This is the official hexbear Dune discussion thread (not really)
I watched the new Dune and enjoyed the films from a cinematic/fantasy perspective but wasn’t super on-board with the politics as I thought the message was simply ‘leaders bad’, but what didn’t come across (imo) from the movies and what I’m learning from discussion of the books is that the message is more nuanced than that: Herbert’s message wasn’t “don’t blindly follow leaders because they’re evil”, but “don’t blindly follow leaders because movements based on blind belief are a force of their own and can sweep everyone up into a mess, even if that was not at all the intention”, and there are of course examples of that happening throughout human history. I want to hear all of your thoughts on the books, the films, and the messages. Thanks. 
I think Villeneuve made a very conscious decision to sideline a lot of the harder sci Fi elements. I felt like it was overall a good idea but it meant that people were largely going to enjoy it based on the more human elements, and the various intrigue. I had to explain a number of things to the friends I saw it with but despite that they were very very enthralled, which I thought meant it was a good success. The fact that they wanted me to explain the scifi stuff stood out bc these friends are definitely not into that normally.