Rating: 
Summary: Made-for-TV has never seemed more big screen!
Review: I don't know about you all, but this miniseries adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel should have been a theatrical release. So many of the special effects, the sets, and the cinematography is so breathtaking that it's hard to believe the producers didn't decide on a big screen release to capture all the grandeur, something the original Dune film was missing. This one's got a lot of great parts, but most importantly it's consistently entertaining and ends satisfyingly.
Rating:
Summary: The best.
Review: Yes, this is one of the best novel to movie adaptations I've ever seen. Having just recently gotten this miniseries on DVD, I'm impressed by the whole thing. Shot on widescreen, the film has the feel of a theatrical release. The awesome special effects also enhance the viewing effect.
Rating:
Summary: I wouldn't read or listen to the negative reviews.
Review: Having read most of these reviews bashing Dune I find it quite hilarious that they never really go in-depth in their complaints. They also usually cite David Lynch's film as being a more faithful adaptation, which is most certainly not true. John Harrison did a mighty fine job writing and directing this miniseries, and if there's anything I can say about this work, it's that it is EASILY the most impressive-looking made-for-television movie I have ever seen, in any genre. A lot of credit must go to Vittoria Storraro, whose beautiful cinematography proves he hasn't lost his touch since The Last Emperor. Storytelling is probably the movie's strongest aspect, as everything is completely captivating and engrossing. The cast is all good, particularly Saskia Reeves as the Lady Jessica. I'm a little surprised I've never seen in her anything else before. The sets are suitably incredible, easily conveying the look and feel of a theatrical release. Action choreography is also tight and fast-paced, the abundant knife duels and battle scenes do get the adrenaline pumping. All in all, a great effort from underappreciated filmmakers who correct the mistakes David Lynch made when he decided to go off and make his own interpretation of Dune (Oh, don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with that, it's just that his movie is incomprehensible, badly acted, badly paced, and generally lacking in spirit, soul, and generally good filmmaking).
Rating:
Summary: The next sci-fi classic.
Review: While Dune has been getting good response from viewers and critics, it hasn't won them over completely. I'm pretty certain it'll be deemed a sci-fi classic in a decade and that David Lynch's movie will be mostly forgotten by then. This is a faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, it gets down all of the important details, makes it into one very engrossing ride, and touches it all of with excellent special effects and engaging action and suspense.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad mini-series
Review: I love the book, so I'm doing the horrible thing of basing a review of a DVD against the book it's based on, but this was a terrible rendition of DUNE. The characters are all way off base. William Hurt plays dead, the guy playing Paul adds to the character this haughty arrogance that in the book always came across as confident self-assurance, and Jessica is turned into a royal priss instead of the world weary intelligent woman she was in the novel. The sets were terrible, showing the navigator was just dumb (Hitchcockian allusion is the way to go with the navigators). And all if it looked like every other sci-fi miniseries, thus reducing a founding novel into a dumb derivitive TV show. If you want the best movie version of DUNE, go rent Star Wars. It's a much better translation.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the David Lynch movie.
Review: David Lynch's film was a complete disaster. It made no sense and relied pretty much only on its visuals to gain the viewer's attention. The sci-fi channel remake is very faithful to the book, and just because it lacks Lynchian perversities doesn't make it a bad movie, something die-hard Lynch fans can't seem to grasp. Being weird does not equate to surreal and creative.
Rating:
Summary: Atrocious
Review: this was, quite simply, a major disappointment. Being a long time fan of the books, I found it disappointing on a great many levels.
*Jessica's character was reduced to a bumbling, weak, whiny woman.
*A great deal of dialogue was changed, and for the worse- many of the changes just caused what was said to lose its meaning in the greater context that Herbert had written it to express.
*Also, some stupid plot line was added where the Princess becomes Sherlock Holmes, rather than the weak-willed woman that she was really supposed to be. She uncovers all kinds of plots and stuff, and not a single thing of this happened in the book. *Also, since they took this tact with her character it throws her feelings for Paul in the next book completely out of line; but since the director knew this was all that would be made, im sure he didnt care.
*many of the important events that happened did not happen in the movie, or were glanced over and refered to in passing.I realize that there is only so much time to deal with, but I think the David Lynch movie did a much better job of portaying the story itself than this one did. Oh ya, and the acting was terrible too.
Rating:
Summary: Very cool sci-fi flick.
Review: Very cool sci-fi adventure flick about a young messiah who rises to power on a desert planet. Great production design and special effects to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Great sci-fi/action!
Review: I got pretty intrigued by this film's cover so I decided to give it a look. I found myself caught by the magical world that's portrayed. I also heavily enjoyed the adventure/action aspects, which made this movie tremendously enjoyable to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Minor flaws don't distract from the film's quality.
Review: What the Dune mini-series and Dune 1984 have in common is that both are very visually impressive. But even more fascinating about the films' looks is how different they each are in visual style and execution. I've never been a big fan of David Lynch's bloated version but I will admit to finding it interesting, if nothing more than just to see how the most expensive movie (of its time) fared. The mini-series is better, if mainly because it is able to fully develop the story and distance itself from Lynch's film by executing the story in a somewhat different style. Director John Harrison should be praised for handling such a complex novel so well, it's easy to see he's a big fan of Frank Herbert's epic.
|
