It seems like a lot of y'all liked it, and it felt pretty reactionary to me so I'd love to hear an alternative perspective.
Beyond the idea that it's a film about imperial colonial extraction from which we only get the perspective of the empire, it really feels like the presentation of the lifestyle of the royals seems very sycophantic, very deferential.
Like the royals don't experience lavish personal consumption or luxury, no sex slaves, no hedonism, no fun at all really, they're all just earnest and stoic hard workers. The representation of the ruling class is that maybe your bedroom might be a little bigger, but they're just as put upon as the rest of us because of all this duty they're so concerned with. It seems like the take-home message is that any material benefit of being in the ruling class is trivial, but the accompanying responsibly is a terrible burden.
(I haven't read the books and don't plan to btw.)
So can someone explain why they liked it as a leftist?
Dune presents imperialism not as good or bad, but as an inevitable thing that happens. It's pretty easy to read your own values on imperialism bad vs imperialism good into that.
Also the Fremen being the best warriors in the galaxy because they live the hardest lives is an old fascist trope with no basis in history. But they throw off the yolk of their colonial masters, which is cool. But in the real world revolutionaries win by being more motivated, being integrated into their communities, and having shorter supply lines than the imperialists, not by being individually more capable fighters.