Rating: 
Summary: Improved over the last attempt
Review: This is same old story; this is not the book. Yep and it is not the Dune movie you were weaned on. The director can not spell Frank. DVD's should load them selves. One-day pigs will fly.
Now this is a very entertaining mini-series. The time was taken to explain more instead of just implying things and making you guess what they are talking about. Not using such spectacular sets forced then to do some fairly good acting to make up for that. The story did not come to an abrupt end. This leads me to thing it is left open on purpose as a pilot for a TV series.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted more...
Review: Well, Dune was really dissapointing. I had been wanting to see this for years and so when I saw it at the library (cuz I'm a cheap geek like that) I picked it up. I had never read the books. I only knew there was a desert and a guy with blue eyes. 4 hours later, I was in about the same place. It was poorly directed and poorly acted. It didn't even have a semblance of believability. I know its a sci-fi and all but I should at least be allowed to suspend my disbelief and throw myself into the world Frank Herbert tried to create. Unfortunately, they failed. Theatrical lighting and college level graphics made the whole piece very artificial. I would love to see this remade by the people who did The Cell... and with talented actors. Granted, it was a TV mini-series, not a major motion picture so I shouldn't rag too much. I guess my hopes were too high. I bet the books are really good.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dune That Grows on You
Review: This is a difficult film to review. Its faults and flaws are somewhat numerous and have been spelled out by many already. Despite this, I feel this "Dune" to be superior to the David Lynch (and I'm Lynch fan) in nearly every regard. Certainly no one expects television series to match up to the lavishness of a film production, do they?
Lynch's Dune was budgeted at $50 million in 1984 - had 75 stages, with 200 workers taking months just to clear the desert, the project took something like 3 1/2 years of filming and editing (six years from pre-production to release). In today's dollars Lynch's Dune would cost roughly between $85 - $100million).
Contrast this with the Doom Miniseries which stretches out over 6 hours of film, took four months and was achieved on a budget of $20 million dollars in 2000.
I've grown to love this Dune and repeated viewings have allowed me to see some of the subtleties in the acting which I think is where the strength of this lies. Hurt seems a bit inert at first but he conveys the benevolence that is inherent to Leto's character.
Alec Newman is something of a revelation. His moody, spoiled, Paul is right on the money, giving no hint of the depth of character that he will develop as Muad'Dib nor the dark wildness he will show as he shares his visions with his mother and reveals unwanted truths.
The film is stunning to look at, and easy to follow and far better conveys the story of Dune than the film version.
Rating: 
Summary: Inaccuracies distracting
Review: I don't understand why the Sci-fi channel would spend so much money on this piece of garbage. I understand that people are entitled to make some changes when adapting books for tv/screen. This is one book that would be nearly impossible to adapt religiously. My problem with this series is the costumes, architecture, and character atitudes. The only organization who had a "uniform" that looked in the least bit functional were the Bene Gesserit. All the other people, the Mentats and the Spacing Guild, all looked like the designer tried to come up with the weirdest looking thing he/she possibly could. The only other set of characters that had a distinct look to them were the Fremen and it looked like they were all wearing radiation suits. The Corinos and the Harkonnens looked the same only one was wearing red and the other iridecent purple. The architecture didn't look natural. Everythink looked about as real as Colubus being greeted in American by Egyptians wearing kimonos. No two of these things developed in the same place. It was like they took every culture on Earth, threw them into a blender, poured it into a Jell-o mold, and waited an hour. The original Dune movie, while cheesy at times, was at least internally consistant.
Rating:
Summary: Faithfully flawed
Review: I am a huge fan of Dune, always have been. And I will say I enjoyed the Sci-Fi Channel Dune Mini-series, but find some of its weaknesses very annoying. I still believe David Lynch's Dune is VASTLY superior in quality to this enjoyable but luke-warm exercise in mediocrity. Instead of writting paragraph after paragraph of praise or flamming, like some Dune fans, I'm going to be quick and to the point...
For one, the quality of the production values on David Lynch's Dune are much higher in ALL of the follwing:
Acting: I like John Hurt and all and he did a fine Duke, but the cast on Lynch's Dune was great, especially Patrick Stewart and whoever the guy is who played the Baaron, he was amazing. (did you know Salvador Dali was originally cast to play the Baaron but never showed up?) And I hate to admit it...but Sting was cool as an arrogant and homicidal Feyd.
Costumes and Sets: The costumes on Davind Lynch's Dune are LIGHTYEARS ahead of the Sci-Fi mini-series, especially with the stillsuits, they look fantastic. But they look like a joke on the mini-series. And dont get me started on the other costumes from the mini-series, the Harkonnen and Atredies house uniforms were terrible. The Sardukar uniforms were even WORSE, you're telling me the most feared soldiers in the universe wear a uniform that GAY, complete with giant beret?..c'mon! And the formal wear worn by royalty and dignitaries looks like it belongs in a bad episode of Star Trek, in the freakin sixties! The butterflies all over the dress of the Emperors Daughter, YIKES!
The sets on both films are good, but Lynch's fit the mood of the film much more and the mini-series has questionable lighting (Yea....The background is purple but the sand they walk on is green....okaaayyy...)
Special Effects: The Mini-series has adequate special effects, but you can easily tell they are computer-generated, they seem detached from the world around them. Definately not Lord of the Rings quality animation. David Lynch's Dune has wonderful effects, considering that it is over 20 years old and still looks more convincing than the computer generated mini-series.
Score and sounds: Though I did not mind the score on the mini-series, you can't deny the over-powering epic feel of the Movie Soundtrack, 80's synthasizer aside.
Now, after bashing it, I will sell the mini-series on it's strong point, it's faithfulness to the original novel. It is much closer to Frank Herbert's masterpiece. However I'm not terribly bothered by the fact that Lynch's movie takes some departures. For example, David Lynch's Dune altered the roll of "The Wierding Way". Instead of the hard to explain "Space Kung-Fu" it is, they described it as a secret weapon developed by House Atredies using sound. I find changes like this to be a technicality because I believe all core aspects and themes of the book can be found in Lynch's Dune.
When I read the original, or any book from the Dune saga, the characters and things I see in my head are all borrowed from the amazing artisanship and work from David Lynch's Dune. That's what Dune is supposed to look and sound like, story aside.
Simply put, if you are a story purist you will prefer the mini-series. If you are a film buff, you will prefer the quality of work on Lynch's Dune. But I'd just recomend you not get upset about it and own both of them like me! :)
Rating:
Summary: Very impressive for something that was made for television
Review: This is a very impressive effort for something that was made for television. Frankly, in many ways it really is an impressive piece of work period. As an adaptation of the novel, it does fairly well - more could have been done of course, but it isn't something that should overly upset even the pickiest of fans.
Perhaps I am being less critical than others, since it has been something more than a decade now since I actually read the Dune series... a similar amount of time has elapsed since I last saw the Lynch film version as well. In the case of Lynch's film, while it was enjoyable and had many interesting facets to it, at the time I felt it was a VERY incomplete presentation of Dune.
The miniseries format of this newer production allows for the necessary time needed to properly put out the narrative - someone who is just watching the movie version and has not read the novel will have a much better chance of understanding what is going on in this version than in the Lynch.
For myself, as someone who HAS read the novel I was fairly satisfied. There certainly are things that could have been better - some of the actors let down their roles. Paul in particular does not live up to the image of the 'great leader'. Not all of his acting in the film is bad, some is actually good, but in key moments - such as the big speech to the Fedaiken after he has taken the water of life - he simply does not have what is necessary to make it credible...
As for sets and costumes, it is a different approach from Lynch, and also different from what I imagined when reading - but that can hardly be helped! If you put aside any preconceptions you may have, it can be seen that a great deal of good, creative work has been done here. A little heavy perhaps on use of historical sources... why the Harkonen troops look like samurai is beyond me, though the Sardaukar with their Italian rennaisance look is actually somewhat fitting with Herbert's conception.
On the whole, this is a good looking film. Storaro works his usual magic. Fans of Giannini will be amused to see him in the small role of the emperor.
The quality of the CG varies widely from very good to amateurish - there is one shot of Paul in the desert, where the backdrop has a VERY obvious seam in it... embarassing yes, but little things like that do not invalidate an entire production all by themselves.
If you are going to buy Dune, then the three disc Director's Cut is the version to get - with an extra half hour of footage that adds even more to the film, and for the superior picture quality. The case is nice, but a tad flimsy...
I have also watched the older 2 disc edition, and I do think that this new one has a significant edge over it. The inclusion of a DTS version of the sound is also nice - the surround mix is good, if not exceptional (not surprising, since it seems that very few sound folk have realised the sonic possibilities at their finger tips... how strange.. and sad..).
Recommended to fans of the Dune novels, to those who enjoy large science fiction epics, and to those who enjoy good convoluted multilayered plots - Herbert's series is one of the best for that.
Rating:
Summary: Faithful to the novel. A great science-fiction saga!
Review: I write this review as a long-time Dune afficianado, having read all of the novels and further, having viewed the original David Lynch film more times than I care to admit. Dune is a great story, and it is worthy of this degree of enthusiasm.
For those who are new to Dune, this is the story of political intrigue set within a human Galactic Empire in the year 10,191. Mankind has spread to many worlds among the stars, made possible by a kind of faster-than-light space travel. This form of space travel is utterly dependent upon the spice melange (much as our own time is dependent upon oil). Melange enables space navigators to enter into the "navigation trance" enabling them to select a safe route for a spaceship to travel. Melange can be found only upon one planet--the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Melange extends life and is greatly desired by aristocrats within the Empire, but of course its use in promoting space travel and commerce is what makes it the center of intrigue and political power. Dune is the story of a struggle between the Imperial house, and two other Great Houses to control Dune, the spice, and ultimately the Empire.
Dune the novel is initially a hard slog, but it eventually rewards the reader because Dune is arguably the greatest work of imagination of all time. The great triumph of Dune is that it presents us with a universe and society utterly unlike our own, but with a realism and internal consistency that is completely convincing. This is a great story. It is also a long story, not easily adapted to the format of a 3 hour movie.
This miniseries succeeds partly because Dune is almost perfect for the miniseries format. The original David Lynch film fell short specifically because it simply had to make too many compromises to fit the format of a feature-length film. The first half of the Lynch film was superb, benefiting from its all-star cast and incredible budget, special effects, and sets, but it went downhill in the seond half. As Dune afficianados know, the Lynch film also took liberties with the story, primarily by introducing the "wierding modules" as the secret to Atreides military proficiency rather than the specialized combat techniques of the novel.
This miniseries is an almost linear depiction of the Frank Herbert novel to the screen--the script takes few liberties with the original story, the only one coming to mind is the somewhat enhanced role of Princess Irulan. This worked well, and in no way changes the fact that this miniseries truly is Herbert's novel transported to the screen. The story is wonderful to follow, and this miniseries is about as good a presentation of Dune as anyone is ever likely to make. It succeeds and succeeds well.
The main shortfall of the miniseries is the casting of Alec Newman as Paul Atreides, the leading protagonist of the Dune story. Newman lacks the stature to carry off the role of Paul--oh, if only Kyle MacLachlan, who played Paul in the Lynch film had been available! William Hurt as the Duke Leto Atreides is controversial; some feel that he was unenthusiastic about the role, and presented a somewhat sleepy performance. I thought Hurt did an adequate job, but not as good as Jurgen Prochnow in the Lynch film. The rest of the cast in the miniseries was very good, and compares reasonably well to the all-star cast in the Lynch film.
The sets, special effects, etc., while not state-of-the-art compared to the latest big budget films, are nevertheless very, very good; far better than one normally finds in made-for-TV productions. The viewer will be impressed with the imaginative and lavish sets, costumes, and effects.
Dune is a great story and this is a wonderful miniseries. Anyone who enjoys science fiction should appreciate this film, and any Dune afficianado will want to own this DVD and watch it many times, as I have.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than the movie
Review: Amazing! I absolutely loved this. The movie version was horrible. I am glad they finally did a good version. This made me love the book even more than I already did. Great visuals, great acting, perfect characterization. The changes made were good changes. For example, they changed where Paul tells Jessica that she was the Baron's daughter. The book has it pretty early on. In the movie, it is not until after he drinks the water of life. It seemed to fit much better than the way the book did it.
Rating:
Summary: Brave attempt, but falls well short
Review: I recently acquired this DVD marathon condensed version of the Sci Fi channel original series, that sets out to underline the more well known David Lynch movie (which I have also reviewed) and fill in the blanks so to speak. If you have seen the theatrical version of the other movie you will recognise some scenes and dialogue that are verbatim, and justly lifted from the excellent book by Frank Herbert. Therein however begins the problem, if you HAVE seen the other movie, this is a lumbering, and ultimately too long adaptation that tries, but never shakes of the "made for TV feel". The acting isn't bad, but it isn't great either, and you feel that most of the characters are reading lines, rather than living the story. Another grumble would be the casting, as some of the characters come across as so unlike what one expects, they detract from the story in a critical fashion. If this is your first taste of Dune, you may find this review overly critical, but what this film made up for in better special effects, and more complete storytelling, than it's theatrical predecessor it completely lacked in believable acting. Aside from William Hurt, there are few big names here, which may be another reason the finished product is less than polished, and as much as I have tried to like this, the David Lynch film (albeit shorter) does much more to capture the "spirit" of Herberts epic story. Worth a look, but don't get your hopes up too high.
Rating:
Summary: the other version
Review: I am a hardcore fan of Frank Herbert's science fiction. Since other people on here have written very good reviews, I will try to keep mine short and to the point. Yes, I agree very much with what Amazon.com had to say. The architecture is impressive. The sets are very interesting and the costumes, I believe, were made by a cutting edge French fashion agency. This is the strength of this version - the sets and costumes. However.The acting suffers greatly. Like most cg filled epics of our day, this one suffers from what I like to call "Video game cutscene syndrome." That is, that what should be an entertainment experience in its own right becomes little more than a computer graphics showcase (a non-interactive one, unlike a real video game). When acting is sacrificed for the sake of cg graphics, the result is little more than a crippled video game experience, one in which you are unable to control the action and must sit passively watching the equivalent of a video game cutscene. The acting is downright terrible, with the exception of the Baron and some of the development surrounding Duke Leto. This version, unlike the David Lynch one, is pure eye candy, nothing more, nothing less. However, I will say it was a noble attempt. I can see how hard they tried. I can recognize this. Therefore, I give it an average rating.
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