Rating: 
Summary: SOOOOOOo much better than Lynch's version
Review: I've read the book, and seen both David Lynch's version and this version many times. Although the book is obviously the best of the three venues one can experience Dune, this is by far better than David Lynch's version. The book tells a story of political intrigue, violence, ancient prophesies, rebellion, and various religious cults fighting for control of a tiny desert planet of Arrakis, or Dune, which holds the Spice that controls the entire universe. "He who controls the spice controls the universe." The world created by Frank Herbert ranks among my favorite sci-fi/fantasy universes created in a novel, along with Tolkien's Middle Earth. Herbert created two distant religions, that of the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit, and a believable feudal system of government of the known Universe. Now let's get to the two movie versions of this great epic. The beginning of the David Lynch version is good, introducing you to the Atreides, Harkonnen, the Emperor, and the Bene Gesserit, but they take a long time to do it. I consider that segment equal to the corresponding segment of this new movie version, but there is a problem with the Lynch version. After you get to the fall of House Atreides, you only have 45 min. to tell the rest of the story, while in this new version there's another three hours to tell it all! In Lynch's version you don't get to know anything about the Fremen whatsoever, just that they are some native desert people that Paul "Muad'dib" uses in his quest to take back Arrakis. In Lynch's version all you get of the Paul/Chani love story is a 15 second snippet with some narration "Paul and Chani's love grew" where as in this version you get to see the complex relationship that they have, their love for each other, but Chani's fear of Paul for the power he holds. In this movie you get to see a lot of Fremen culture, which is really the heart of the novel. In short, this new version gives you so much more of the STORY and CHARACTERS of Dune. Now let's talk special effects. It is true that Lynch had some better effects in his film, even though it was 15 years older than this new version, but special effects are secondary to a story as rich as this. Besides, I didn't think they were that bad for this new miniseries. After all, Harrison is working on a TV budget and is trying to make a 4 1/2 hour movie. But the space special effects I thought were very good, and even some minor effects like the shields, and when Jessica takes the Water of Life, much richer than in the Lynch version. And the sand worms, they were just spectacular, almost horrifying, although they obviously copy off of Lynch's design. Yes, the little jumping rat was such a shame, and many of the scenes in the end looked like they came from computer games, but that doesn't detract from this film, since the story carries the movie in a way the Lynch movie didn't. In Lynch's movie you get such a long set up, and then some fighting, and the knife battle at the end, and it ends. You're like "man, what happened?" Even for someone who hasn't read Dune, there are obviously unanswered questions and plot lines not followed up on after that elaborate of a set up. And, the last 45 min. of Lynch's Dune was so confusing that if you hadn't read the book you couldn't understand it! Now, I grant that some of the stuff dealing with the sand worm's relationship to the Water of Life would be confusing in this movie if you haven't read the book, but it's just so much better. I'll end on this note: Read the book, it's great. Buy this movie and watch it over and over again. Rent Lynch's version and just watch it once to compare the two, and you'll see why this movie
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.
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