I'd seen parts of the David Lynch Dune movie and it was decent, and when I heard that the Sci Fi Channel was doing a miniseries based on the original Frank Herbert novel, I was excited. Maybe it would do more justice than the movie. Turns out it was actually pretty darn good.They brought in a lot of foreign actors, and not just American ones, and William Hurt was good as the father of Paul Atreides. But some of the acting was a little stiff and some might think that the guy playing Paul was a little too old. Maybe a twenty-something-year-old would have been nice. But the visuals were pleasing and the technology looked well done. I've only seen the miniseries once, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. At least the Baron didn't look too revolting. And the sandworms were definitely formidable. The ornithopters could have been more exotic-looking but they were decent and were much better than the ones in the David Lynch movie.Bottom line: If you were put off by the movie and want something a little more accurate and exotic, this should be on your to-do list. If it were me, I'd keep both for comparison. That way we don't have to fight. And it's not a contest. Just try to enjoy one or the other, or even both, okay?

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.

The pace through the plot is about right in this mini-series (the 1984 film was in too much of a hurry). There is reasonable adherence to the book - it would take double the time to follow everything in the book. The shortcuts are reasonable (e.g. dropping Paul's second Fremen name "Usul"). Score is good, with a memorable and pretty theme tune; although personally I would have put more into the rhythm in a few places for contrast (it's more ambient than necessary throughout IMO).One or two gripes: the spice-affected eyeballs look like they have back- lighting wired in - there was no need to deviate from the book's simple deep blue iris and light blue sclera, i.e. without going bionic on the lighting.Accents of actors are sometimes good, sometimes inconsistent. For example, if Shaddam has an Italian accent, then some of it should rub off on his children. And the Fremen accent is all over the place - sometimes Egyptian, sometimes east European. And given that the Fremen language is clearly a descendant of Arabic, then "Shadout Mapes" shouldn't rhyme with "grapes" - I'd choose either "mar-pess" or "mar- pesh" - in fact the latter would sound the more convincing to me in the context of the story.As other reviewers have hinted at, but not covered specifically, the director fails to represent the idea of prescience nor the role of the mentat properly. Instead of presenting these as visions and calculations (respectively) of the possible future, as described in the book, we see almost randomly juxtaposed images, much more suggestive of the 70's hallucinogenic culture than the book intended, in spite of its 70's publication date.Nevertheless, in comparison with what the genre usually offers, I still give it ten out of ten.

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.