Rating: 
Summary: For something that can't be done, this came the closest.
Review: It seems to me the screenwriter paid more attention to plot than to the characters. Jessica was portrayed as weak and mediocre, where in the book she was strong-willed and determined, cold and manipulative. Frank Herbert wrote Paul with a strong sense of loyalty and duty that he learned from his instructors, and he only continued to learn these things from the people he encountered on Arrakis. He was bewildered by the destiny fate had chosen for him, but eventually embraced it. He was personable and charismatic, and disappointed once his "godhood" came to light and his friends became worshippers. In this movie, Paul merely appears to be a whining, petulant child, with none of the charisma a leader needs to sway the masses. Duke Leto in this movie was such a massive disappointment I didn't mind when he was killed. When I read the book, he had aspirations of one day becoming Emperor. He was a strong charismatic leader who inspired great loyalty from all who knew him. This was hinted at in the movie, but he mainly came across as a man who wanted to be voted most popular by buying people off. The only characters who seemed to remain true to the book were Baron and Feyd Harkonen. The rest seemed like androids trying to pretend to be the characters they were protraying.....and failing miserably, and that's why I gave this only 3 stars. Yes, poetic license is allowed, but please be a tad more realistic.....No one is going to follow an arrogant whiny brat into the greatest battle ever known! None of the characters lived up to the richly interesting people that kept me engrossed in the book(s). I don't blame the bad character rendition on the actors, because anyone could see they were doing the best they could with what they were given. The character development could have been so much better if the screenwriter had actually READ the book(s), which I feel wasn't so.I didn't mind the unknown actors. They were all obviously talented. However, I have to ask why they didn't find equally talented actors who didn't have such strong accents? No offense, but this made following the dialog very difficult at times. I spent quite a bit of time saying, "huh, what did he/she say?". I do hope that in the rumored sequels, they find actors that speak the dialog clearly (even if it is spoken woodenly)....or at least that they have closed captioning. I guess I'm very different from most viewers. To me, the story and dialog are more important than the special effects, setting, and costuming. The special effects weren't so glaringly bad that they offended me (except for the desert mouse and I did find it offensive to see a cartoon mouse in this movie...if you're going to go that far, why not put Mickey Mouse in?). I do agree with the reviewers who said that the outdoor scenes would have been more realistic if they had been filmed in the actual desert, but hey, I didn't really notice until they pointed it out to me. And personally, I could care less what kind of elaborate costume the Princess Irulan wears! (Another character that is totally different from the books). Having read all the Dune books, I can honestly say no one will ever be able to make a movie that will capture all the subtleties of the book, all the subplots, and cultural significance. But this movie comes closer than any that have come before. This one at least resembles the book, where the other was so shockingly different I didn't recognize it as coming from Frank Herbert's wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Money Well Spent!!
Review: I admit, at first I was hesitant in buying this film. I still recall the 1984 film version of DUNE, and how much I didn't really care for it. I still remember, my first impression, after watching it, I had no idea what was happening in the movie.
I had to read the books to find out what the movie was all about. I did submit to temptation, and bought the movie, and I enjoyed all 5 hours. This is a directors cut-special edition package, 5 hours of movie, divided into 3 disks, but this was the first time I had watched this version of the film, so I don't know what scenes were added, what was different, etc. From what I can recall of the books, this movie seems to have religiously stuck close to the book. WARNING: PARENTAL ADVISORY: This movie is not rated; but, I recommend treating this movie as if it had an R-rating.
This film contains frequent, brief glimpses of nudity, sexual content, strong violence.
PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED
Rating:
Summary: Great, but this is What's Wrong With it From a Dune Devotee
Review: My brother and I first read Dune when we were twelve, and wrote correspondence to Frank Herbert; he was kind enough to reply. That said, first:Herbert's genius was not only the ability to imagine a complex human universe, but an almost Shakespearean ability to construct prose. The Director's cut confirms that Harrison's efforts are less than an adaptation, and more of an assimilation of Herberts vision. Where are the emotional crescendo's so abundant in the novel? The Duke's declaration "Here I stand and here I remain!", Feyd's eighteenth birthday gladitorial kill of a captured Atreides warrior, the death duel between Duncan Idaho (A swordmaster of Giaz) and Sardaukar as Paul and Jessica escape, the triumphial play between the Emperor and Alia, the chess like move and counter move in the discourse between the Emperor and Muad Dib in the climatic final act, The famous Gurney Halleck quotations ("And the people's rejoicing that day was turned to mourning, for they had heard that the King grieved for his son"), the real reason for the Emperor's betrayal of House Atreides, the disclosure that the Spice extends the human life span as an insidious poison. Harrison obviously believes that the viewing public enmasse is too undereducated to comprehend Herbert's excellent command of literarure even though much more accomplished screenwriters like Kenneth Brannagh (Henry V)have succeeded in diluting their source material while maintaining the essence. In addition, while liberties were obviously taken due to both time considerations and dramatic orchestra, I was a little disappointed to see that Harrison did not take the logical step of amending the emphasis on short knives to long swords, particularly in the climatic final scene. There certainly was not risk of being criticized for following the Star Wars franchise since Dune is the precursor of George Lucas' "borrowed vision".
On a technical note, I've had problems with two DVD sets of this movie; the most recent leads me to suspect memory or system inefficiencies on my computer dvd player while the director's commentary is engaged.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: I have to say that this purchase was (mostly) worth it. Artisan decided to rip-off - er, I mean treat all the fans of the Dune miniseries that debuted on the Sci-fi Channel last year with a *special* 3 disc 'Director's Cut' release. Even though I immediately bought the LAST version that came out on dvd last year, I ended up purchasing this one for the additional footage. It features 30 minutes of footage cut from the original dvd release. Most of the scenes added to the story. They weren't all directly from the book, but the were pretty relevant to the story as it appeared in this version. There are some expanded scenes with Queen Amidal- I mean Princess Irulan, as she investigates the Emperor's involvement in the fall of House Atreides, A few more scenes in the director's favorite alcove above the main hall in the palace on Arrakis, and a few PG-13/R rated scenes that didn't make it into the Basic Cable version. I like this version more everytime I see it. Even though there were some elements changed from the story in the book - especially Jessica's more prominent role in the first third of the book, the movie tries to be faithful to the overall spirit of the book. If you've read the book then it's really cool to follow along as different elements of the story are slowly revealed. Many time those elements are reveled visually, rather than using the rather annoying and insistent voice-overs in the David Lynch version. There are some interesting Special Features, spread out on each of the 3 discs along with each part of the movie. I found myself browsing through them before I watched each new segment. Most are the standard shot-on-video featurettes, plus some picture galleries of the movie and the upcoming Children of Dune mini-series. There's also am engaging panel discussion about science fiction and the future with the writer-director John Harrison, Harlen Ellison, Octavia Butler, Michael Cassutt and inventor Ray Kurzwell. I wanted to see much more of this discussion than was featured here. Another great piece that wasn't on the first release is an interview with Willis McNelly, the author of the Dune Encyclopedia and a friend of Dune author Frank Herbert. There's also an audio commentary.
Rating:
Summary: Best Version/Adaptation
Review: I wish that when the DVD on this mini-series was first released that it was this Director's Cut version. I liked this adaptation of the book by Herbert, better than the Lynch movie (and I really liked that movie). Although made for the Sci-Fi channel, the mini-series was very close to the book. When I purchased the Director's Cut of the mini-series, I found it to be far superior to the Sci-Fi channel release and the previous DVD. There's more story (30 minutes more than the "theatrical" release), which provides more continuity to the movie. This is always a problem when someone makes a movie from an epic novel, there's always some part of the story to be sacrificed. I'll admit this movie is not the definitive adaptation, but I think it is the best version that can be made. This DVD comes with 3 discs (the previous release only came with two). This version not only has the extra 30 minutes of story not previously released, there are also more extras (included is a sneek peek of the next production "Children of Dune"). I would highly recommend this DVD over the previous two disc version.
Rating: 
Summary: A worthy version!
Review: Why they chose David Lynch for the first film when they needed a David Lean, I do not know. Mistake! Lynch is not a director of epics. This book needed someone who understood how to take an epic novel and boil it down to feature length. I believe the director of this version has done it as good as it is ever going to be done. Of course, the advantage of TV is that you can do a four hour, or more, version of any book. Still, I would not have picked Lynch to direct. It has been many years since I first read Dune in Analog and later in book form. That might be an advantage when watching this film as I had forgotten much of the details. What I do remember is the political intrigue and the flavor of the novel. That is what this film version captures. The spirit, if not all the details of the book, is here. The special effects were not bad at all and the expansion of the role of the Princess was a good decision. Perhaps the only real complaints one might have with this version is the choice of a very uncharismatic Alec Newman to play Paul and the use of William Hurt as Leto. Hurt - along with Helen Hunt - must surely be the most over-rated actor around. I can only atribute the choice of Hurt to the fact he has an Academy Award and the value of that award was useful in advertising the film. Fortunatly he is not on film very long. Never-the-less, I liked the film and would recommend it to any but the diehard Dune fan who wants something that will never be. I recommend you forget the details of the book and just enjoy the film. After you see the film you get to check out all that other stuff DVDs offer.
Rating:
Summary: So good I bought the book
Review: I know I saw the original movie version of Dune, but it was so long ago that I won't remember much except for the worm and the blue eyes of the Fremen.
I bought the Miniseries on DVD with the extra footage and watched the entire thing before I discovered that I was watching a recently created miniseries as opposed to the original theatrical version. I really liked the movie. I would have sat through the entire 4 hours and 55 minutes of it in one sitting had I not had to go to work the next morning.
I was so enthralled with the movie that I am starting to read the book, something I never do.
Loved the movie, glad I bought it as it's now one of my all-time favorites. Going to be buying the original and reading the book now. Looks like Herbert has another fan.
Rating:
Summary: Paul Atreides had a son that was killed!
Review: This goes out to garath_fain from Boulder, CO!
Have you read the book or have you forgotten that Paul had a son
that was killed by an Harkonnen attack on his siech?
The twins came later! Read the book agian!
Rating:
Summary: A good adaption
Review: John Harrison's four hour adaption of Herbert's classic book did much to purge my consciousness of David Lynch's stunted 1984 film. Even with its flaws, "Frank Herbert's Dune" is a far better realization of the epic scale and scope of the novel. The new director's cut, with thirty plus minutes of new footage, corrects some of the original's problems, adding more layers to the plot and expanding the roles of some supporting characters (especially Yueh, who now receives more than a glorified cameo); in doing so, the story gains greater coherence and momentum. However, a word of advice: Read the book before you watch it--Harrison and company have made a film largely for the fans that assumes you have some familiarity with the Dune saga. Unfortunately, the biggest problems with the original cut--William Hurt's somnatic performance (even more petrified than in "Lost in Space") and a lack of energy from Alec Newman in the lead (though he's decent enough in the more contemplative moments)--are still here. Also, much of the poetry and philosophy of the book were lost in the adaption; still, such intangibles (such as inner dialogue and insinuation) are hard to capture in a film. The focus here is on the essentials of Herbert's plot, a story of politics, religion, and ecology that feels even more relevant these days. I was also delighted to see the Bene Gesserit's manipulation of the Fremen worked into the story--and how Paul transcended it. There's also been some grief over the expanded role of Princess Irulan; certainly, she's more involved here than in the book, but Harrison uses her as a physical representation of the plotting and scheming so prevalent in the novel, effectively binding a handful of plotlines to one person in perfect position to to act (in very subtle ways) on the knowledge she's gained. (And those who have read "Dune Messiah" know she's perfectly capable of scheming and manipulation). Personally, I liked her expanded role. Good direction (from veteran TV director Harrison), better than average special effects, and simply sensational production design help make up for the film's difficulties. Production designer Miljen Klakovic and Oscar-winning costumer Theodor Pistek have crafted a fantastic realization of Herbert's world, bringing it to living, breathing life--the sets (especially the Emperor's palace on Kaitian) and costumes are terrific; each world and setting almost perfectly realized. The only flaws are in the desert settings--obviously a combination of sets and matte/CGI backgrounds--are likely due to budget restraints. Also notice, if you will, the moon that never moves. The CGI work on the sandworms is nicely done, and although the effect isn't completely convincing, it still works. Another asset--great cinematography from legendary Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro. The DVD extras are pretty well done, the best being the sci-fi roundtable discussion concerning the relevance of "Dune," and the interesting featurette discussing the religious symbolism of the epic series. All in all, flaws and all, this is a pretty decent version of the classic story. Certainly, it won't satisfy all "Dune" fans, but the essentials are here; personally, I can't wait to see "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune" from the same creators.
Rating: 
Summary: What about the story?
Review: I'll make this short. This version of the Dune saga is touted as a more accurate rendition of Herberts vision. It is not. How can it be more accurate when they significantly change the plot? Any cinematic version of this story should be dark at times. The Harkonens are sadistic monsters. They should be portrayed as such. How can Paul's "son" be killed? He did not have a son; he had twins - a boy and a girl. His son goes on to be emperor of the universe for the next 10,000 years. Tough to do if you're dead.
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