I first read Dune by Frank Herbert when I was 14 years old and considered it the best book sci-fi or otherwise I'd ever read, 40 years later and after many re-reads it's still in my top 5. I've never really bothered about a feature film of it when after all the best film of any book you read is usually in your head, and the dire 1984 attempt didn't help me either. So with mixed feelings I finally saw this TV mini-series.
Thousands of years in the future thanks to interplanetary high politics and a feud the ruling Atreides family get moved from their lush planet Caladan to govern the desert planet Arrakis but which is rich in the vital drug Spice. The battle is immediately on to retain then regain their position, the young Duke Paul Muad'dib eventually attaining messianic status amongst the aborigines. As you can perhaps guess it's a helluva lot more complicated than that and virtually impossible to make sense of it in a synopsis, or drop a spoiler for that matter! With many shortcomings due to running time (a hopelessly inadequate 273 minutes) the film screenplay played fairly faithful to the novel, the atmosphere and the sets were spot on, the acting OK, crowd scenes so-so, however some of the cgi cartoonery for action scenes was done on the cheap and let it down slightly. Favourite bits: The banquet; the delicate glassy sets for the Bene Gesserit and Imperial scenes; the relationship between mother Jessica and her son Paul; Alia's glee at people's discomfort; the atmospheric enhanced colourings. Pity Thufir Hawat's role was reduced though.
This is probably one of the very few films that it's almost essential to have read the book first – this was a nice try and even though I wasn't entirely ecstatic about it at least it all made sense to me. If you watch this first you may still enjoy it but I think you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Overall: enjoyed it now to press delete as it takes up too much space.
Thousands of years in the future thanks to interplanetary high politics and a feud the ruling Atreides family get moved from their lush planet Caladan to govern the desert planet Arrakis but which is rich in the vital drug Spice. The battle is immediately on to retain then regain their position, the young Duke Paul Muad'dib eventually attaining messianic status amongst the aborigines. As you can perhaps guess it's a helluva lot more complicated than that and virtually impossible to make sense of it in a synopsis, or drop a spoiler for that matter! With many shortcomings due to running time (a hopelessly inadequate 273 minutes) the film screenplay played fairly faithful to the novel, the atmosphere and the sets were spot on, the acting OK, crowd scenes so-so, however some of the cgi cartoonery for action scenes was done on the cheap and let it down slightly. Favourite bits: The banquet; the delicate glassy sets for the Bene Gesserit and Imperial scenes; the relationship between mother Jessica and her son Paul; Alia's glee at people's discomfort; the atmospheric enhanced colourings. Pity Thufir Hawat's role was reduced though.
This is probably one of the very few films that it's almost essential to have read the book first – this was a nice try and even though I wasn't entirely ecstatic about it at least it all made sense to me. If you watch this first you may still enjoy it but I think you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Overall: enjoyed it now to press delete as it takes up too much space.