I felt the complete opposite. I've read all the Frank Herbert books multiple times and loved how in-depth they were. Dune part one was much better than part two because the first part spent so long setting up the universe and exploring different factions which I found really cool. Part two was like "well, all the hard work is done now so we can just have all of the action". No! The action is the worst part! I'd much rather 70% world building 30% plot.

As an aside, I also like how the technology was very rarely explained. Just the shields and the stillsuits I think. It makes it feel so much more natural and realistic because these characters live all their lives with weird floaty lamps and ornithopters and lazbeams, so why would they explain any of it to us?

I feel the same way, having just left Dune 2 an hour ago. It feels every bit a long as its four hour run time.

Oddly, I enjoy Lawrence of Arabia despite it also having long shots of desert.