Dune: Prophecy - Max Series
Yeah, besides the dinner scene the first movie was more faithful to the books. I enjoyed the second movie, but more for the action, than what they did with the story. And I agree that he Paul/Chani relationship wasn't done well.
I'm hopeful that doing a Dune story in a series form will allow them to explore the Dune universe in the depth it deserves. This series is set about 80 years after the Battle of Corrin which ended the rule of Omnius and began the Corrino Dynasty. It's also just after the vendetta between House Atreides and House Harkonnen starts.
I realize this upcoming Dune prequel series touches on and discusses mostly the beginning of the Bene Gesserich, the female-witchy Jedi-esque secretive order in the Dune universe but as moviegoers or fans of Herbert's Dune series know, the fact that these events took place 10,000 years ago as the show's plot begins.. for people like Jessica. Paul Atreides, Dune movie characters, those events, people, and places might as well as be pre-history, or so far back in time very few can can't be totally sure if the history analyzed and depicted are even remotely accurate. If we even try to compare it to human pre-history (which we can't and shouldn't), it would be like trying to seriously examine, analyze the interconnected lives and melodrama going on between different members of Neolithic, Ice Age hunter-gatherers or how they eventually clashed with small, sedentary, agricultural farming communities. It's about 7,000-7,500 years before the building of the first pyramids under ancient Egypt's Old Dynasty, or First Dynasty, as some Egyptologists label it.
At least with HotD as it relates to a prequel series, it essentially begins 200 years before the events described in Game of Thrones and by the start of Targaryen civil war and end of Season Two, we're about 160 years away or 133 years away if one takes into account the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. I mention this because while HotD hasn't been a landmark, transformative show (its mostly decent with some great moments at times), at least the show's timeline or progression of events comes close enough to matching the original show's aura, authenticity, overall feel and mood. We see subtle yet important clues and minor story-arcs or mentions about how House Lannister are very keen, astute, at-times ruthless power brokers and generals (even though Lannisters featured in HOTD so far are nicer, less-ruthless and congenial types than Tywin, Cersei Lannister and even Jamie, to a certain extent). Harenhall is just as forked up, deadly and spooky for Deamon Targaryen as it is in GOT's timeline, Starks, Tullys, Bloody Gate, the Freys, the ancestors of many of the same people we already know and a few of them have some kind of personality/character flaws, traits and defects their descendants infamously showed.
What I'm saying is is that there is enough of the original show's aura, continuity, feel and vibe to make it seem very relatable that as the prequel series goes even further, we more clearly understand and relate to how people, places, and later events in fictional Westerosi history fell into place.
I mean, how much of the Dune universe that existed and information material viewers are so keenly aware of in the two movies exist in this long-ago prequel series?