I have pretty low expectations for the movie. I loved the 1st Matrix and basically thought it was a mind altering idea that really stayed with me since I first watched it. But then I thought the movies went downhill from there. I'm interested to watch the new movie but I'm not expecting much from it. I can't comment on Laurence Fishburne not being in the film but it looks like someone in the comments had an explanation.

I did see Dune though and really liked that. It pretty much followed the books exactly other than some minor inconsequential tweaks.