I also agree with one of the parents that Villevenue’s was sterile, however the book itself is kind of sterile — as lots of SF of the era was. The world building is incredible, and Villevenue captures all that well in the sets, costumes, and such. However, characters and dialog are not a strength of that book in my opinion.

I love the book though, and I enjoyed Villevenue’s adaptation because it was exactly how I visualized the book when I first read it. However, having such a direct adaptation means you inherit the flaws as well — in this case some dryness and the pacing issue that you mentioned.

I do not agree that sterile sci-fi was anymore common in 1965 then any other time period. Books like George R. Stewarts earth abides came out ten years before. PKD wrote the man in the high castle, martian time slip, do androids dream of electric sheep, and the three stigmata of Palmer eldritch, Ursula k le guin wrote the left hand of darkness a couple years after, like this list goes on and on. Yes there's trash like anything a.e. van vogt wrote but there's always trash.

Also I think dune is purposefully written in a particular way because one of the themes of the book is the disposableness of life and this is what the fremen oppose.

I agree, though the book is more sterile than Villevenue’s, I think. His version had a few jokes, which is a few more than the book has, as I recall.

If everything goes well, he's going to deal with that by making at least a third film adapting Messiah.

https://geektyrant.com/news/dune-messiah-reportedly-greenlit...

I think DV was very clever in making Dune (2021) feel more like Leto I's story for a large portion of the film. Though we ramp into Paul's, we get a very satisfying focus on Leto. Of course, if you hadn't read the book you'd not have a clue about the bullfight motifs and probably not enjoy that arc at all.

> I like both Dunes for different reasons.

The Sci-Fi channel did a Dune miniseries, that I thought was decent.

Yeah, it was alright. They did a really good job considering it was made-for-TV.

The first 3 books are really just exposition for God Emperor, and God Emperor is probably impossible to turn into a movie. The majority of the story is just the god emperor talking to people in his bedroom. So I don’t think any film maker could have much ambition of adapting Dune and actually telling the whole story.

The other problem is that Paul is a complete failure. He topples the emperor, but doesn’t have the courage to do what he knows he actually needs to do. His son picks up the mantle after Paul turns into a desert wandering vagrant. So ending at Children would probably also be a bit confusing for a film audience.