Rating: 
Summary: Tops the original with flying colors
Review: This adaptation of Herbert's novels "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune" is without a doubt the best motion-picture adaptation of Herbert's work, topping the 80's film and the first mini-series, "Dune", which aired in 2000. It combines excellent acting, strong action (when it comes into play), great special-effects (not including the god-awful Saber-tooth tigers) and moving music provided by composer Brian Tyler. Although not as action-heavy as the first mini-series, it still seems better paced than "Dune" and more entertaining overall. Alec Newman provides a less-wooden Paul Atreides, managing to deftly show how the immense responsibilities of leadership have begun to wear the Mahdi down. The roles of Alia and Jessica are also well done, and the twins Leto and Ghanima as well. Unfortunately Susan Sarandon does a terrible job as the villianous Corrino. I was glad to see that the costumes were a bit toned down this time. Many of the costumes in "Dune" were far too bright and flashy (Emperor Shaddam looked like he was wearing clothes made out of the same material as MC Hammer's parachute pants) lending a cheap, B-movie feel to the production. This time around the costumes are attractive; the women look elegant their royal attire (Ghanima's wedding dress comes to mind) and the men's clothing is practical and look fit for the desert. I also liked how Leto's transformation from human to worm hybrid is shown. As time passes the hard, worm-like skin slowly creeps up his arm until by the end it has moved across his cheek. All in all this is a must see for any one, not just sci-fi fans. A wonderful piece of cinematic work.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Best On-Screen Portrayal of Herbert's Vision
Review: Director Greg Yaitanes miniseries creation "Children of Dune" is possibly the best on-screen rendition of any of Frank Herbert's sci-fi novels. Taking up the story where director Frank Harrison's 2000 miniseries "Dune" ends, "Children of Dune" is based upon two of Frank Herbert's books: "Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)" and "Children of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 3)". The story begins on the planet Arrakis 12 years after the victory of Paul 'Muad'Dib' Atreides over House Harkonnen and Padishah-Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Muad'Dib not only became the Emperor, he also becomes the focus of a personality-cult religion. He married Princess Irulan Corrino, but his love remained with Chani. Several actors returned from the first "Dune" miniseries to play the same roles in "Children of Dune": Alec Newman as Muad'Dib (and does so far better than in the first "Dune" miniseries under Yaitanes' direction), Julie Cox as Princess Irulan Corrino (now the wife of Muad'Dib), Barbora Kodetová as Chani (Muad'Dib's concubine) and P.H. Moriarty as Gurney Halleck. Several different but well-known actors assume other characters: Lady Jessica played by Alice Krige (remembered as the Borg Queen in the 1996 film "Star Trek VIII: First Contact"), Wensicia (sister of the deposed Padishah-Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV) played by Susan Sarandan, and Stilgar was played by Steven Berkoff. Chani dies after giving birth to twins: a boy and a girl, who are named Leto II and Ghanima. However, Paul, now physically blind, does not stay to raise them. Instead, he abandones his position as Emperor and wanders into the Arrakeen desert. Alia (Daniela Amavia) becomes head of state until Leto II is old enough to rule. Time is shifted forward again, and the twins, who grow faster than normal humans, appear as young adults. Leto II (James McAvoy) and Ghanima (Jessica Brooks) are raised by both Alia and Irulan, but many are plotting against House Atreides, including Wensicia. Many are also concerned about the greening of Arrakis that is harming the worms, the makers of the spice; but Leto II has a plan that he calls the Golden Path. Also, everyone must tread carefully around Alia who slowly goes mad, seeing delusions of the dead Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (replayed by Ian McNeice). With a much larger budget than the first "Dune" miniseries, director Greg Yaitanes was able to create a far more extravagant and realistic portrayal of the story. Gone is the overuse of surrealistic lighting, but the less than realistic stillsuits remain in use. Actor James McAvoy does a stellar job creating the character Leto II, but the women in "Children of Dune" often take center stage and are each well acted. Though it is not perfect and uses some artistic license, I rate "Children of Dune" with 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Good entertainment
Review: There's a lot to like in these movies, but it's pretty clear why they never went to the big screen. The visuals are strong - that sepia monochrome constantly reinforced the desert ambience, and gave sharp contrast to the spice-blue eyes. Likewise, the other-world of inner vision had its own visual encoding, a stony labyrinth in black and white. The scenes of architecture conveyed majesty and huge scale. They also conveyed rapid growth of a city, from trading outpost to imperial center, in the variety of building styles - Mexican ziggurats, Parthenon-like rows of columns, and sprawling organic forms (Druillet? Giger?). I also like very much the way mature women are placed in the movie. It's rare to see ladies with a few lines shown as glamorous, powerful, and intelligent people - based on most TV programming, you might think that women somehow turn invisible after their twenties. It's clear, though, that these adaptations were meant as a TV series. The relatively short format of a feature movie forces a script to be dense, to make its points clearly and to move on. That format just doesn't work for the sequels to the first Dune book - they develop slowly, through meshes of interlocking detail. Somehow, all of the little plot trails wound around without leading to any noteworthy landmarks, leaving me with no strong sense that any one or two things of importance ever happened. For better or worse, that sense came through clearly from the books to the screen. The musical score was competent and complemented the plot, in a wandering Enya-like way. There were a few jarring technical details, like aircraft raising an aileron then turning in the wrong direction. This is fiction and visual art, though; I can't get too worked up over such. I enjoyed the movies well enough, as a few evenings' entertainment. There's enough to like that hard-core Dune fanatics will worship it. For me, once is enough. I'll probably enjoy seeing them again, in a few years, but lots of other things deserve watching, too.
Rating:
Summary: What I think
Review: If what you look for in a DVD is an mass amount of eye-pleasing scenes, beautiful acting, and a little taste of adventure, and if above all, you fall in love with science fiction, this DVD is for you. By writing Dune, and its other tales, Frank Herbert gives an interesting piece for directors and writers, along with their prospective audience to try and understand.
Above all, in the case of Children of Dune, one needs to understand the plots and characters, along with their plight. From the Messiah, who in reality never wanted to be, Paul, to his son, battling with never having met his father, to the possesed Alia, possesed by the memory of Baron Harkonon, who she killed early on in life. Running together two books, Messiah and Children, could have proved disastorous, yet was better than I could have possibly imagined it, myself a Dune fan.
However, in order to fully understand its complex plot and web of political intrigue, I would suggest reading the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
Rating:
Summary: Harrison works his magic yet again with Children of Dune!
Review: This review is not from the DVD as it has not yet been released. I watched this miniseries on the SciFi Channel with very high expectations and not having read Dune Messiah or Children of Dune. I state that first to make it clear that I'm not certain as to how faithful to the books this is, but if Harrison's Dune is any indication I would imagine that it is very faithful to the essence of the continuing Dune saga. My high expectations were met and then some. It has much of the feel of the first one, however the look is somewhat different. The Arrakis "blue" eyes are much more subtle (they appear to be computer effects in this one as opposed to prosthetics as in the first one). Alec Newman carries the first installment of the series, his transformation into Messiah/Emperor complete. The actress portraying Alia is fantastic, but the real treat in this movie is found in the roles of Lady Jessica and Paul's son Leto. Alice Krige has replaced Saska Reeves (for reasons I don't know) but is absolutely delightful as Jessica. The young actor who protrays Leto gives a wonderfully rich performance and sells his character's pre-conscious attributes. The visual effects are stunning and rival those of any made-for-TV mini-series I've ever seen (eg. Leto's confrontation with Alia in the final installment). All in all Children of Dune is a must see for the Herbert fan and complete the saga of Dune nicely (at least for the next couple thousand years in the Dune universe).
Rating:
Summary: Good, not as good as the first series
Review: I will avoid a synopsis of the story, since I believe that few will understand it without having read the books, or at least seen the first series. The first disc, which covers the story in Dune Messiah was quite good -- I only wish Alec Newman was given more screen time since he did such an amazing performance before. But it seemed a bit rushed and too much in a hurry to move the story along to Leto and Ghanima. I rather enjoyed the detailed conspiracies in the book, including how the Face Dancer was operating. Nice to see the creepy Bijaz here, too. But, I really missed Saskia Reeves as the Lady Jessica. She knew how to interpret Jessica's conflicts perfectly, while Alice Kriege comes across as cold and distant. Susan Sarandon was a poor choice for Wensicia. I'm sorry, she's just too Hollywood for the role, and seems out of place with the international cast, particularly Julie Cox. Sarandon's demeanor was not at all convincing as a ruthless, scheming noble-born woman. Here she just seemed like a p---ed off socialite bemoaning loss of status. The new actor in the Duncan Idaho was an improvement over the one in the first series, and he's allowed to fulfill a much more central role. But what happened to his silvery ghola eyes! They sure could do the Fremen blue (which wasn't as convincing or exotic as the first series). I'm not sure what the new director brought to this, but what I loved about the first series was that it was clearly a labor of love for John Harrison; I would have preferred to have him helm this second series. I also greatly missed Vittorio Storario's intriguing and beautiful cinematography, the way he played light upon the character's faces in Dune helped give a Shakespearean quality to the entire work -- as if one was watching this performed on a stage. But the writing (thanks again, to John Harrison) was immensely faithful to the source material, and for that I am grateful. I'd be interested to know whether a special edition of Children of Dune -- with featurettes, deleted scenes and so forth -- will be produced.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Adaptatition But Altered Significatly
Review: This TV miniseries by SciFi is based on Frank Herberts Two books from the Dune Chronicles: DUNE Messiah & Children of Dune . Its an interesting take on the book except that most of the main characters are not allowed to develop. indeed at times the 6 hours devoted to the two books seems as an injustice to the vision created by the book. However to be fair the storywriter managed to make some memorable scene although i felt that they should have expanded on the Prophet and his preachings. Certainly he was such an inportant figure in the book to just give him only two mewanigful scenes. All in All it was bad but their was definetly room for improvement especially on a dvd.
Rating:
Summary: Considering it's a TV production, a great effort.
Review: John Harrison wrote the script for this , as he did for the first Dune series. I think some are being too hard on this installment(double). It's the best sci-fi TV to come about in a very long time. The acting for the most part was a great surprise. There's some real talent here. Daniela Amavia's Alia puts most disturbed bombshell ladies in horror films to shame. It's true it's more of a petty political soap opera but that's how the sequel novels also seemed. Like another reviewer said, a knockout scene was where Duncan Idaho had to face the moment of truth and a lot of principle characters get killed off, a la Godfather. The scene captured the moment in story in just about the best way possible. The "wierding" effects like the first Dune are a rush, but the directors wisely use it sparingly and go for build up to dramatic highpoints just as Herbert's books do. Considering the recent sci-fi in the movies, this new director hopefully will get to the big screen sometime.
Rating:
Summary: Very good series, with some flaws
Review: Overall, I found this to be the most enjoyable Dune adaptation for television. I guess it won some sort of Emmy for visual effects, and overall they were very nice except of course for the floppy-eared sabretooth tigers. This lends a believable atmosphere to the whole film, and draws one into its story. The characters are also well done, some likable and some not, though perhaps to the opposite effect of what was intended. The government of Arrakis is a real Byzantine empire with all the intrigue and subterfuge that goes with it. My own take on it was that the show was stolen by Alia (Daniela Amavia), the ruler of Arrakis, posessed by an evil spirit from the past. Her powerful leadership and fragile state of mind were a real joy to watch - it's these sort of deeply flawed characters that are at the heart of any succesful drama. On the other hand, you've got Leto II (James McAvoy) and Ghanima (Jessica Brooks), the two heirs to the kingdom, who prefer to spend their time playing games, acting like immature children, and babbling on about destiny and fear and letting it pass through you, etc. Although asked by Alia for their input in running the government, they respond only with giggling and condescending remarks, then years later come back all in a self-righteous huff about how badly things have turned out. Well, maybe if they would have assumed their responsibilities instead of mindlessly repeating their cliched platitudes about the "mind killer" and other such rot, but whatever. The whole subplot about growing powerful in Dune's version of "the force" is really irrevelant except as a journey of self-discovery for Leto. There's also a big problem with the ending, as if all the competing forces set in motion throughout the picture would just magically fall into perfect order after what is done. It seems to me that there would be a bigger mess than ever before, and the two heirs to the throne certainly aren't interested in dealing with anything beyond their own all important emotions. Although there are certainly problems with the film if you judge it by the standards it wishes to be judged by, I would still recommend it as it does take you away to another world filled with intrigue, drama and well drawn characters. Take it as a triumph or a tragedy, choose your own heroes; the film works well either way.
Rating:
Summary: Too quickly paced but better than first series
Review: If you have read the books then you know what I mean: Too much is compressed into a three part miniseries. It leaves me wanting for more detail, like the first dune series. The first Dune series was very true to the book, while this series is less true as it has to creatively compress two books into a three-part series, but in the process it shows more like a movie than a play (the first series seems more to me like a screenplay than a movie). Also, the special effects are better than the Dune miniseries, the music is more moving, and the plot does stay relatively in tune with the books except for a few critical parts--enough so to remind me of various quotes the main characters make, various incidents, etc., even though I haven't read the books in some time. Perhaps if they had made the third part a little longer and made Leto's transformation look a bit more dramatic (after all in the book his transformation is very dramatic and written in such detail). But perhaps they didn't want to get in the way of the actor's appearance too much, I suppose. Also, while I haven't read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune lately, I believe they shuffled some parts of the plot around for convenience and sake of keeping some suspense. One thing I liked was the detail they devoted to Alia throughout the movie. Also, the casting is very good for this movie, with some notable changes from the first series to the second of the cast that are easy to get past. A great movie to watch that will leaving you wanting for more especially if you have read farther ahead (God Emperor of Dune, etc.). Will they continue the series? There is much left to be told about the "Golden Path"; things that they only hint of at the end of this movie. There are many loose ends and I hope they continue on with it. Also, one last comment, the packaging of this series is much better than the first. I received both used and The Children of Dune's package has held up much better than the prior Dune miniseries, which has a crease down the spine from opening it. Children of Dune's package looks almost new due to the more modern packaging technique. I give this movie 5 stars because the first miniseries deserves 4 in my opinion, and this one is better by far.
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