movie that are pretty self-explanatory, but you have a woman telling another character what those objects do during an action scene. It's like that with many things of the Dune universe and you could trim at least thirty minutes by cutting those expositions.
The visuals are great, but don't really carry the movie. Maybe I need to read the book to get something out of the visuals, because the story of this movie is so bland that the visuals seem like a shiny distraction from an empty core.
My biggest gripe with the movie was a lack of emotional connection. Things just happened and nothing really evoked any emotions in me. I never resonated with any of the struggles the characters were going through and there were no real surprises in the movie. When something is set up, it happens as expected, which kinda sapped all the tension out of the movie after a while.
Honestly, I'm really surprised that I was this bored with a Villeneuve movie. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna rewatch it and have no desire to see the second one.