This movie once again proved to me, that sometimes you need to be in a certain mood or even state of mind to appreciate certain art.
When i first tried watching it soon after it became available digitally, I found it boring, and was barely able to get through 20 minutes. That impression was not necessarily wrong, though. Even compared to David Lynch's adaptation, it felt slow, and if you compare it with John Harrison's TV series it was almost static. I was not alone feeling this way, too: I heard similar sentiment from people in my circles, and found quite a few reviews saying the same, too.
But in light of the 2nd part coming out, I decided to give it another try, and... I liked it. I would still consider it a bit overhyped, but it still was quite good. I think what changed was my state of mind: due to various events in my life, I've been feeling "small", and what Denis Villeneuve' adaptation is really good at is providing sense of scale. Something, that I think the other adaptations failed at, for the most part.
Lynch went in for "the weird", especially if you look at Harkonnen men: even people who did not watch the movie have seen memes with Feyd-Rautha and Baron. Harrison, I think, was a bit more religious. He was a bit closer to the sense of "fate" from the book, but it was somewhat one-sided and mostly "contained".
What made Paul's story impactful, for me at least, was not the he saw the future and tried to change it or even the way he behaved in general. It was the fact, that he felt as if he was being crushed by all of the responsibility falling on him and his kin. Those who read past the first book will understand what I mean.
This new adaptation delivers that almost to a T. In quite a few scenes you can see glimpses of hesitance, reluctance, despite a seemingly brave front. He feels... More human, I guess. It resonates with my own feelings: I am scared, but I know, that there are things that I need to do, no matter how scared I am of the world consuming me. The only moment that I did not like was when Paul mentioned his father's death: it was too emotional, when in the book there is a specific very vulnerable and powerful moment related to mourning much, much later.
Aside from that personal resonance, it is quite a good movie by itself. It's a a breath of fresh air even, considering how different it is from the overly "clean" shows. It feels very close to original, even though there were some little (and not so little) changes here and there, and it feels... "Grounded". You can believe what's happening on screen and relate to it to an extent, despite it being a fiction.
Definitely want to see 2nd part, and hope, that it won't stop there: I would love to see God Emperor adapted as well, because it affected me even more than the first book. But something tells me it may leave out certain sensitive topics.
