Rating: 
Summary: An Incredible, Underrated Masterpiece
Review: This movie was panned by audiences and critics alike when its highly-anticipated release occurred in 1984, and since then it has become one of the legendary "bad films" of Hollywood (think "Heaven's Gate" or "Ishtar"). But the fact remains, DUNE simply doesn't deserve this treatment, as evidenced by its steadily growing popularity over the years. Misunderstood in 1984, DUNE is more and more being appreciated for the magnificent film that it is. It was ahead of its time, but its time has come.Why was this movie so despised? I believe that it's because it tried to be all things to all people. This movie disappointed the "typical" moviegoer who expected to see "Star Wars" but instead got a gothic, Shakespearian epic tale of political intrigue and messianic destiny. Hard-core fans of Herbert's fabulous novels were disappointed by the relatively underdeveloped characters and key omitted sequences, not to mention the un-Herbertian presence of David Lynch's stylistic elements (for example, the "heart plugs"). Hence, no one was pleased...and the movie bombed. But DUNE bombed undeservedly. Any objective eye in either of the camps mentioned above will realize that DUNE does a yeoman's job of compressing a far-reaching epic into two and a half hours (try filming War and Peace in under three hours), providing a taste for the epic tale. The medium of film simply does not provide good translations of great books in most cases (with a few exception), so DUNE the movie needs to be appreciated for its own sake. As to those who found this movie too complex, well, don't be offended, but maybe this kind of thing is above your head intellectually. This is the version to see (in my opinion the "Smithee" version(s) are so poorly edited that they aren't worth watching (although the added scenes are fascinating, especially as they relate to Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Halleck and the Fremen sequences). Hopefully, Mr. Lynch will realize what a great work he created with DUNE and return to produce a real expanded Director's Cut. Until then, though, this is your best bet...and by the way, consider investigating the books, both Frank Herbert's original six volumes and the new Brian Herbert-Anderson "prequel" series. All excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Coincidental Reality...
Review: Is prophecy similar in context throughout the Universe? This is a movie based on a similar story on earth, but under different environment. It has a few gross scenes which I think are disturbing. Because of that, I'm not giving this movie 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Can we feed Leonard Maltin to a sandworm?
Review: The opening prologue to Dune, read in the film by actress Virginia Madsen (playing Princess Irulan, daughter of the Emperor Shaddam IV) could only be incomprehensible to a five-year-old, it seems quite clear to me and I've seen the film many times. C'mon Leonard Maltin, grow a pair of ears would you? Also, reading the novel might have helped, given that Dune is only based upon one of the greatest SF novels of the 20th Century. The film's still not that dense, it would have been much more confusing if they had actually stuck to the novel anyway more slavishly, which would have been impossible. To Leonard Maltin, I say, as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, with fury in my voice, "the righteous!!?" If only the righteous could read.
Rating:
Summary: The Lost Highway of Alan Smithee
Review: Actually, the editorial review above gets the whole thing wrong in terms of what edit of the film David Lynch disowned. In reality, it was the later Universal television version of the film, which is about 4 hours long (with commercial breaks), that Lynch would not authorize and he asked that his directorial credit be replaced by the Alan Smithee pseudonym. Lynch did this because the Universal longer version was not approved by him, and Universal made changes and edits (and added their own narration and extra voiceovers, as well as horrible animation and illustrations as an explanatory prologue) that Lynch would never have approved if he had edited a longer, director's cut of the film. The longer version is valuable as it contains some of the key missing scenes, such as Paul Atreides' fight to the death with the Fremen Jamis; a scene in which the Lady Jessica is confronted by the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper; another scene of the Water of Life ceremony (with drowned baby sandworm) is more faithful to the novel. There may even be more than one long version of Dune floating around, but none of them are authorized. Even with all its flaws this movie continues to enthrall--it's not a masterpiece but it's good, but I always recommend reading the novels anyway. Get the Berkley books Dune Encylopedia too, if you can find it...good hunting.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the worst "film" ever made!
Review: Don't buy this tape, its bad. Very bad. Really. Definition of a tragedy: A great book from a great author turned into a disaster by that crazy Lynch fellow. Calling this dreck a "film" is too much of a compliment. Ed Wood could have done a better job (At least you can laugh at "Plan 9 From Outer Space"). What's really galling about this trash is that you can see all the wrong directorial turns coming in the film right before they happen. Bad dialog, marginal "acting" and hearing characters thoughts throughout the flick all contribute to this failure of a movie. They should take the proceeds from video sales and use them to re-make this film into something watchable. Its worse than watching paint dry. (It should get -20 stars but Amazon won't permit that)
Rating: 
Summary: Universal SHOULD Have Released The LONG Version!
Review: Universal SHOULD Have Released The LONG Version!
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie...but missing something?
Review: I like the movie very much. However, aren't there two versions of DUNE. I believe there was a longer version of DUNE that was about 30mins to an hour longer. On DVD you would expect the longer version, what happened? Still very good, just wish they would come out with a complete version.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: The first thing you should do before you watch this movie is read the book. Its not a recommendation, its a pre-requisite! I saw this movie a while back before I'd read the book, and hated it. 2 weeks ago I finished reading the book (best ever!) then I watched the movie again, and absolutley loved it! Every minute of it! The book fills in all the gaps in the movie (that obviously cant include everything from the book).The only thing that lets it down are the dated special effects, otherwise its a brilliant effort at bringing a huge book down to 2 (odd) hours. 'On ya Lynchie!
Rating:
Summary: Insulting to the book...
Review: Dune, people said, was unfilmable. Alexandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, the Holy Mountain) and Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) both tried, but failed, to make the movie, unable to raise the massive budgets needed. David Lynch succeeded. Unfortunately. Lynch's Dune is bedecked with problems. It becomes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and the size of the narrative, and Lynch's attempts to overcome these obstacles are disastrous. He chooses to do FAR too much exposition and character thought "out loud," and the movie feels like a checklist of important plot events from the novel. Lynch fails to characterize anyone but Paul, mistakes Paul for a great hero (instead of a great leader), and apparently kills all the sandworms. (Water, especially in the massive rainfall at the ending, would do that.) The love story with Chani and Paul, for instance, is botched into a typical Hollywood auto-love, and characters like Duncan Idaho and Liet Kynes are introduced, seemingly, just to put in an appearance. Paul, and only Paul, is a fairly well-rounded character here. Read the book. This movie's not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: where in heck does the 'Golden Path' go anyway........
Review: The first time I saw this movie I was moderately impressed; but there was something underneath that moved me to watch it a second time. It was only then that it began to make sense. So I read the book, and watched the movie a third time and realized that the movie is something like an outline of the book. So in that context this movie provides those who are devouted fans of the DUNE universe with an incredible mental picture. SO if you are unwilling to read the greatest literary achievment of this century, this movie will be forever confounding. But to those like me who went through the DUNE series (all 6)like a freight train, then the most disapointing thing in this movie is that they never finished the rest of the series. So if you don't like to read never watch this movie because you will be scared for life. Don't get me wrong this movie is excellent for DUNE fanatics... ... but only a Gom Jabbar for the uniniated! p.s.- what on earth was that deal with the 'voice'; voice is supposed to be sudtle not sound like you have a tennis ball stuck in your throat.
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