House of Gucci (2021) * *

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Starring:  Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston

House of Gucci is 153 minutes of buildup and about four minutes of payoff.   This is the A-list cast of A-list casts and they deliver as well as can be expected, but soon we're impatiently waiting for all of this backstabbing, scheming, and conflict to come to its head already.   The actors are having fun in roles which give them a license to overact, but to their credit they don't.... mostly.   Jared Leto under makeup looks like Benjamin Franklin with a mustache in his role as Paolo.  He's a sad, pathetic Gucci  trying to make a name for himself.   He wants to be a designer, but as his uncle Rodolfo (Irons) succinctly puts it:  "Don't ever show these designs to anyone."  Such scenes are few and far between. 

Based on a true story, House of Gucci is told from the point of view of Patrizia (Gaga), who works as an accountant in her father's trucking business.   One night at a party, she meets the awkward Maurizio Gucci (Driver) and she is smitten with him, or at least his last name.   Maurizio falls in love with Patrizia, which doesn't sit well with his father, the aforementioned Rodolfo, who soon disowns Maurizio.   Patrizia and Maurizio live their lives working for her father, she as an accountant and he has a truck washer, until Maurizio's Uncle Aldo (Pacino) invites him back into the family fold.   Patrizia now has another way into the Gucci fortune and after Maurizio regains his share after Rodolfo dies, she schemes to oust Aldo and his son Paolo (Leto) out of their share and thrust Maurizio into the forefront of the Gucci name and business.   As far as Maurizio's abilities as the controlling shareholder of Gucci, well he's a better truck washer.  

Everyone speaks English in distracting Italian accents which I always wonder why they're done at all.  We know the characters are all Italian.  Let them speak without accents.  So what if the movie doesn't have a dialect coach?   Despite their fame and fortune, the members of the Gucci family are desperately unhappy with themselves and each other, and they let us know it in all of their accented glory. 

All of this leads up to the eventual murder of Maurizio by a hit man hired by Patrizia and her psychic best friend (Hayek).   The murder itself and its aftermath are covered by an epilogue.   This may or may not be a spoiler for you, but House of Gucci is more interested in the supposed intrigue of a disintegrating family.   In theory, with these actors, such a topic would be engrossing enough to keep our attention, but House of Gucci tells this story at a snail's pace.  We're left with a story that doesn't measure up to the talent in front of the camera.     

Goliath (2021- Season Four on Amazon Prime) * * *

 

Starring:  Billy Bob Thornton, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Dern, Nina Arianda, Jena Malone, Elias Koteas, William Hurt, Haley Joel Osment

The fourth and final Goliath season mostly returns to the formula which made season one a success.  If you let Billy Bob Thornton do this thing in the courtroom and behind the scenes, you have a deliciously entertaining drama on your hands.   Goliath cuts down on the hallucinations and bad dreams which haunt Billy McBride (Thornton), although not entirely.   Billy deals with his near-death experience by dreaming that he's waiting for the train in High Noon.   The train represents death, and so on.   The fantasy sequences don't work nearly as well as Billy's battle with three Big Pharma drug manufacturers who knowingly addicted their customers.  

The ringleader of the Big Pharma defendants is George Zak (Simmons), who is gleefully ruthless in his pursuit of the almighty dollar.   He justifies his actions by stating he is in the "pain management" business and is willing to step on his own son and niece if they stand in his way.   Zak cuts a shady deal with the head of the firm, Samantha (Malone) going after him.   The three manufacturers will settle for relative pittances and the firm will receive its cut.   McBride is called in to the case at the request of Patti (Arianda), his longtime friend and partner who is aiming to become partner in the firm.   Samantha is a walking conflict of interest who suffers from MS who has an eleventh hour change of heart that apparently spares her from prosecution or disbarment.   If you consider she has the original lead attorney on the case Tom True (Koteas) murdered, you wonder how the show fails to deal with the consequences of her actions.

Billy also has another meeting with his longtime enemy Donald Cooperman (Hurt) in which we find out Donald has someone out there he despises worse than Billy.   Their reconciliation is handled in a subtly touching way, which is better because it's unexpected.   Besides Thornton, who is such a natural fit for the sardonic, cynical McBride, season four of Goliath is populated with deft supporting performances all around.   It isn't just the Billy Bob Thornton show, although it wouldn't be a horrible thing if it were. 

King Richard (2021) * * 1/2

Directed by: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring:  Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney, Tony Goldwyn

Will Smith plays the title role of Richard Williams, the domineering father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams who leads them on the path to immortality.   It's a tribute to Smith that he is able to eschew his natural likability to play the blowhard Williams as the ultimate Little League Dad and still make a movie about him at least watchable, if not anything special.  What prevents King Richard from evolving into true greatness is its attempts to shoehorn a positive spin and happy ending to these events.   The movie is called King Richard and not Saint Richard for a reason, and there are times the movie forgets that.

The athletic prowess of Venus and Serena is not exactly on full display here.  Serena is shoved to the back burner almost altogether, except for some unbelievable speech by Richard to her that she will someday be better than her older sister.   The speech almost serves as a reminder that Serena is also in the movie, with so much of the focus being on Venus.   As great as Venus is, Serena has whizzed past her in terms of career and stardom.    At an already bloated 2 hours, 20 minutes, King Richard would've approached Gone with the Wind's running time if any attention were paid to Serena. 

The movie isn't about the Williams sisters but about Richard's pursuit of their fame.   He is the Stage Dad who rightfully believes he has the next two Michael Jordans of their sport, and makes life intolerable for the poor coaches who agree to train them.   Richard wants to do things his way and interferes in Venus' and Serena's development as often as he possibly can.   Richard has a long-suffering wife (Ellis) whose primary function is to sit by, support Richard while gritting her teeth, and eventually dress him down as the egotistical showman he is.   It is ironically amusing when Richard attempts to instill humility in his daughters when they become overly celebratory after Venus wins yet another junior event.   

Any emotional investment in King Richard is caused by the Smith performance, in an Oscar-bait role that is flashy and slyly entertaining.   We may not always like or agree with Richard, but he still doesn't fail to compel us to watch him.  Smith nearly makes the film a three-star endeavor all by himself.  The ending reeks of filmmakers wanted to contort a happy ending out of these events even it kills them, and any of the film's credibility.   

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) * *

Directed by:  Jason Reitman

Starring:  Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson

Ghostbusters: Afterlife wants to introduce us to the next generation of Ghostbusters, but it's difficult to pull off.   The original Ghostbusters was a blend of science fiction and comedy which is hard to imitate.  Ghostbusters II (1989) and the gender-swapped 2016 Ghosbusters had more detractors than fans, but I enjoyed them both on their respective levels.   Ghostbusters: Afterlife feels more like a retread even with a younger cast and a change of scenery from New York to rural Oklahoma. 

As Afterlife opens, we meet Callie (Coon), a mother of two who inherits a "dirt farm" and a rickety old farmhouse in the middle of Oklahoma from her recently deceased father who ran off on her when she was a child.   Her father was famed Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis) and Callie hates him for leaving her and her mother, but He Had His Reasons, and we soon find out the evil Gozer and Zuul who were vanquished in the original film are trying to rise again.   Egon set traps for the ghosts, but he died before they could be contained.    His granddaughter Phoebe (Grace), who looks and acts like her late grandfather, discerns what Egon was doing and why.   She enlists help from her summer school teacher Gary Grooberson (Rudd) to thwart Gozer's plan, but it turns out who Phoebe should've called were the original Ghostbusters, who manage to arrive on the scene just in time to aid Phoebe and her friends.  

At 2 hours, 4 minutes, there isn't a lot of ghost busting in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.   Much of it is the youngsters trying to figure out their legacy and how to stop Gozer from being reborn.   There is a teeny bit of nostalgia when we see the old Ghostbuster vehicle, the whirring siren, a slimy ghost, the proton packs, and of course the original remaining Ghostbusters themselves, but when the nostalgia is more inviting than the current Ghostbusters situation, you know Afterlife is in trouble.  Ghostbusters: Afterlife isn't as terrible as it is unnecessary.   Just watch the original to see how busting can make you feel good. 

Red Notice (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulous

I've heard of movies designed to be the kinds you simply shut off your brain to watch.   That's not always a bad thing.   Some films work that way.   Red Notice is such a movie, but the trouble with a picture like Red Notice is you struggle to recall what happened moments after finishing it.   I know this much:  Everyone is after a priceless egg once owned by Cleopatra.   Maybe not priceless, but worth hundreds of millions.   Numbers are thrown around as quickly as double crosses in Red Notice.   It all adds up to very little.

Red Notice is not built to be original or groundbreaking, but that doesn't mean it has to feel weary and deflated.    Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber has made some funny films in the past (Dodge Ball, Central Intelligence, and Skyscraper, which was cheerfully ridiculous, but fun).   Johnson plays FBI profiler John Hartley, who is on the trail of art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds).  He hopes to have Booth help him capture an even more elusive target known as The Bishop (Gadot), who plans to find and steal the fabled Cleopatra egg.   Booth and Hartley of course Don't Get Along, but soon Learn To Get Along after trading quips, punches, insults, and involvement in an escape from a Russian prison.   I forget exactly how they both came to be prison denizens.   Oh yes, Booth is captured by Hartley and Hartley is framed as an accomplice to the Bishop.  

Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds play characters who aren't a million miles removed from their famed personas.   Try as they might, they cannot elevate the material above its standard origins.  Red Notice is chock full of action, fights, double and triple crosses, and much of it portrayed in front of an obvious green screen even as the scenery switches from city to city.   It makes no difference.  Red Notice plays like a movie with its wheels spinning furiously in the mud to no avail.   

Spencer (2021) * *

Directed by:  Pablo Lorrain

Starring:  Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Amy Manson, Sally Hawkins

Like Lorrain's Jackie (2016), Spencer creates a microcosm of the pressures a famous woman is facing compressed into a few days.   In Jackie, it was an examination of Jackie Kennedy in the days following her husband's assassination.   Spencer views Princess Diana (Stewart) over the Christmas holiday in 1991.  She is estranged from Prince Charles, embroiled in controversy and constant press attention, and only longs to spend some time with her two sons.  

Spencer is as cold and unwelcoming as the royal family's treatment of Diana, anchored by a Stewart performance in which she more often than not whispers her lines barely to the level of audible speech.  I'm not sure if this is the actor's choice or director's, but it is distracting.   The reason for this technique is unclear.   Is Lorrain saying Diana has to speak in hushed tones because the royal family has squelched her freedom of expression?   Or was Diana soft-spoken in general?   

Spencer also speculates that Diana experienced hallucinations of Anne Boleyn and of favorite servants who may not exist.  Ten years of marriage to the aloof Prince Charles and by extension to the royal family has taken its toll on her mental and physical health.   Diana vomits up every meal and then wolfs down the next one only to throw it up again.   One of these scenes would have been enough.

If you didn't know much about Princess Diana before watching Spencer, you will watch Spencer without much context which detracts from the overall effect.   You may not even know that Spencer was Princess Diana's last name.   Spencer depends on the viewer to have a decent working knowledge of Princess Diana's story before going in.   Without it, you may not get much from Spencer.   I found myself not caring much, even when I was supposed to be overjoyed by Diana's albeit temporary escape from her fate.  

Antlers (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Scott Haze, Sawyer Jones

Director Scott Cooper has specialized in making films with atmosphere and eeriness, even with non-horror films like Black Mass and Out of the Furnace.   Antlers almost has a fog descended over it.   It is grey, murky, dark, and not much fun.   The characters cannot seem to fight through the impenetrable cloudiness onscreen.   And then there is the icky creature an infected person turns into which has antlers growing out from the inside like a poor man's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Yuck.

Not much happens in Antlers except for its flawed people trying to fight off the creature who was once human but infected by an alien life force.   A young boy (Thomas) sees his father and brother turn into the antlered beings and is rightfully scared.   His recovering alcoholic teacher (Russell) and her sheriff brother (Plemons) try to protect him from the monsters who were once his loved ones.   No wonder the boy is conflicted.  

Confession time:  After a long day of work, a hearty meal of Chinese food, and then indulging in popcorn and a soda while lying back in a comfy leather recliner, I was enveloped in the cozy fogginess of Antlers and drifted off.   My snore eventually woke me up.   Did I miss the best parts of the movie?   I'll never know.   I have a feeling I saw everything I needed to see in Antlers and wouldn't be surprised by anything I might have missed.   This just isn't the type of movie with twists and turns.  

Worth (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Sara Colangelo

Starring:  Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan, Laura Benanti, Chris Tardio, Tate Donovan

What is a life worth?  This question is posed by attorney Kenneth Feinberg (Keaton) to his law class.  He watches his students negotiate with each other over a person's price tag.   Then, 9/11 happens and with lives lost and others maligned forever, Kenneth's query is put the ultimate test.   Congress soon implements the 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund in order to compensate families of 9/11 victims and also to head off lawsuits of the airline industry which may cripple the economy.  Feinberg volunteers to head up the distribution of funds, relishing the challenge of coming up with a formula which will make every victim's family members' happy.   He finds this is not the case.  One size does not fit all.  

Should a CEO at the height of his earning power when the Twin Towers collapsed be paid more than a dishwasher working in a restaurant in the same building earning a fraction of the CEO's salary?   Is the suffering greater for a firefighter's family than a delivery person's?   While his overworked staff listens to the testimony of the families he needs to sign up for the fund before the signup deadline, Kenneth stays aloof and above the fray.   He doesn't feel the need to sit with these grieving families and hear their stories.   He  urges them to take the money and run because lawsuits against the airlines will take years and most certainly bankrupt them long before the airlines will settle.   However, these families don't necessarily want compensation.   They see accepting a payday as an insult to the memory of their loved ones.  

Feinberg's aloofness is hit home when he is busy listening to an opera on his headphones while the rest of the passengers on the commuter train to work look out the window astonished at the smoke from the World Trade Center towers.   Keaton is his usual effective self, finding out he is unable to wheel and deal his way into the hearts and minds of the families.   His most outspoken opponent is businessman Charles Wolf (Tucci), whose wife perished in the towers and starts a website called FixTheFund.org.   Charles, with sheer intelligence and sympathy, is able to convince people not to sign up for the fund until its compensation can be just for all.   Kenneth resists until his deadline to sign up eighty percent of eligible families approaches and he is nowhere near that goal.   Tucci doesn't play Wolf as an injured blowhard, but as a caring man who sees what Kenneth cannot...that no one formula can fit each family's unique situation.  He tries in vain to have Kenneth see the error of his ways.   

The beginning of Worth made me wonder how interest can be gleaned from such material.   A drama about a compensation fund?   It couldn't possibly work.   Worth does, although some of the subplot resolutions lean towards the unconvincingly melodramatic.   But Worth is intelligent and perceptive, focusing rightly on the victims and not the lawyers.   How they found ways to move on and live their lives in the face of such overwhelming sorrow makes them the real heroes. 

YOU (Season 3 on Netflix) * *

 

Starring:  Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Scott Speedman, Dylan Arnold, Michaela McManus

After a lackluster second season, YOU returns with a third season which feels more like a retread of a retread with each passing episode.  The first season was a fascinating portrait of a man's obsession; a damaged soul who would rather desire than possess the woman who was the apple of his eye.   His obsession segues into multiple murders.   We heard his thought process and point of view in voiceover narration.   Now that season three has come and gone, I almost want to hit the mute button to avoid hearing one more rambling Joe monologue about his latest "you", how much he can't stand Love, and how he will do his damndest not to kill anyone else so he could be a great father.   

Love and Joe are now married and living in an idyllic Northern California suburb where the houses must run close to $1 million.   It appears Love and Joe can make the mortgage payments with Joe working as a library assistant and Love opening a startup bakery in town.   If you consider Love's family money is now gone thanks to bad investments, you wonder how the couple can make ends meet.   Joe laments his suburban existence which most people would envy.  

Joe's eyes wander to his comely neighbor Natalie (McManus), but Joe balks on carrying on a full-blown affair with her due to a sudden, but brief clash with his conscience.   This doesn't prevent Love from taking extreme measures to ensure Natalie won't have contact with her husband again.   Joe, feeling a sense of duty to not have Love thrown in prison for the rest of her life, assists in disposing of Natalie and concocting a story to shift blame to her cold husband (Speedman).   The Goldbergs strike again.   

Other obstacles are thrown in the way, and at least three people find themselves trapped in the plexiglass prison cage which has now grown ridiculously overused.   Doesn't anyone notice the Goldbergs dragging knocked out bodies from their car to the basement of Love's bakery?   The glass box has lost its shock value, much like YOU itself.   With Natalie out of the way, Joe finds another woman to pine for, his boss, who is going through a nasty, bitter custody hearing with her television news reporter ex-husband.   However, unlike season one in which we were convinced of Joe's need to possess Beck, this stalking is going through the motions.   What Joe does to ensure a life with his latest obsession is scarcely believable.  There's no chemistry and Joe himself sounds bored of it all.   By this point, so are we.  

Walking Tall (2004) * * *

 

Directed by:  Kevin Bray

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Neal McDonough, Johnny Knoxville, Ashley Scott, Michael Bowen, John Beasley

Walking Tall is a simple story told previously in the 1970's Walking Tall series in which Joe Don Baker played wooden club-toting Sheriff Buford Pusser, who in real life cleaned up corruption in a small Southern town many years ago.   In this version of Walking Tall, Dwayne Johnson (who then was still going by his wrestling moniker "The Rock") plays Chris Vaughn, a Special Forces veteran returning to his hometown after eight years to find the local mill has closed and a sleazy casino has opened and serves as the main employer and drug distributor for the town.   

Chris' onetime friend Jay Hamilton (McDonough) is the guy who runs the casino and manufactures the drugs sold in the casino.   Before Chris knows any of this, he plays against Jay in a, ahem, friendly game of football.   Soon, Chris and Jay become enemies after Chris smashes up the casino and Jay's thugs with an oak club after Chris' nephew overdoses on drug sold there.   Chris is tried, found not guilty, and displaces the current corrupt sheriff (Bowen) in the next election.   Chris hires his longtime buddy Ray (Knoxville) as his deputy and goes on a mission to destroy Jay and the casino.

Walking Tall wasn't made with complexities in mind.  It is an action picture with Johnson, sturdy as the club he wields, as its hero.   McDonough's Jay is as corrupt and amoral as Johnson is strong, determined, and just.   He attempts to lure Chris into working for him, but no dice.   The only suspense Walking Tall offers is how badly Chris will kick his ass in their final showdown.   A local stripper (Scott) who at first works for Jay but then leaves her job, is Chris' love interest, who in a movie like this exists to be endangered by the villains and have a steamy sex scene with Chris in his office.   Well, as steamy as a PG-13 movie can allow.   

All I can say about Walking Tall is that it's a typical genre movie done well which furthered Johnson's career as not only a bankable action star, but the biggest movie star on the planet.   It's a ninety-minute movie you with which you can satisfactorily munch your popcorn or snacks.  

Last Night in Soho (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Edgar Wright

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Diana Rigg, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Michael Ajao

The protagonist of Last Night in Soho, a London fashion school student named Ellie (McKenzie) dances in her bedroom to a song playing on her record player.   The entire scene suggests the movie takes place in the late 1960's, but it is indeed the present day.   In many ways, Ellie is a walking, talking anachronism.  She feels a strange, inexplicable connection to the 1960's, possibly because she can see her late mother in mirrors and in the shadows.   Ellie sets out for London to attend fashion school and doesn't fit in with her condescending classmates.   Instead of staying in the dorms, Ellie rents a top floor bedroom in the home of no-nonsense Ms. Collins (Rigg-in her final screen performance before her death in 2020).   It is here where Ellie's fascination with the 1960's takes a bizarre turn.

When Ellie falls asleep in her room, she vividly dreams she is present in late 1960's London.  She transforms (sort of) into Sandy (Taylor-Joy),  a vivacious blonde who dreams of singing stardom.  She meets the slickster Jack (Smith), who "handles" budding singers but not in ways she anticipates.   He woos Sandy, beds her, and soon turns her out into the sleazy world of prostitution.   The closest Sandy gets to singing is as a backup singer in a local musical.   The rest of her money she earns on her back.  Her world turns from hope to despair.   At times, Ellie only observes Sandy and at others she feels she is Sandy.  However, Ellie wakes up in the present day with the nightmare of Sandy's life fresh in her mind.

Each night, Ellie learns more of Sandy's story and may have even witnessed her murder at the hands of Jack.   The visions of Sandy's faceless male tricks soon haunt not just her dreams, but terrify her in her waking life as well.   Sandy's past is now a puzzle to be solved in the present.    A creepy old man (Stamp) who frequents the bar where Ellie works sure does seem like he is the aged Jack and maybe knows what exactly happened to Sandy.   Soon, the two eras converge on Ellie in a nightmarish fashion.

Last Night in Soho plays as a supernatural mystery which doesn't attempt to explain how Ellie can connect so thoroughly to events from fifty years ago.   Her grandmother understands Ellie can see her dead mother and perhaps this serves as the portal for others to reach out for Ellie's help.  The 1960's London era is vividly recreated, with a soundtrack of the time permeating the film.  McKenzie, who played the Jewish girl hidden by a Hitler Youth candidate in 2019's JoJo Rabbit, is a sympathetic hero who wishes she didn't see dead people.   Anya Taylor-Joy, fresh from her triumph in The Queen's Gambit, delivers a portrait of a young woman growing disillusioned and victimized before our very eyes.   Sandy's transformation nearly mirrors Ellie's own disillusionment with the 1960's, a period which she at first idealized but now sees how it contains as much seediness as any other time.   It was just disguised with more faux elegance and flashiness. 

Last Night in Soho is stylish, sleek, and suspenseful with plot twists that come with the territory and are more or less as logical as can be expected.   Director Wright finds a way to assemble a seemingly unrelated jumble of parts into a cohesive experience where the past bleeds sometimes gushingly into the present. 

Dune (2021) *

 

Directed by:  Denis Villeneuve

Starring:  Timothee Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Javier Bardem

I don't know how long-awaited this remake of the 1984 flop based on Frank Herbert's 1965 novel has been awaited or whether it was awaited at all.   Ready or not, here is the 2021 version and it is a boondoggle.   I saw the 1984 version in bits and pieces.   Nothing of what I saw made me want to double back and watch the entire movie.  

I viewed the entire 2021 version.   I remember when watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy that I wished they provided the audience a list of characters and places so we could keep them straight.  Dune sorely needs that.   Even the voiceover narration in the beginning of the film does not help.   I was able to ascertain that there is a galaxy-wide fight over desert planet Arrakis which produces spice, a profitable hallucinogen.   A young man named Paul Atreides (Chalamet), son of an honorable duke (Isaac) is Destined to lead the way in the fight against the Emperor and Baron Harkonnen (Skarsgard) either to gain to control of the planet to take over the spice production or to destroy it.   I couldn't quite gather exactly what the endgame was.   The list of what I was unable to gather from Dune is extensive indeed.

Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner: 2049), is visually stunning with first-class production values and a stellar cast of terrific actors, but to what end?   The actors recite lines with conviction as if they know what's going on, but we in the audience are lost in a sea of clunky dialogue, no forward story momentum, and no payoff we care about.   I suppose we are supposed to be happy for Paul as he Fulfills His Destiny, whatever that destiny entails, but we're left feeling indifferent about Paul and the entire movie for that matter.

This is only part one.  A Dune Part Two will surely follow and maybe then the pieces will come together and the morass of characters and plotlines will coalesce into something tangible and enjoyable.   Doubtful, but you never know.   That's why I go to the movies, because I try to be an eternal optimist.