-The initial Zendaya voiceover ruins the Fremen reveal, who are a mystery in both the books and every version I have ever seen, only tidbits (Shadout Mapes, Liet Kynes, initial meeting with the Fremen Duncan brings back) until the escape to the Deep Desert, which they really elongate in this version. Everything is really stretched out here, sometimes for better and sometimes not for the better.
-I love the Atreides Spanish imagery. I have always imagined them as tragic Greek heroes but the Spanish Picasso style suits them.
-I agree with everyone saying this would be a much better 12 episode limited run HBO Max series. Its not GoT redux because there really isn't any Season 2 because Dune Messiah in a limited fashion, Children of Dune, kinda but anything after that are really "Sequels" in name only, telling different stories in the Dune universe, some with the same Characters; its more of an anthology than a true series.
-Agree with whomever said Jessica was way too emo: She spent way more time crying and shaken up than I expected. Even waiting outside Paul's door, she is a quivering mess. She is a Politically conspiratorial advisor to Kings who is also trained killer with a mind of steel who is part of a semi-secret organization of agents who have seeded survival stories on thousands of worlds, who seemingly spends 2/3rds of her screen time upset or in tears. I get we live in a world of maudlin James Bond but come on.
-Agree with the Landsraad and CHOAM, its all explained in basic terms. Navigators hinted at, Emperors lacking an heir mentioned by Paul in the Eco research station when he was laying out his play for the throne to Liet Kynes; Irulan I think will be a part of the next movie.
-On Liet Kynes, I find I didn't mind the Gender/Race swap at all, although unnecessary because this movie had so many "Moor" black people I didn't know which part of the Earth Desert he was trying to emulate. Good on them but I couldn't help thinking with an insular population inbreeding over how many generations how were there any genetically dissimilar skin colors left on Arrakis? Maybe there were millions of Fremen but that doesn't ignore genetics.
-Loved the Mentat calculation moments, that was brilliant.
-I think I was wrong about when Feyd shows up, I think it is later in the book, at a party or a gladiator contest, or some formal function. Way past the first 100 pages. Mentions he was close to being the KH but not quite or something like that. Maybe he was there earlier. It probably been 30 years since I read it so YMMV/IIRC.
-With all that time I can't believe they glossed over Yueh's conditioning and his breaking being so unexpected. This may be the biggest oversight in the movie. It...just happens. At least Lynch explained it at all. DV doesn't even give it a go.
There is no replacing Freddie Jones as Thufir but whomever this was good in his own right.
I was completely mind fucked by the scenes of some guy later being his friend, which I didn't recognize from the book or the movie, and the Bene Gesserit voice them saying let Paul Atriedes die so the KH may live ended up being the guy that Muad'dib has to kill to join. Or am I just remembering this wrong? I thought in the book that was a fight over something else?