or was it a million? still not enough.

I always thought it was "A million thanks are not enough for Yueh", which confused the hell out of me.

I love that fucking movie and have seen it at least 20 times.
It has some of the most amazing art direction of any film I can think of.
There are few "sci-fi" movies where you honestly get a different sense of time, space and technologically altered human culture over millenia, rather than the standard space opera catered toward people who need characters grounded in contemporary sensibilities, all the way down to their haircuts and their Americanisms. Dune is amazing.

The worst part of it is the opening illustrations and narration, which seem cobbled together as if in a hurry.

Throughout my childhood I was always promised a magical "director's cut" where those illustrations were actual filmed scenes. Sadly, it was a myth.

I really like Dune too, although I think the criticisms of it are 100% valid.

The opening illustrations and narration were cobbled together as if in a hurry. They also aren't in every cut of the film (in particular, they're not in Lynch's only approved theatrical version). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(film)#Versions

Going to have to watch this again just to put Patrick Stewart holding a pug and a laser rifle into context. This along with Aliens have formed my very first memories of going to the cinema. My parents tried to recapture the happy family fun times of E.T. by dragging my brother and I to every alien/space related film thereafter, with mixed results.

Kind of a cyberpunk version of Dune, only without computers. Have to agree with longwinded and fluffly.

In stillsuits.