A late review of Dune (the wife wanted to re-read the books again), and it was pretty good. A few small things were moved around, but it was a visual and aural tour de force. The actors were good, although Timothy Chalamet only just carries the part of Paul Atredies by dint of the fact that the character is a fifteen year old boy who's highly trained, but also quite sheltered in his life of privilege. Everyone around him has more screen presence except for Zendaya, but she's got very little to do, so is well within her acting abilities.
The experience in terms of visuals and sound are immense. As with other Villeneuve's films, there are just so many moments when what's on screen is iconic, powerful imagery, and the otherworldly nature of the setting lends itself to that.
The biggest problem I had with the film is that nearly all the internal monologues are gone, so much of the background info is lost. So many films nowadays do "tell, don't show", so I'm torn about this, as it's much better when films do "show, don't tell", but so much seems to have been moved to the immense visuals and audio, and some of that internal monologue is not just character, but also background and world building, and it doesn't always translate.
Some of the best lines were also not present ("For the father... nothing"), and even the Litany Against Fear was only half mumbled. A lot of this wouldn't affect you if you've read the books, as you'd already know the background info that wasn't in the movie. Many important parts (such as Yeuh, the Emperor, Baron Harkonnen, etc) were just glossed over and not explained fully.
All in all, it's a great adaptation as long as you're willing to lose the finer background details in exchange for the visual and audio immensity that Villeneuve brings.