I've read the first two books of the series recently (and have just started Children) and have enjoyed them a lot .... despite the fact that they are .... slow ..... to ..... read.

But I caught the last hour or so of the movie last night, and it fucking blew ass. Is the whole movie that terrible?

8/22/2005 1:09:55 AM

yes

8/22/2005 1:51:39 AM

umm

which movie?

8/22/2005 2:29:11 AM

the original was cool even though it had some serious issues. plus sting was in it.

the things sci-fi did, dune and children were meh but enjoyable. i probably wouldn't watch them again though.

8/22/2005 6:28:20 AM

^

I must respectfully disagree. The 1984 David Lynch film was, to my mind, a travesty. On the other hand, I thought the two made-for-tv mini-series, did a very good job overall, given that some artistic license with character roles was undertaken (and the milliner ran amok). I've bought the two mini-series DVDs as I am interested in watching them again; I move more quickly than a Bene Gesserit to change the channel if I see the Lynch version.

I'd suggest giving the Dune mini-series a try to form your own opinion. Even if you don't necessarily love it, I would be supprised if anyone thought it a waste of a rental fee.

8/22/2005 10:05:02 AM

am I the only one that prefers the longer cut of the David Lynch version? It runs close to 4 hours and is IMHO a better telling of the story. Hell, the opening alone is worth the price of admission. Sort of hard to find this version. Bootlegs are everywhere and I think a German version was released on DVD not too long ago. However, they are going to finally release it on DVD in the US soon. Lynch is working on the project with them, so should be interesting.

8/22/2005 11:06:41 AM

I did. I dont think the original was bad. I thought it was the best telling, personally. The 'stream of consciousness' is something all the other movies missed. The SciFi version was boring.

8/22/2005 11:43:22 AM

the long version of the '84 movie is my favorite.

i've got it in english but it has some kind of asian subtitles.

[Edited on August 22, 2005 at 8:46 PM. Reason : ]

8/22/2005 8:45:38 PM

I'm actually re-reading the series right now, so I've been watching the movies off and on for the past week as I've finished the books.

I'll always think that the 1984 version stinks of assbutter. I simply don't like it.

As for the sc-fi channel movies, I've owned them for awhile now, and I think they're great. For low-budget movies, they did remarkably well with what they had to use. They're also more true to the books, and it sucks that they had to assimilate the second and third books into the one movie.

If they ever decided to film The God Emperor of Dune, I'd watch it. I also know that it would probably suck since you'd have to have seen the first two movies for it to make sense.

Has anyone read either of the prequel trilogies? I read them last year and pray that Herbert's son doesn't try and finish the original series.

8/23/2005 12:43:10 PM

I thought the Sci-fi remakes stayed remarkably close to the story. And like Ender said, they did damn well with the low ass budget they had.

8/23/2005 12:48:36 PM

both old and new werent bad watches. i didnt read the books nor do i care to.

8/23/2005 1:17:26 PM

It was the 1984 version that I caught on SF Channel.
Part of the reason I disliked it was because I just caught it at the end, and the only things I could really think were "OMG they got the stillsuits the wrong color" and "their blue eyes are all wrong" and "Paul is a really nerdy looking guy who needs a haircut" and "they sure are pronouncing all these words wrong" and "Alia is just flat out creepy."
Most of my initial reaction was just how the filmmakers interpreted some things differently, but then some of the other things just got on my nerves. The Reverend Mother and Alia confronting each other was just weird. What the hell were the noises the Fremen had to make when they were shooting the Sardaukar? "bweeeeeee--zop!" every time they pulled the trigger?? wtf? And I definitely didn't get any sense of how powerful Paul had become.

Overall, I just didn't enjoy it. Maybe I'll give it another shot and actually watch it from the beginning,

8/23/2005 1:27:27 PM

That sound they were making was a random thing added to the movie. The weapons were based on auditory waves or something, so you scream and people die.

That was definitely a retarded addition to the movie.

8/23/2005 4:42:33 PM

Quote :

"What the hell were the noises the Fremen had to make when they were shooting the Sardaukar? "bweeeeeee--zop!" every time they pulled the trigger?? wtf?"

If I'm not mistaken, I believe most of them were saying "Muad'Dib!" There's a scene where Paul first teaches the Fremen about the weirding ways, and one of them uses the sonic cannon while saying his name. Paul says "Even my name has become a weapon." Of course, a lot of the other things they were saying were just jibberish...

8/23/2005 7:36:01 PM

Quote :

"That sound they were making was a random thing added to the movie. The weapons were based on auditory waves or something, so you scream and people die."

It's seemed to me that was a bad interpretation of Paul teaching them the weirding fighting ways. Basically if you misread the book and took the fact that some of the bene jhesarit powers were based on their voices and thought that meant everything Paul taught them was voice-based you would get the stupid the attack words, the modulator things were just a complete fabrication though.

And yeah the Lynch version does a horrible job of showing just how powerful Paul had become, but the longer version that everyone talks about is pretty good. They used to show it on sci-fi every once in a while and I think with commercials it topped out at like six hours (If I recall correctly its narrated by Irulan instead of that scary guy, or maybe its the other way around). The Sci-Fi movies are definately more faithful but I don't understand why none of the movies gets Duncan's death right. Especially as he (or his body or whatever) becomes such a key figure in the later books you would have thought sci-fi at least would have done it right.

8/24/2005 4:39:42 AM