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Simply Perfect

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

After reading the Frank Herbert novel I watched both versions you can get of the David Lynch movie and the Theatrical cut was horrible, the extended cut was a guilty pleasure of mine. So I also decided to watch the Dune mini series as well because I think that 4½ hours could have actually told the story better then the Lynch movie and suffice to say, it did but there are still some problems.The plot is that Duke Leto Atreides and his son Paul are on a desert planet called Arrakis to sort out the production of a spice which is also the most valuable resource in the universe. But it's a plot by the Emperor of the known universe to have the rivals to the Atreides, the Harkonnens to attack and kill them because the Emperor felt Leto was getting more popular then him. This causes Paul and his mother to go on the run into the Desert where the natives of Arrakis are in order to rise up against the unfair rule the Harkonnens are enforcing.While this does tell the story better then the David Lynch movie there are still some things that aren't explained. It isn't enough to throw you off guard for the entire movie like Lynch's movie but there are still some things that aren't explained. I would say that and some of the acting and special effects get hokey at times, some of the costume design is just ridiculous to the point of never being able to take them seriously for the entire time they're wearing it.Aside from that this is better then the David Lynch movie in almost every regard. While there are still some problems with the narrative at least enough was told so there is some semblance of character development in there and while I did say the acting was hokey at times for the most part it holds up and in some cases the choices here were better then the ones in the David Lynch movie.All in all while it isn't a perfect adaptation this is actually worthwhile. This has some problems, I'll admit that but it's probably the best adaptation of the original Dune novel out there.

Based on Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel, this is a 3 part TV miniseries for Sci-fi channel. It is a fair attempt at the epic material. The obvious comparison is to the 1984 David Lynch version.First the easy comparison is the special effects. This version does a lot of green screen work. It's early CGI done competently for the times. It looks good enough, but the 1984 has the amazing visual style. This feels very much like a low resolution copy. It's got to be expected. I certainly wouldn't deduct any marks for it.The 1984 version was a complete mess storywise. I never read the books. This version is much more clearer. The 4 hours running times have a lot to do with that. It flows a lot better.The acting is there for the big roles in this movie. Alec Newman does a good job as the Muad'Dib. He feels like a young hero type. Backing him up, there are some great actors like William Hurt, Saskia Reeves, and Ian McNeice. The acting for the '84 version is much deeper. Overall, they're both flawed presentations of a complicated epic sci-fi series.

I first read Dune by Frank Herbert when I was 14 years old and considered it the best book sci-fi or otherwise I'd ever read, 40 years later and after many re-reads it's still in my top 5. I've never really bothered about a feature film of it when after all the best film of any book you read is usually in your head, and the dire 1984 attempt didn't help me either. So with mixed feelings I finally saw this TV mini-series.Thousands of years in the future thanks to interplanetary high politics and a feud the ruling Atreides family get moved from their lush planet Caladan to govern the desert planet Arrakis but which is rich in the vital drug Spice. The battle is immediately on to retain then regain their position, the young Duke Paul Muad'dib eventually attaining messianic status amongst the aborigines. As you can perhaps guess it's a helluva lot more complicated than that and virtually impossible to make sense of it in a synopsis, or drop a spoiler for that matter! With many shortcomings due to running time (a hopelessly inadequate 273 minutes) the film screenplay played fairly faithful to the novel, the atmosphere and the sets were spot on, the acting OK, crowd scenes so-so, however some of the cgi cartoonery for action scenes was done on the cheap and let it down slightly. Favourite bits: The banquet; the delicate glassy sets for the Bene Gesserit and Imperial scenes; the relationship between mother Jessica and her son Paul; Alia's glee at people's discomfort; the atmospheric enhanced colourings. Pity Thufir Hawat's role was reduced though.This is probably one of the very few films that it's almost essential to have read the book first – this was a nice try and even though I wasn't entirely ecstatic about it at least it all made sense to me. If you watch this first you may still enjoy it but I think you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Overall: enjoyed it now to press delete as it takes up too much space.

This is an incredibly well made mini series. Perhaps the best made miniseries of all time.Dune is obviously about Mars. There are even photos of sand worms like the ones shown on this series taken on Mars. How did Frank Herbert knew all this is the biggest mystery, but there seems to be an underground knowledge about Mars that's been passed down from eons ago as Swift's Gulliver's Travel mentions about the "Two moons of Mars" in his novel that was written hundreds of years ago.But back to Dune, for the budget, the series has incredible special effects, and acting is first class.You really feel that this is happening in Mars, uh sorry, Dune.If you haven't seen it yet, it's really worth your time to look for it, and spend time watching it.