I just watched the Sci Fi channel Dune mini again

[Destructionator XV]

And that just gets better with each viewing. Tomorrow, I will be watching Children of Dune again, and fully expect to catch more that I missed before.

There are few things I can watch for five hours without letting my attention wander, an this miniseries is one of them. Not a perfect adapation of the book, but really damn good.

Between the two Dune minis and the nBSG mini, I wonder why Sci-Fi doesn't just focus on making these instead of their terrible original movies.

Of you who have seen it, and Children of Dune, what did you think of them?

[frigidmagi]

Haven't seen Childern of Dune but I saw the Dune mini and thought it awesome, it was easier for me to follow than the first movie made way back when.

[Stofsk]

I watched the Dune miniseries and fell asleep. It was awful. There were parts of it I liked don't get me wrong. But there were parts I hated. I watched part one and looked on in disbelief. Part two was when I fell asleep.

Children of Dune was much better from what I could tell, but I didn't see all of it.

I would be willing to give both a second go though.

As far as Harrison vs Lynch goes, while the feature film was awful as well it did have some good stuff in it (Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck! Jurgen Prochnow and Kyle MacLachlan were both good as father and son Atreides), and the music was da bomb.

[Destructionator XV]

I watched the Dune miniseries and fell asleep. It was awful.

heretic

There were parts of it I liked don't get me wrong. But there were parts I hated. I watched part one and looked on in disbelief. Part two was when I fell asleep.

What were your actual complaints? The first time I watched it, I missed a lot and didn't really grok it. The second time I watched it, I got much more and it was amazing. And now the third time, it was all even better.

Children of Dune was much better from what I could tell, but I didn't see all of it.

I think both were about equally good. CoD tried to fix many fan complaints from Dune, and I loved both.

One awesome part about Dune was the elaborate costuming. Really cool stuff they wore. CoD didn't do as much of that, and they also added some sound in space, which Dune avoided. Still, very minor, both were awesome.

CoD also had an amazing music score.

I would be willing to give both a second go though.

Do it. It is so worth it.



The saga of Dune is far from awful! It is amazing.

[Something Awesome]

What is awful is Hunters and Sandworms of Dune. I haven't actually read it, and I might once it goes paperback, but I've heard stuff. There's absolutely no need to <spoilerz> make gholas of Muad'Dib et al, nor to make the Face Dancers related to Omnius.

Children had better audio, Dune had better visuals. Irulan's dresses were over the top, but rather pretty. CoD didn't have the blue eyes as blue. And Inama Nushif is one of the most beautiful songs ever.

Adam, you should definitely read the books. It's worth it. Or buy them on audiobook if you're that lazy. I love the minis, but the books is where it's at, yo.

And you haven't even read Stranger in a Strange Land, so don't use "grok."
blasphemer

[Destructionator XV]

Children had better audio, Dune had better visuals. Irulan's dresses were over the top, but rather pretty.

Not just Irulan, but almost everyone had awesome outfits. The Bene Gesserit with giant hats, the Spacing Guild people with their hats, and mannerisms, various business men with again, giant hats.

It was cool because it was over the top. These people are nobility and very rich; I would expect them to show off a little in their outfits.

I'd dress like any of them.

CoD didn't have the blue eyes as blue.

Indeed; it was rather hard to even tell in most of them.

Adam, you should definitely read the books. It's worth it.

Fluh. What do you think I do in college?

And you haven't even read Stranger in a Strange Land, so don't use "grok."

Fool, grok is accepted terminology in hacker culture. It may have originated in the book, but it is now used often enough among hackers that my spell check doesn't even complain about it.



And something to add about the Dune mini: Alec Newman's (Paul Atreides) performance in part 1 really reminded me of Mark Hamill in episode IV. Of course, his performance changes quickly in the desert to reflect the changes in Paul.

[Stofsk]

I watched the Dune miniseries and fell asleep. It was awful.

heretic

Witch! Witch! Burn the bitch!

There were parts of it I liked don't get me wrong. But there were parts I hated. I watched part one and looked on in disbelief. Part two was when I fell asleep.

What were your actual complaints? The first time I watched it, I missed a lot and didn't really grok it. The second time I watched it, I got much more and it was amazing. And now the third time, it was all even better.

I remember watching part one and recognising parts where they got things wrong. I can't recall everything though, but one thing that stuck in my mind as though it had been burned there was the demise (and general treatment of) Duncan Idaho.

In the book, Duncan is killed holding back a virtual army of Harkonnen and Sardaukar. It fit his character so well and showed that he was a fierce warrior but ultimately even he couldn't stand against overwhelming odds.

In the movie, he dies from a direct hit by a missile. The end.

That kind of shit just rubbed me the wrong way. Even Lynch did it right. Duncan didn't just die thanks to indirect fire, or from a precision guided missile or heat seeking missile. He died bravely, futilely, giving his life for the Atreides.

In the book and in Lynch's film Paul witnessed Duncan's death and was helpless to prevent it. Duncan, Gurney and Thufir were the only friends Paul was allowed to have (they were also his instructors and the Duke's Men). So the point of that scene was to show Paul that one of his life long friends had perished defending him.

In the miniseries... not only was Duncan scrubbed out by a motherfucking missile, but Paul didn't see it happen, and to rub further salt into the wound the only reason Duncan died was because he decided he'd rather stick with the Fremen rather than protect his Duke - what the fuck.

The saga of Dune is far from awful! It is amazing.

I know it's amazing, I've read the books. All six of them (yes, I purposely don't count the prequels).

[Destructionator XV]

Well, I spent almost all waking hours of the last few days reading the novels, done with Dune and Dune: Messiah now, so I will finally answer.

I have decided to view the novels and the minis as two different things. Much of the books could not be adapted to television, or would work poorly on screen, so the changed it. They also had time constraints, so they were forced to condense the saga.

In the mini, Duncan was almost nothing, as was Thufir. But the overall message still got across.

Indeed, reading the books, I thought as the minis almost as Paul's visions: there were some things different, but the end result was still inevitable.


Fucking awesome books.

[Josh]

What I hated in the miniseries was Paul. In the books, he was an overly serious young man, which is sort of understandable given that he lives in a knife-edge environment of constant combat training, having to poison sniff everything he eats, and facing the constant potential of attempted assassinations.

In the miniseries, he's a punk kid, and not a likable one. Plus, there were clear indications that they just didn't 'get' the deeper themes of the book. Prime example was the scene where Paul renounces the notion that he'll be killing Stilgar. In the miniseries, Paul basically treats it as a 'dumb old tradition', which is a load of shit. The concept that the old leader had to die in order for the succession to take place was in keeping with Herbert's theme that the Fremen were a culture that had pared away just about everything for the stark necessities of survival. Avoiding potential dissent in the tribe by having the old leader die was precisely the sort of tradition a people like the Fremen would have, and the book version of Paul understood that Fremen tradition was eminently rational.

[Stofsk]

That's right, and I remember the opening mock-duel between Paul and Gurney: in the book, Gurney gets righteous on Paul's arse and you get the same impression in the Lynch film, although that scene rocked purely because of Patrick Stewart and Kyle MacLachlan (who was a big fan of the book and of the character he played too!); in the miniseries, it comes across as though Paul just wasn't taking it so seriously.

The miniseries was a good idea btw, that's how Dune should have been done: a film trilogy to represent the three 'parts' of the book. A lot of the action in Dune is implied rather than actually shown, we don't get action scenes as such - which is a godsend to a director of a film adaptation, who gets a perfect opportunity to show scenes that aren't in the book but are implied (stuff like the Harkonnen attack on the Sietch where they take Alia hostage and murder Paul's son) which would actually contribute to the mythos.

Instead, we get bizarre shit from Lynch (Thufir has to milk a cat to stay alive? Uh... what?) or the miniseries' Punk Paul.

[Josh]

"Mood is a thing for cattle and loveplay!"

I can still hear Patrick Stewart barking that out. The strength of the Lynch film was in the characterizations. It was the weird-ass alterations that fucked it over.

[The Grim Squeaker]

"Mood is a thing for cattle and loveplay!"

I can still hear Patrick Stewart barking that out. The strength of the Lynch film was in the characterizations. It was the weird-ass alterations that fucked it over.

He had a plan for Paul to have an incest/sex scene with Jessica. Nuff said