Dune - a few comments

So I actually enjoyed it.  A few things that stuck out but overall wasn't too bad.  Keep in mind, however, that I am judging it based on the original Kyle Maclaughlin version which was horrendous, and the abortion that was Lord of the Rings, which was less horrendous than the first Dune movie but still pretty bad when it came time to judge it against the books.  So that's the background.  Here's the things that bugged me:

1) Soundtrack.  The whole movie was so full of ominous mood music that it was hard to actually just follow the plot.  It almost never stopped.  There was one point, about 3/4 of the way through where it did, when Paul and Jessica were in the desert and it was noticeable mostly because it was such a relief.  Whoever did the music should never be allowed to do a movie soundtrack again.

2) Why were the Fremen warriors in Paul's visions wearing motorcycle helmets?  Strange. Doesn't really matter but I just never envisioned the Fremen looking like that.

3) Why did Liet-Kynes commit suicide and kill Saurdaukar?  In the book he died in the desert and the scene was used by Herbert to introduce us to a key point regarding the relationship between spice, the sandworms, and water.  Her death in the movie served no purpose at all for the story.

4) Battle scenes when the Harkonnen invaded were choppy.  Lots of Atreides troops running towards battle without armor or weapons while Harkonnen troopers mowed them down.  Also the little vignette where a bunch of troops on the stairs have a standoff with Harkonnen and then more troopers drop down behind them.  Again, the whole scene seemed ill thought out and pointless.  I just think this whole bit could have been done more coherently and smoothly with some thought.  Instead someone seems to have thought that lots of smoke and special effects would suffice.  Perhaps filmed to indicate the effectiveness of the surprise attack but it just seemed incoherent to me when I was watching it.

Ended very abruptly.  I had no idea it was supposed to be more than one movie so was a bit surprised when it suddenly stopped.

So there's that.  I'm looking forward to the next one (two?  three?  Beats me.  How many are there supposed to be?)