Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Azsorious
I came into this with mild expectations, having seen Lynch's Dune and then reading the entire book series. Needless to say I was disappointed at best.Paul is unrecognizable in this series, gone is the noble yet immature Atreides. Instead we have a spoiled, impudent brat. They insert pointless dialogue which never occurs in the books or movie for the sake of comic relief supposedly, something which detracts from the high-stakes nature of this epic. Unforgivably they also cut crucial sections out of the production (struggle in the ornathopter after Leto's death) and replace it with an ornathopter chase! The re-unification of Paul and Gerney is also woefully unemotional contrasted with Lynch's rendition.TL;DR: Unnecessary additions, criminal subtractions, bad acting/casting (outside of the Baron and perhaps Irulan), action-movie-esque kitsch, gawdy set design, cringeworthy CGI.Unless you are a die-hard Dune connoisseur avoid this mini-series. Watch the director's cut of Lynch's Dune and Children of Dune but avoid this miserable rendition like the plague.
TheLittleSongbird
Of the three adaptations(to knowledge) of the Dune book franchise, the best is the mini-series Children of Dune. It is not perfect, it has Susan Sarandon's overacting and occasionally can feel cartoonish, stilted and incomplete, but it is wonderful visually, has the best music score of the three adaptations, has good acting on the whole and is easy to follow at least. David Lynch's film, apart from a couple of good performances here and there and the amazing visuals, was severely lacking, starting with an underdeveloped and not always cohesive story, even at 3 hours the film felt too short(a 5 or 6 hour mini-series is better for Dune), there is some really bad, cheesy scripting and there is the feeling of Lynch being the wrong director for it. This mini-series is far from great, but it is a marginal improvement over Lynch's film but Children of Dune, while not perfect either, eclipses them both.Generally Dune(2000) does look good. The sets are so sumptuous in colour and beautifully rendered and the costumes are a creatively bizarre mix of styles that suit the characters very well. The photography on the whole is clean, clear and not too distracting. The special effects are mixed in quality, at times they are well-proportioned, textured and fit well within the story, but at others they have a cheap look(cartoonish and cardboard). The music is also excellent, a component that like with Children of Dune is done much better than in Lynch's film. With the music here there is the right amount of the moody and the majestic. The dialogue really doesn't come across very well, very cheesy often and far too casual, very little of Frank Herbert's intelligent prose comes through.Dune(2000) has a more suitable length than the Lynch film, is easier to follow and doesn't try to rush things through. It doesn't quite come off successfully. John Harrison deserves credit for bringing his own style while trying to respect some of Herbert's details, and doing things at a leisurely pace to give time to breathe was a good decision. There were times though where the pacing came across as too leisurely and too many parts were under-explained or left more questions than answers. The cast are a mixed bag. The best performance comes from Ian McNiece who is funny and menacing. William Hurt is very good, meaningful and charismatic not to mention cool, in his expanded character role and Saskia Reeves makes for a Jessica that is sweet and calculating. Sadly there is also PH Moriaty, whose Gurney is bland and over-compensated, Barbara Kodetova who is annoying and especially Alec Newman who is very ill at ease and too sullen. The more minor roles are not memorable and not enunciated enough.Of the characters, the only ones who are developed reasonably enough are Duke Leto(the expansion really does help), Baron and Lady Jessica, everybody else are underwritten ciphers really and some like Piter and Thufir who are criminally underused and forgettably performed. In conclusion, very mixed feelings on this mini-series. 5/10 Bethany Cox
david-sarkies
Somebody has suggested that what would be really good is if we could splice David Lynch's Dune with this Dune because if we were able to do that then we would have one awesome movie. Actually, the more I think about it, there are only a few things that I would want to take from this film and put it into Lynch's film, and that pretty much has to do with some of the effects, and even then some of the effects in this telemovie seem to be a little dry anyway.I would probably not consider this to be a remake of the Lynch film because, well, the Lynch film really does not need to be remade, and even then there were a lot of things that were in the Lynch film (such as the Wierding Way) which does not appear in this film, which I feel destroys the integrity of the original novel. However, the ornithopters were much better, and so were the effects for the interstellar ships, though ironically we do not meet any of the spacers (though when we do meet them in the sequel, they do look pretty cool).When I began to watch this I felt that there were a lot of aspects in this film that may have related to the political situation of the time (being 1965, when the book was first written). Basically you had a struggle between two superpowers, represented by the houses Artreides and Harkonan, and you have an overarching body like the UN who is represented by the Landsraat, ruled by the emperor. The most interesting aspect though is how the struggle is played out on the planet Arakis, a desert planet that holds the key to interstellar travel, and without the spice that is produced on the planet then civilisation will collapse.It is also interesting how there are other factions as well, such as the Bene-Geserit, which represents the church; the Mentat, which represent the scientific community; and the spacers, which represent the corporate powers that play the super powers up against each other. However, we also have the Fremin, to which Paul Artreides runs to and joins, which in a sense is representative of the Arabs, particularly the Bedouin. There seem to also be some elements of Lawrence of Arabia in this film as well, which is probably one of the scenarios around with Herbert based his work.I feel that aspects of this film seem to draw out the political machinations of the book much better than the original Lynch film does, however the Lynch film seems to be much more operatic than does this film, where the political struggles come to the forefront. Some have suggested that Herbert did to science-fiction what Tolkein did to fantasy, however what has come out of both writers, and what is generally available today, generally does not do either author justice (and anyway Asimov was writing space opera much earlier than was Herbert).
Spondonman
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.
