I am not a huge fan of the Dune franchise. My husband, however, is. So that means we sat in the movie theater for over three hours (including the time for commercials and trailers before the movie itself) to see Dune: Part Two. Was it worth it?

Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), have been living with the Fremen after the massacre of their entire House. Half of the Fremen are suspicious of the pair while the other half believes Paul is a prophesied savior. As Paul works on becoming a Freman, earning the love of Chani (Zendaya) in the process, Jessica is forced the drink the Water of Life to become the new Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother for the tribe. Unknown to everyone except Jessica and Paul, she is pregnant, resulting in the premature awakening of her unborn daughter’s mind, giving Jessica the ability to converse with her. As the Reverend Mother, Jessica begins convincing the unfaithful portion of the Fremen that Paul is, indeed, fulfilling the prophesy, eventually travelling south to expand her reach. Shortly thereafter, House Harkonnen attacks the Fremen cave system, forcing the rest of the Fremen to also head south. Paul is unwilling due to having visions of a holy war if he did. He eventually gives in and travels south with the rest of the Fremen. Will this cause the death of millions as he foresaw?

Yes, this is a very long movie. No, it does not finish the story…there will be at least one more part coming. However, I will say that the movie didn’t feel like it was almost three hours long. There weren’t any parts that I felt dragged, though there were some parts that felt like they did some sort of time skip or that I missed something. Now, I never read any of the Dune books. So I’m not sure if this is something that happens in the book or if this was a creative decision. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to effect the actual storyline very much. It only made me feel a little disjointed a few times.

Is this worth watching? Meh. If you like the Dune franchise. This didn’t feel like a “must watch” movie. You will be perfectly fine if you skip it. Or maybe wait until all of the parts are released and watch it at home. I don’t think you will lose anything and you will have the luxury of a pause button.

Rating: B+

I normally don’t do holiday specials or things like that in my Christmas reviews. However, I was really looking forward to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special so I felt I needed to review it.

Kraglin (Sean Gunn) tells Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) about a time that Yondu (Michael Rooker) ruined Christmas for Peter (Chris Pratt). Wanting to make Christmas special for Peter this year, Mantis and Drax travel to Earth to bring back Kevin Bacon as a present.

Most of this holiday special is Mantis and Drax cavorting around Los Angeles looking for Kevin Bacon. There were some really funny moments. The aliens stumbling onto the Chinese Theater, where tourists frequently flock to get pictures with people dressed up as characters, and ending up with a ton of people wanting to take pictures with them? Pretty epic. I also loved Mantis yelling at Drax every time Drax tried to use violence as a solution to a problem. She was usually rather meek in previous movies so it was nice to see her be a little more forceful.

One of the things I didn’t like about the special is that it felt like I was missing something when it started. Well, it started as an animation, which I didn’t expect but when it changed over to live action, I felt a little lost. We have watched all of the MCU films/shows to date so there is no reason for me to feel like I’m missing information. The other thing I didn’t like was the look of Groot (Vin Diesel). I’m not exactly sure how old he’s supposed to be but the treeman looks like he’s been taking steroids or something. His torso is bulky but his head is way smaller. I don’t like it.

If you are a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy (GoG), obviously you’ll watch the holiday special. You might be a little lost if you haven’t watched GoG vol 2, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. But if you are up to date on all of the MCU movies, this should be a good time for you.