kelly-rhodes1 I don't often write reviews but I had to... having loved the first movie by David Lynch since I was a kid and just finished the book I had to write!This rendition is the truest to the book out of the two movies and it's hard not to compare this to David Lynch's version. However huge liberties were taken by the writers and imho it dumbed the story line and made it somewhat ridiculous turning one of the best sci fi books written to an almost comic book level. The emperor is made to seem naive and the princess irulan a genius... not sure how that works, as the emperor wouldn't be naive.. and certainly wasn't in the books. Irulan shouldn't have had such a grandiose story line... clearly they wanted to give her more lines.Gurney Halleck is played by PH Moriarty and was appalling and not remotely believable. Chani played by Barbora Kodetova, again not remotely believable and should never have been given such a powerful role. The baron Harkonnen played by Ian Mcneice had flashed of genius but very limited and over acted... he's a cold calculating character who thinks he if far smarter than he is, was a disappointment overall.The set design and costumes were garish and looked like something out of the 80's it would have been better to have spent their budget on decent outdoor sand scenes. Saskia Reeves I think did a fair job, clearly she had a great grasp of who Jessica is meant to be. Alec Newman was badly cast in my opinion, Paul Atredies is meant to be 15-16 and Alec was not only too old to play him but did a shocking job... wooden and two dimensional and doesn't remotely inspire an audience let alone a legion of fremen warriors.That all being said, the script kept some important scenes that David Lynch's version didn't and was all the richer for it. The weirding way was much better shown, although I like the ideas of the weirding module in David Lynch's version. The scene with the reverend mother and Jessica and the water of life I think was quite well done and the introduction of Alia and her as a child was very good.All in all I gave it 4 due to the content being more accurate, but deducted 6 for the shocking acting and writer liberties. The book is good enough as it is, it doesn't need rewriting by writers that think they know better. I would just like to see a clever, well acted, try to the book version...

simondclinch-1 The pace through the plot is about right in this mini-series (the 1984 film was in too much of a hurry). There is reasonable adherence to the book - it would take double the time to follow everything in the book. The shortcuts are reasonable (e.g. dropping Paul's second Fremen name "Usul"). Score is good, with a memorable and pretty theme tune; although personally I would have put more into the rhythm in a few places for contrast (it's more ambient than necessary throughout IMO).One or two gripes: the spice-affected eyeballs look like they have back- lighting wired in - there was no need to deviate from the book's simple deep blue iris and light blue sclera, i.e. without going bionic on the lighting.Accents of actors are sometimes good, sometimes inconsistent. For example, if Shaddam has an Italian accent, then some of it should rub off on his children. And the Fremen accent is all over the place - sometimes Egyptian, sometimes east European. And given that the Fremen language is clearly a descendant of Arabic, then "Shadout Mapes" shouldn't rhyme with "grapes" - I'd choose either "mar-pess" or "mar- pesh" - in fact the latter would sound the more convincing to me in the context of the story.As other reviewers have hinted at, but not covered specifically, the director fails to represent the idea of prescience nor the role of the mentat properly. Instead of presenting these as visions and calculations (respectively) of the possible future, as described in the book, we see almost randomly juxtaposed images, much more suggestive of the 70's hallucinogenic culture than the book intended, in spite of its 70's publication date.Nevertheless, in comparison with what the genre usually offers, I still give it ten out of ten.

Abd L Azeez Alkalidy Dune 2000 TV series, with so little budget of $20,000,000 they were able to treat it with so much love and care that would only make you wonder what would they did if they didn't had to make it on so tight schedule and low budget, it's a story of a wasteland that was made so many times but never like this, when just a boy had to leave his home land and face terrible destiny of becoming a messiah, you can feel, watch how his character grow, At the end he is not the same person, and the best part is you can believe it. Almost most of the actors are unknown, but they all (well ...most) fit their parts perfectly, William Hurt as Duke Leto Atreides, i always though Leto to be a stronger character, but he did a great job, i got used to him in the first minutes, Alec Newman as Muad'Dib, this is the Muad'Dib in my mind, and now after seeing the series i can never visualize Muad'Dib other than him , and that is a big deal because Muad'Dib is my all-time hero , Saskia Reeves as Lady Jessica Atreides is not as good as i was hoping, she have few minutes to shin , like when she talk's to paul about him going too far , fearing for him and the rest of the universe, Ian McNeice as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen , there will never be a better Baron Vladimir Harkonnen than him , he is so good here i think he was born for this part, it's so good to see actors like him have a part where they could really show their true talents, he is outrages , melodramatic, with sick twisted cunning mind, whenever he is on the screen i think he is giving the series a whole new dimension. if you are frank herbert's fan , or a fan of any kind of Si-Fi, or simply love deep philosophical story , this is a must watch

meritcoba "So that was Dune." Henry said with a wry smile. Halfway through the movie they had started a game of backgammon and followed the series in a half hearted way. Then they had enjoyed a Chinese- Indonesian take out diner. Kristl had suggested to order it as it was her time to cook and she had given up on cooking some years ago because she her interpretation of a meal seemed to differ from the tastes of others. Kristl nodded. "It was funny. I mean it almost looked like the movie of Lynch, but with lesser actors, lame dialog and fake landscapes. It was funny but because there is already a movie the series seems a bit superfluous.""Yes.. it is." Kristl said."But we watched it." Henry said."Some movies are very nice as background imagery. You just can follow the whole thing even if you fail to see parts of it. Dune is like that." Kristl nodded."So what is this?" Henry pointed at a white plastic container."It is called babi pangang. Just eat it. I'll mention what was in it after wards.""Not something like monkey flesh or insect bodies?" Henry shuddered."No, it's mundane." Kristl shook her head."Anyway, what was your favorite scene?" Henry asked."Not so much a scene.. more I found the clothes the princess was dressed in pretty. She had the proper figure for these fashion dresses. Same with the emperor. So it's not a particular scene, but more how they were dressed.""Strange to hear that from you. I would not have figured looks were something that interested you." Henry looked Kristl up and down. What he saw was a woman in her mid forties wearing fade jeans trouser, heavy combat boots and a leather jacket that resembled one of those that were the fashion in the eights. Kristl, so Henry thought, has never gone beyond the punk of the eighties.. Fashion wise she was frozen or retro, because everything became retro after a while."The fact I look like left over punker from the eighties, does not mean I have no eye for beauty and fashion. I can not wear it, but I can enjoy looking at it." Kristl laughed, "But what was your memorable scene?""The moment the Harkonnen baron was poisoned by that little girl. It was funny to see the surprised look on his face." Henry laughed and then made gargled sounds. "It is interesting you mention a girl doing that. Because I was not really impressed with the story and specifically with the role of women in the movie.""Ah. Not impressed means usually that you were offended.""That is a good description. The women in the movie have about two roles. Women either are helpless creatures good for breeding or they are backstabbing schemers not above sleeping with someone just to gain an advancement.""Ah.""So, no I was not impressed by the whole. But how did you like the story, Henry?" Kristl said "It was okay, nothing remarkable. I liked the idea of the spice. If I am correct that spice is important because space travel over vast distances at great speed can only be accomplished by using spice because it allows you to see into the future. That is something I remember. It is actually not really mentioned in that series, only that without it you can't travel in space. What do you think?""I think that if the story of the books resembles that of the movie in general outlook then it is a tacky badly written story. Let's take the overall idea: there is an emperor that for reasons unknown puts the noble house Atreides in charge of the single most important planet in the universe, yet he fears the growing influence of those same Atreides to the point that he helps the Harkonnen in regaining the planet through bloody murder and open warfare. What is even more surprising is that the influence and respect that the Atreides have among the houses seems not to translate itself into any noticeable form of power. And then this whole Harkonnen plot is visibly condoned by the emperor and secretly supported by him, but that does not seem to have any repercussion for him or for the Harkonnen. Everything is contrived and would not work in reality. And while I can accept a certainly liberty for a story, it remains reality that determines what is likely to work or not. Fantasy, however pushed it its limits, is limited by reality.""But everything is just unbelievable. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad. And then these fremen are so nonsensical with their system of killing each other of to establish a ruler. It is utter nonsense because no system like that can work. There has never been a society like that because such a society would rip itself apart and the fact that someone is good in fighting does not mean that he(it is always a he) is also good in making decisions or in any other skill that you require to lead a community. Therefore it is overall a badly written nonsensical story.""Hmm.. Lucky it is just a story." Henry said"Yes, it is.""And this series is just superfluous?""Yes, you can watch the movie instead.. it is a lot shorter and better acted and so on and as nonsensical as this series. ""Hah"