Rating: 
Summary: Atleast it does the whole novel
Review: But then again if I had the choice between Lynch's Dune and this one I'd go with the Lynch version. Despite the fact over 6 million people want the movie burned and if you say you like it you're considered a idiot I find the absurdly energetic speedball paced film mysterious, beautiful, goofy and downright weird. Sure its miles away from the novel but atleast its entertaining.This film is a victem of miscasting and lack of imagination, you can have a limited budget and still create worlds larger than the universe. Also some parts of the story have been badly altered or dumbed down, the meeting scene on arrakis, Paul giving some advice to his father, wouldn't his mentat think of that long before the meeting took place? The film is pretty good when it follows the novel but you can see where they changed things completely and its just.. bad. The Princess Irulan and Feyd scene is stupid, its one of the dumbest TV cliches and I've seen it done on Saved By The Bell before, heck, Bugs Bunny. Feyd is not that stupid and wouldn't just blurt out information while some chick rubs him down. The harsh realities of Dune are pretty skimpy, instead of the film coming to where Paul realizes he cannot stop the horrible Jihad and will be doomed to knowing the future forever it kind of tosses it out the window before the final battle and focuses on the love story between Chani and Paul. And! Dr.Yueh is barely in the film, Piter is barely in the film. These are two very important characters that while don't last long in the novel have the biggest roles in the first book. Since Yueh is in this film for about 2 minutes when he reveals himself to Leto as the traitor its kind of uneventful, not to mention for the next 10 minutes we have to here "they had his wife!" over and over. Style, the film has no style, its kind of like watching a car commercial, they say there's a car, they show you a perfectly framed picture of a car, move on. The sets, I understand on a limited budget they went with sets because shooting the desert would take time and jam up equipment and such, ghhez! Grow some glowglobes! Take a risk, if the film was shot in a actual desert with a certain light tone it could have been mixed with the cgi shots of the worms and would have looked convincing. Shaddam was horribly miscast, Liet was baaaaadly miscast, I think both actors should have switched roles. Shaddam's costume sucks. The guildsmen look like Merlin's magic helpers, but I have to say the scene where they stand by the steersman while his tank floats by in the ship is pretty eerie. Its one of the few scenes where the film shows some kind of genius, the death of Rabban is very neat. When Paul fights the Freemen and kills his first man is a excellent scene. The Baron is ok, I hate how all of his shots are shot in a annoying slanted angle to show they are "evil". He's actually pretty funny in some scenes but when compared to the sinister monster in Lynch's film he's more like a much nicer cousin of the Baron than the actual guy. I heard they are now combining Dune Messiah and Children of Dune together for another miniseries. This is not right, Dune Messiah is a deeply burning work that would require, say someone like Stanly Kubrick for the job, think about it! It would work! Too bad he's gone. I can imagine how dumbed down its going to be, and the cheesy shock its going to try to pull when the preacher shows up. And one last note, the special effects, yes they are bad but when compared to million dollar budget films like Star Wars Episode 1 the effects don't seem that bad do they? The DVD has two discs, both films in widescreen, neat menus that are more entertaining that the actual film, a short little thing about the people who made it, of course dissing the Lynch film. If you are a fan of Dune go ahead and pick it up.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but still lacking...
Review: I purchased this miniseries without having any knowledge of it other than myself being a huge fan of the novels and yes even David Lynch's movie. When I got it home I started watching it and I was expecting to find a more thourough plot line and closer to the novel. Well in some ways yes it was and that is expected from a 3 part series but what was with the acting??? My lord the characters were so horribly portrayed in this version that it ruined anything that could have been redeemable from it. What is most contradictory is that in the director/producers own words he claims that his first instinct to tackle a film of this magnitude was to go with great actors. Well he failed miserable and aside from some random quality performances (Irulan is decent, Gurney is quality, Kynes is done well on occaision) you will be left bored and unconvinced that this series was taken seriously. There is talk now that they will be combining Dune Messiah and Children of DUne to create the next miniseries. One can only hope he goes with a whole new cast. If you are looking to be entertained with Sci Fi or the Dune environment go back to David Lynch's version but if you really just want to see another interpretation and can stand horrible acting then go rent this but ny all means if you are not serious for it don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably the best Dune EVER!!
Review: Let me make my point first. Buy this DVD. Or, if you can wait a month or 2, get a long blank tape and record it on VHS. It comes on the Sci-Fi channel. But you won't get all the speacil features, so ignore me. This DVD gets the WHOLE first book in! Its awesome! I've watched it about... 8 times now, and I love it!! Its not just for Dune fans either, my mother (whos never heard of Dune) watched it once and loved it also! Buy this DVD!!
Rating:
Summary: Good Sci-Fi
Review: This is a huge Sci Fi production and it is quite good too. Good points: it's long enough to be true to the book, with no glaring mistakes; costume design is excelent; set design and construction is excelent; the worms are VERY cool. The fat baron and the princess characters have character; this movie is almost too good for TV. Bad points: terrible casting; William Hurt disappears in the first fifth of the series; William Hurt does a bad acting job; bad acting jobs all around except fot the fat baron and the princess; you can distinguish the blue screen from the set in some scenes; this movie is not good enough to appear in theaters.
Rating:
Summary: At last, a presentation of Dune worthy of note
Review: I will try and keep this short and sweet. I enjoyed every minute of this miniseries. They have tried to remain faithful to the book which is really refreshing after watching David Lynch's total misrepresentation. Although there are a few discrepancies here and there it was well acted (I saw a comment saying that Alec Newman was wooden, whoever made that comment, please read the book again and see what Paul is really like, inside his head there are too many things going on, outwardly he appears cold) and you do get a better understanding of the story that Frank Herbert was trying to convey. Oh how I wish that this was released in the cinema before "The David Lynch Debacle".
Rating: 
Summary: Lackluster DUNE has poor acting and direction
Review: I was hoping for an epic with compelling characters, special effects and script. Unfortunately this is a version that went bad from the beginning. Compare Alec Newman with Kyle MacLachlan in the scene with the pain box. Alec is barely registering any emotion while Kyle is barely able to hold it together. It's a great introduction in what is to come later. This is pretty much how the whole production feels. The acting is stiff (William Hurt is terrible as Duke Leido), direction is very slowly paced, cheap special effects. Even the music in Lynch's version has a driving theme that's swirls into the passion of the attack with the Freman atop the worms. Fantastic. Lynch's version is far from perfect and I definitely prefer the version without the narration. Sci-Fi channel - please do better next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Vastly Irritating
Review: What's the point? David Lynch's 1984 film was a good two-hour trailer, with very impressive lanscapes (shot on real dessert) and costumes, and some very good performances (Sian Philips and Francesca Ammis were outstanding...) What have we got here, but CGI dust and spooky blue eyes? And for all the talk of how this miniseries was "faithful" adaptation: Lynch had far more respect for the readers of the book- and more coherence in his plot; he did not scrape Usul, Dr Yueh WITH his tatoo, Piter and Fenrig (with his wife's garden.) The phrase "she was my serving wench" did not have to be translated: quite a few people would know the meaning of this word. Why change the plot so aimlessly? It does allow Irulan to walk around some more in her medieval get-ups, Chani to cavort in the beach towel and frightened wenches to run around Paul in the butchered hunter-seeker scene.... Oh, the pain of seeing the Halloween attire of Mother Helen Gaius Mohiam or the Navigator doing Dracula... And, the fake wind-flute musical theme- somebody watched the Last Temptation of the Christ one time too many.... What's worse, the SciFi Channel threatens to film even more expensive version of "Children of Dune', based on the success (?) of the first installment. Money can't buy brains or good taste. The one star is for... well, nothing in this movie is worth it, it's just there ain't no raiting lower than this. Read or re-read "Dune" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Mini Series
Review: If you like Dune the movie you will enjoy the mini-series. The Sci-fi Channel version fills in a lot of the gaps (telling you before the fight between Paul and Fayed that Paul is a relative of the Harkonnen)and follows more closely to the book. The special effects are execellent. Very well acted.
Rating:
Summary: Quality DVD, but movie is average
Review: I hadn't seen the movie, so I decided to purchase the DVD. The DVD was quality and I enjoyed the xtras, but the movie was a bit odd, and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would have been. It does hold truer to the novel, but certain aspects of the first run were better. If you a graphics fan, it is ok at best, but for just SCi-fi interest I am glad I saw it.
Rating:
Summary: True to the book, but some awful acting and castnig problems
Review: Visually, this is very stunning, and overall and I am quite impressed with the caliber of this treatment of the colossal and important book Dune. The story really is one that needed this longer treatment, though I would say it really needed at least one more hour, since even as full as this movie is, it still leaves out some cool stuff. But unlike the first Dune movie, this one doesn't need you to have read the book to understand what is happening (though to understand the political, ecological, and religious message that Frank Herbert was giving us, you really must read the book). I think the sets are really quite cool, and there is wonderful stylistic differences between the Harkonnens (angular, sharp, lots of reds, lots of open flat spaces and surfaces), Dune, the Emperor (authoritative blues, hints of classical governmental architecture), the Spacing Guild (mysterious architecture and clothing), etc. The characterizations are well done, the filming is quite good. I mean, apart from a few moments, the film does not exude that "made for TV quality" that made for TV movies normally have. This was seriously done, and done well. The writing really took the story of Dune and was very honest and true to it. I haven't noticed anything yet this is blatantly against the book, except that I don't think Baron Harkonnen is fat enough, and the Reverend Mother comes off as a bit of a high-pitched shrieking shrew and not the imposing and fear-causing authority figure that she should be. This is where the David Lynch film excelled - the Reverend Mother and the Lady Jessica were acted like serious, intense powerful beings, with their own secretive religious and political agenda. The only detriment to the movie is the consistently poor quality of the acting, on the part of all the actors (except Baron Harkonnen and Princess Irulan, who, IMO, are very good actors). Paul Atreides has moments of wonderful acting, and then moments of stiff, poor acting. The special effects are great, Arrakis really looks like Arrakis. The sandworms are really cool. The sietches look like natural rock. The Spacing Guild navigator looks like he is described in the book. The stillsuits look like what stillsuits should look like. Very, very good production, especially considering it was made for TV. For the Dune fans - you really are safe watching this movie. For people who have not read Dune yet - I suggest you watch this movie and get a feel for one of the most epic writings and stories ever put on paper, and then go read the book, and be transported into a literary artistic world that will leave you changed, and forever wondering and thinking about how politics, ecology, and religion are interrelated in our own world, and will make you wonder about the wheels within wheels within wheels of our country's political schemings, and the schemings within the Church. It's a story about the process of gaining power, and holding on to power, using power, and losing power. But of course, it's also about much, much more than that.
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