The 2nd book (Dune Messiah) in the Dune series is by far the most political with intrigues and lots of scheming/plotting while Paul’s kingdom continues its growth and preparation for fall. It’s an interesting book but not exactly action-packed and for many (not me), it’s one of the least favorite of the series (I love it actually). Children of Dune (book 3) on the other hand is intense, action-packed, and has much of the pay-off’s set up in Messiah.
So watching the Children of Dune miniseries movie (almost 5 hours long) was curious because the miniseries doesn’t cover much of Children of Dune at all instead focusing on Messiah’s politics and set-up’s. Consequently, we get a film that has better acting, better dialogue, better costumes, and a stronger script but fails to capture the interest of the previous Dune miniseries because beyond a lot of talking and some scheming, not a lot happens. There’s a giant portion of the film devoted to setting up the “golden path” for Leto II but the audience is never told what it actually is or why it is so hard / so important.
I enjoyed the film but a lot of that is because I’ve read the books (and love them). Much of the film runs on the fumes of goodwill from the book fans. So if you’ve read the books, check this out. If not, you probably won’t appreciate it as much.