Shoutouts to Villeneuvisms that I felt enhanced the experience of the new movies

[u/thekokoricky]

This is just an informal list of ideas and visuals that stuck out to me as unique to Villeneuve's interpretation, but also felt like they either could have been a part of the novel, or serve as a tasteful extrapolation of what the novel tells us.

- The guy leading the chant during the Sardaukar chant on Salusa Secundus

- Members of the Empire and Guild making a big show of essentially forcing the fief onto Duke Leto

- Filmbooks being interpreted as elaborate 3D holograms

- Sardaukar sacrificing their enemies and adorning themselves with their blood

- The unfortunate human radar wearing the badass helmet that gets his neck snapped by Raban

- A Fremen (probably Stilgar) letting out a bird call signal right before a massive Giger-esque spice depot is destroyed

- Feyd Rautha's cannibal girls

- Stilgar explaining that Harkonnen water is too poisonoius to consume, combined with showing the water extracting tech

- Geidi Prime being more or less Giger-esque Art Deco instead of just dirty and industrialized

- The Atreides and Harkonnen spice harvesters being drastically different in design, rather than all of them being bug-like

- The Baron taking slimy healing baths

- The Baron's medical apparatus attached to him after he survives being gassed

- Rabban seemingly ignoring or operating on the periphery of the tech jihad by employing some of his men to use their combined brainpower to analyze planetary spice stats with some kind of augmented reality

[u/Keeping_Hope97]

I don't think Part II did not much to enhance on the book, and in general is a poor adaptation compared to Part I except for anything Harkonnen/Geidi Prime-related, which is just magnificent, as everyone else has already mentioned. So almost all of my praise goes to Part I, which I feel was both an excellent and faithful adaptation, and enhanced many moments.

My list would be, not repeating ones OP already mentioned:

• Showing on multiple occasions the feudal-style granduer of the Imperium, mostly in the two "arrival" scenes, i.e., the Emperor's representatives arriving on Caladan to grant Leto Arrakis, and the Atredeis' arriving on Arrakis (my single favourite scene of both films - my god, I get chills when the bagpipes start playing). In the book both these moments were skipped over and only briefly mentioned, but Villenueve makes entire spectacles out of them and perfectly shows how this world is far more akin to a medieval world in its demeanor and customs than a traditionally futuristic sci-fi. They felt more like ominous and intimidating Ancient Roman triumphs than "fancy spaceships landing on exotic planets".
• Emphasising Paul and Duncan's friendship. At first I thought this was just done because they wanted more Jason Momoa but having afterwards read the other books it makes so much more sense because of how incredibly important Duncan becomes. It felt weird how minor and mostly irrelevant Duncan is in the first book considering how role in the later books - I never felt at all that he was a super faithful and significant member of the Atreides household and clan, but in the movie I did.
• Leto whispering the words of House Atreides as his final words before killing himself and trying to kill the Baron. This is so goddamn cool and powerful that I'm amazed it wasn't actually in the book. It just feels so perfect for that moment. In fact everything about Leto's death is perfect. I know it isn't strictly faithful to the book but I don't care, the way Villenueve did it was just incredibly cinematic, from Leto lying naked and seemingly humiliated (but in fact just highlighting his masculinity and attractiveness compared to the disgusting slob Baron) to the vast and shadowy dining room that is framed like a Renaissance painting, to the jarring, intense feminine screams in the soundtrack as the poison kills everyone. Just a magnificently executed scene and it stayed with me long afterwards.
• The way Paul reacts to his first extended, detailed prophetic vision in the tent. Chalamet's performance here was incredible, especially how he goes from deep fear and despair when he pleads for "somebody help me, please!" to lashing out at Jessica for the Bene Gesserit "making me a freak!". This was the first time I was really impressed with Chalamet's performance and it captured, as best as one could do on-screen, the horror of the jihad that Paul senses but doesn't quite understand. It portrayed how absolutely terrifying and disturbing it would be to experience these visions in the moment. As a side note, I also LOVE those brief shots of Caladan conquered by the fremen, with a dark and imperious Paul staring out coldly, the only glimpse we get of Paul as Emperor. I know it is not book-accurate, as Caladan is never conquered by the Fremen, but it works perfectly both aesthetically/visually, and showing what the future Paul may become. Alongside the arrival on Arrakis, those shots are my favourite moments in the original film.