I like the colours, they’re a lot more authentic to what a real desert looks like. It’s not like the colours were actually toned down, that’s really how they look in real life and I’m fine with that.
I don’t get what’s so bad about Kynes being gender swapped. As long as they keep the personality and role of Kynes, which they did, gender and race are superficial details which do however make large portions of the audience feel more included.