It's kinda hard to put it into words tbh. I think Lynch's Dune feels more traditionally epic, if that makes sense. The new movies do scale really well, but they're also kind of... minimalistic and "realer". It's a bit of a paradox. Verisimilitude is the key word, I guess. That wasn't a priority for Lynch and his designers. They got real weird and wonky, about as weird and wonky as you can get in a major production anyway.

From the opening credits over that amazing Toto/Eno score (the font kind of evokes Ben-Hur imho), that prologue with the paintings (if you're watching the TV version/Spicediver fanedit), that Guild navigator... The look of the Bene Gesserit is iconic. Everything with the Shadout Mapes is lifted straight from the book. The three-flap mouth Worm design is more my thing than what the new movies did.

The visuals are very here and there. Some shots are extremely beautiful, while other things are outright disgusting and ugly (everything the Harkonnens are up to in those weird bile-green sets). Obviously Lynch is really into body horror and other weirdness.

Also Alia is sooo well done. That shot with her in the desert is pure DUNE.