Dune - Sci Fi series

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » November 30, 2005, 2:15 pm

I picked up the DVD sets for Dune and Children of Dune, both were made by Sci Fi network a couple years ago. I'm a fan of David Lynch's film of the 80's, so I hesitated a long while before actually getting the Sci Fi version.

Both sets were $5 each, and the total runtime is 9hrs 35 minutes. It covers books 1-3 so it goes well beyond Lynch's original. The first 266 minutes are just for Dune, the rest is dedicated to the other 2 books that follow in the series.

After watching Dune one sitting (thx insomnia), I can conclude that they remade a movie that didn't need to be remade. The actors weren't nearly as good or memorable, it deviated very little from David Lynch's interpretation, and the costumes were fucking horrid. I cannot stress enough how fagged up everything was. The special effects were even worse which was a surprise seeing as how this came along almost 20 years after the orginal move. The only saving grace was the story, which is kinda hard to mess up. All in all, it will give you a new appreciation for Lynch's film, even if you hated it before.

Onwards to the sequel, Children of Dune, which I was actually anticipating since I had nothing else to compare it to other than the books. Bad news is it had the same shit costumes. The story was slow to develop and I actually thought about shutting it off about 45 minutes into it. Fortunately, I watched the rest and was pleasently surprised by the end of the first "book" of Children of Dune. It ended with a rush of emotions and a great vengence montage. It was pretty much worth putting up with the first 2 hours just to see the last 10 minutes IMO. The same can be said of the last movie in the series. It kept my attention, but only with effort. The last 10 minutes were also surprisingly good and worth the price of admission.

The acting in the Children of Dune portion of this series was well above average. The characters were believeable and full of emotion for most of thier parts. However, once in awhile, there would be a tagged on scene that didn't lend well to good acting and it kinda messed up the acting "flow". If I had to guess, I would say it was shot out of sequence.

So, overall, I'm giving "Frank Herbert's Dune" and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune" a 6 out of 10. For those that are curious, I recommend watching the David Lynch version, then picking up Children of Dune to see what happens to Paul "Mau`dib" and his legacy. The resulting story will probably surprise you. Characters that you loved in Dune will pull 180s and characters you hated you will have a new appreciation for.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » November 30, 2005, 5:51 pm

I got both, only seen the first one so far.
I kinda liked it, was a lot more true to the book, and imo explained a lot of things a lot better than Lynch original movie did.
BUT that being said, the acting was kinda bad, effects not impressive, and some scenes where you spend 10 min wondering why you just saw that,
All in all, the first one was a good compliment to Lynch's Dune, if you see both the series and the movie, you will have the story covered pretty well, since the series are good at explaning the major holes/changes in the original Dune.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » November 30, 2005, 6:19 pm

the David Lynch movie was pretty good, but unfortunately just too compressed.

"Dune" is fairly dense as a book, so it is a tough project. i can't remember if i watched the sci-fi series or not. i probably did because i'm a sucker for that kind of shit...no recollection of Children of Dune though. may try to rent or something.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » November 30, 2005, 7:08 pm

I saw the Lynch version 20 years ago in the theatre when it was initially released and wasn't impressed and haven't seen it since. I thought the sci-fi version was pretty good though (I have not watched Children of Dune yet). Maybe I'll try to see the original again at some point and see if my opinion of it has changed.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » November 30, 2005, 8:12 pm

I've been trying to find the 4+ hour director's cut of Lynch's movie for years now without any luck. I saw it a while ago on TV, and it's so much better than the theatrical release. It feels shorter just because you know WTF is going on.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » December 1, 2005, 12:50 am

masteen wrote:I've been trying to find the 4+ hour director's cut of Lynch's movie for years now without any luck. I saw it a while ago on TV, and it's so much better than the theatrical release. It feels shorter just because you know WTF is going on.

You're in luck Masteen, it's being released 1/31/06 for the first time on DVD

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007P ... 9011?n=130

Lynch swore he would have nothing to do with the re release, then at the last minute decided to do audio commentary and the like. This is the version you saw on TV. It has an extended intro, amoung other things, which is one of the things I remember so well and was really dissappointed when it was not on the DVD version that I bought.