Is this better than the original Star Wars?

Star Wars might reportedly be made for kids, George Lucas has even said it was aimed at 12-year-olds, but there's plenty in it for adults to love too. Trolls and certain shills like to use the "kid-friendly" excuse whenever it suits them, but the truth is Star Wars is perfectly suitable for adults due to its themes, action, violence, and occasional fan service. The prequels got rather heavy with the space politics, and Revenge of the Sith specifically had children die and a man burn to a crisp onscreen. Definitely not like your average kid's film. I won't speak for the Sequel Trilogy though.

As for Dune - of which the original book served as a major inspiration for Star Wars - the characters and story are more complex, so I suppose I'd say it's "Star Wars for adults" in that it's less kid-friendly than Star Wars. But is it *better* than Star Wars? Not necessarily. Wait till part 2 comes out so that the entire first book is adapted, or at least Villeneuve's version of it, before we discuss if this 2-parter movie is better and/or more adult-oriented than the original Star Wars.

the books? yes - still a fairy tale, but it's closer to the game of thrones, while SW is closer to LOTR.
As for this film - it's certainly very slow - lots of slow moving panning shots which are essentially filler stuff due to the book being split into two. There's nothing adult about that - they are trying to squeeze out 2 films out of what should have been one.

Considerably better than TROS but not even 1% as good as ANH.

Though the film is a significant improvement on the novel.

No, at least comparing the original Star Wars film to this one (or even the 1984 version).

I hate white knighting Star Wars since I'm sick of it, but the original Star Wars had a better self-contained story, better characters, a better cast, a better score, more world building, better costumes, more memborable lines, etc.

NOTHING is better than the original Star Wars!!! Not even the magnificent The Wrath of Khan!!!