Rating: 
Summary: Great treatment for the great sci fi trilogy.
Review: Frank Herebert's Dune trilogy is as huge to science fiction as The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy, and is second in the scope of its vision only to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. The miniseries version is, in this reviewer's opinion, better than the original movie. The basic story line is that the royal Houses Atreides and Harkonnen are in a battle for control of the planet of Dune, which is the only place in the galaxy which produces "spice." Spice is a halucinogenic product which is necessary for the spiritual powers of the principal religion, intersteller transportation, and political control. The emperor replaces the Harkonnen's control of the planet Dune with the House of Atreides. The Harkonnens and the Emperor planned to kill the Atreides and reassume control of Dune. The Harkonnens fail to kill the son and concubine of Duke Leto Atreides, who flee to the desert. The son and new duke, Paul, essentially becomes a messsiah to the desert denisens of the planet, and leads them in rebellion.My recollection of the cinematic version was that it was too compressed to get the story line of the trilogy, almost as bad as my summary above, and was too comic-bookish for the subject matter. The trilogy certainly has parallels to both Lawrence of Arabia and to the real world politics of oil/religion in the middle east. It deserves better treatment than it got in that version. The TV miniseries fixes these problems simply by having the time to present the story, and treating the material with a more matter of fact rendition. But where the cinematic version had the big screen, the miniseries fails because the material is too big for the small screen. The sets and costumes are magnificent. The production values are as good as I have seen on TV. But the scope and grandeur of Dune is lost on a 27" TV screen. The other problems are that the acting is dry and unemotional, and some of the special effects have been skimped on a little bit. You never get to like the protagonists. Given these limitations, it is, in my opinion, the better version in that you can follow the story and see what Frank Herbert imagined. I highly recommend the DVD over the VHS because the quality of the video is significantly better.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Film...
Review: I have never read the dune books, but having viewed this film, I think I may invest the time. I like the story very much, but to tell you the truth, untill I read the books and am able to compare them with the film, I have to say that the quality of the film appeals more to me than the story. That's not to say that I "dislike" the story- I simply find it a little too jaded in regard to the suggested opinion of human nature. That being said, I do not think that human beings are absolutley perfect, nor do I see the world through rose colored glasses; however, I AM of a more optimistic mind- I think humankind is capable of far deeper righteousness than the film's story suggests. Also, I find the perverse behavior of the "Harkonnen" House very difficult to watch. Nevertheless, overall, the film thrills me from begining to end as a masterpiece of cinematography, and artistic performances.
The relationship between Duke Leto and Jessica, and their personal history and how it relates to and shapes the plot of the entire "Dune" story is incredibly intriguing. I guess if I had one wish from the film, it would be that MUCH more time had been devoted to THEIR story, and the strange beauty of their relationship, and the woman who is called "wife".... having been called "wife" to a man for almost 30 years now, myself, it appeals to me on a very personal level... and so may it to you who are thinking of buying this film. If Dune is the 'stuff' that thrills you, you are in for a treat if you make the wise decision to buy this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Disappointed
Review: Oh dear, oh dear. I have been a fan of the Dune book series for years. A Sci-Fi Lord of the Rings if I can be permitted to fit the work into that category. When the original David Lynch film was released, I was impressed with the way the movie captured the look and feel of the books and the excellent use of voice over to put elements of the book onto the screen. A key element of the book is what is going on in the minds of the characters, how they read people, how the understand things that others cannot. In my opinion, the movie was true to the book and really was for the Dune fan, not your casual movie goer. Now, along comes a new slant on the work. A mini-series. I was excited by the idea. Would the mini-series contain elements that the movie couldn't (time was a factor then, two hour movies weren't popular for movie goers)? Would we now have the full saga on the screen with no fear of being too long? Would the effects of today allow the series to be awesome in delivery? Well, what we have here is a poorly acted; fast paced and poorly created piece of work. Whilst the script is true to the book, certain elements are still missing. Everything moves too fast where the Lynch movie (only being just over two hours long) had the perfect pace. The character of Paul Atreides is presented as an angry, almost spoilt child, approach. Not the intelligent future Duke he is in the books. The effects are bad. Look out for the scene when Paul and Jessica run from the worm after being left in the desert. Almost slapstick. The acting is shameful. The character of Gurney Halleck is dreadful and William Hurt (who I thought would be excellent in this series) is not the Duke I imagined. There is just no connection between the characters, no love or bond between them. Also, some of the accents the characters have make it hard to understand what they are saying. As a dune fan, I felt let down. This could have been a huge success, but instead, the "made for TV" label keeps it's reputation. It's a shame Lynch couldn't continue where he had left off. I would love to see his interpretation of the Children of Dune and all the books for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: SCI-FI screws up again
Review: Just another chapter in the never ending stream of garbage put out by the sci-fi channel. How someone can attempt to bring the classic Dune to the screen and completely ignore water discipline is beyond me. The acting sucks, the characters suck. In fact just about everything about this sucks except maybe some of the sets. At this rate the idiots that run the Sci-Fi channel will have completely destroyed the genre by 2010. And by the way Children of Dune is even worse.
Rating:
Summary: Epic science fiction
Review: As a TV miniseries, this version of Dune worked extremely well. As a DVD it is nice because you can watch as much of it as you like at one time - it's broken into three 90 minute "episodes." The acting is much better than average for television, and the sets and costumes are really superb. The portrayal of the primitive yet sophisticated (and beautifully spiritual) fremen culture will have you cheering for their cause. And the evil baron and emporer, as well as the weasly spicing guild nerds, provide a terrific and fun element of comedy to the production. (They sure have a lot of weird, funky hats in this universe !!) The special effects and battle scenes do leave something to be desired, although the space scenes actually look pretty real. One star is lost for the cheesy looking battle scenes and fake looking desert mouse, and the DVD itself is pretty bare bones. Nevertheless, this DVD is worthwhile addition to your science fiction collection, especially since the price is so reasonable. PS - I'm getting really annoyed with reviewers who compare a film to the book upon which it is based, and complain when they don't coincide exactly. When a film is "based" on a novel, it is not necessary to copy it verbatim. So, all you anally retentive Dune (and Lord of the Ring) geeks out there - lighten up already !!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: The director's cut is great. The images are crisp and colorful, and the DTS soundtrack is excellent. But more important, I think that this version blows away the David Lynch caricature of Dune. If you are a Dune fan, this is a great and pretty faithful adaptation. Are there a couple of cheesey moments when the movie tries to show what a spice vision is like? Sure, but that is tough to do. All in all, this particular version is wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous!
Review: Give me a break!! This is another terrible and stupid version for an amazing book.
Rating:
Summary: How low can you go?
Review: No matter how much extras there can be on the dvd, these are the most awful series ever been produced on account of a great novel. Never seen so much bad taste and stupidity in my whole life. This has to be where trash film makers go when they die.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi Spce Opera At It's Best
Review: What I'm about to say may be anathema to lovers of Hebert's Dune books, but I liked this mini-series more than the book! In fact, I've never been able to get through any of the Dune books. I've owned several copies over the years and tried to slog my way through, but to no avail. This mini-series, however, was fantastic on an epic scale. Having seen the badly done 80s movie, I was intrigued with the idea of the Sci-Fi Channel taking one the revered sci-fi space operas and turning it into a lavish mini-series (it's a shame the Sci-Fi Channel chooses to produce mostly B-movie garbage instead of great sci-fi like this). The casting is both a strength and a weakness for the movie. William Hurt as Duke Leto Atreides and Ian McNeice as Baron Harkonnen are perfect; however, Alec Newman as Paul Atreides/Muad'Dib and Saskia Reeves as Lady Jessica are bland at best, which is a shame since they are the center of so much of the story. As to the production, it was lavish and beautiful -- definitely some of the best to grace television in a long, long time. I wish I could say that seeing this mini-series made me dive right into the books, but it's just not the case. This is rare for me to say, but in this case the movie was better than the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent version! Much better than the movie.
Review: Although I did enjoy the 1984 movie version of Dune, I have to say that this mini-series is MUCH better. It follows the book much closer than the movie did, and most of the characters here have been done very well. The only thing I think that is really wrong with this is that too much CGI was used.
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