I saw this in the theater in 3D. I have read the first 3 books and I thought this was very faithful to book 1. I was completely cool with it being split into 2 parts. Quite frankly, you can't smash all of that content in to 1 film. Imagine taking any game of thrones book at make it a single 2 hours 45 min film. It would suck.
I thought this was a great theater movie. The sound was A+ the visuals were outstanding. It was a bit dark in 3D. The acting and casting was all very excellent. This is superior to the original Dune movie, and I completely enjoy that too.
Really the only thing I didn't like was the very ending lines before the credits. It was just a bit heavy on the cheese. Like biting into a mushy cherry after finishing a great drink.
I'm very hyped for Dune 2.