re: Having a hard time getting into Dune

I just finished reading the first book and watched the first movie. My assessmnet is this: If you read the books and/or have a good understanding of the world and its backstory then the movies are great. BUT they do a very poor job of explaining what is happening without the viewer having a base knowledge on their own.

They should have stolen a page out of the Star Wars book and started the movie with a scrolling dialogue that explained the back story.

I also think this book should have been a series rather than a few movies. Even with book knowledge they are struggling to convey the importance of certain characters and their loyalties. Without this knowledge, the betrayals don't hit quite as hard as they should.

As someone who freshly read the book though, I think the movies do a great job of visualizing the scenes from the book.