From the other Dune thread, modified it a bit after my second watch:
I really loved this movie but I was also disappointed at the same time. It isn't just a matter of 'they cut stuff from the book'- that's inevitable and I appreciate it's also only "part 1". What really gets me is that for as beautiful and atmospheric as it is, the movie doesn't really feel like it was 2.5hrs of plot. Impressive run length but very sparse on the details, which tbh is the entirety of what was good about the book as Herbert seemed deathly afraid of ever writing an action scene. His strengths were world building & exposition, albeit some of his decisions with his writing were questionable (e.g. revealing the Baron's evil plot chapter 2 in its entirety to the reader. I think that the Dune movie handled this way better).
Gripes:
1. Explanation as to why melee combat is so prevalent, and why las weapons are not used in favor highly specialized projectile weapons or occasionally missiles/atomics. Also, atomics being outlawed. If you watch the movie, you will note that the Harkonnen *do* use las weapons with their ships. Those blue beams of light. To me this was a big 'wtf' moment, because the entire armada was flirting with instant thermonuclear death by doing so. This is the reason why you see so much melee combat, but as you note there are still missiles and the occasional laser (SUICIDALLY) being shot by the Harkonnen. All they had to do was spend 20 seconds explaining shield tech and las weapons and there would be less confusion.
2. The word 'mentat' is both never used, nor the functional roles of Piter de Vries and Thufir elaborated upon. There's a brief scene with Thufir doing an instant calculation in his head during the beginning, but that's it.
3. No character building outside of Paul and Jessica, in fact everyone else is hardly even there. Piter & the Baron being perhaps the best examples, but again I appreciate this is only 'part 1'. I'm sure the sequel will focus more heavily on the bad guys.
4. Sarduakar worfing. They are made out to be extremely menacing, and are awesome, but spend most of their screen time getting dunked on. This is fine considering who is doing the ass kicking, but I'd have liked more scenes showing them as unstoppable killing machines to really illustrate 'no seriously, don't screw with them'.
5. While I really loved the scene of Piter going to Selusa Secundus and speaking with the Sarduakar, in the Dune setting this is absurd. The exact nature of how House Corrino (Emperor) trains his Sarduakar is a closely guarded secret only a few parties speculate at. In the book, this is a significant plot point regarding control of Arrakis as certain individuals iirc (e.g. The Baron) speculate that if Selusa Secundus is where the Sarduakar are trained then the real secret to their strength is the horrible deprevation and struggle of their environment. Selusa Secundus is a hell hole without rival in the galaxy save for, perhaps, Arrakis. So the Fremen due to the hostility of their world hold the key to countering the military might of the Empire, which is predicated entirely upon the undefeatability of the Sarduakar. So in this movie-verse, how the Sardaukar are 'made' and where is clearly public information and nobody seems interested in replicating the results of the program I guess.*
6. General pacing. I think the director made a mistake with where he ended the movie. The Harkonnen attack should have been a bit further along in the movie and greater in duration. I think the movie would've best ended with Jessica and Paul escaping into the desert. The extra time should have gone into more character building w/ Harkonnen, the attack on the Atreides, Atreides governance of, and struggles on, Arrakis, and the immediate aftermath in Arrakeen.
7. Watering down of the political landscape of Dune. Movers and shakers are only touched upon, and there's no talk of how the Emperor and the Navigators Guild tacitly worked together along with the Harkonnens to destroy House Atreides due to the threat Duke Leto posed given his popularity in the Landsraad.
*My memory here of the book may be off, but I'm reasonably confident..
