The good news is you like all the things that they kept from the books! For that last point, about death being a big deal, I agree. Most of the time it's made to be nothing, and Dune Part 2 does this, in my opinion. It goes from Paul having trouble killing someone at the end of Part 1 to Part 2 starting with a big fight scene, and dealing death is now easy. I'm not a fan of that, but they're still good movies.

You really should give the books a good shot though. They're very good. You need to get through Children of Dune at least. I usually can't get myself to sit around and read a book, but there's great audiobooks for the Dune series. I highly recommend it. Based on your comment, you'll like them.