I’ve read Dune several times. I never read beyond Dune because it didn’t really seem to need anything more, from my perspective. And I saw the David Lynch version and though it was rather poorly done - the book needed mroe treatment.
So I saw the miniseries on Sci-Fi. And I liked it. Its not great art, and its perhaps overly dramatioc, but in all honesty, I though the did it quite well and were faithful to the book. In any movie that adapts such a complex book, some subtelty will be lost, but I though they explained things reasonably well, and while the CG popped up now and then, it didn’t overwhelm the story.
When it comes down to it, the story was rather freakish anyway, so I can hardly say it bothered me.
except for this strange-looking scene at the big battle where Stilgar picks up the gun and starts blazing away, which looks very odd and fakey
I had a few problems with the first mini-series. Note: I liked Children of Dune though.
First off, the casting. William Hurt is horribly miscast as Duke Leto. End of story. This man is often miscast; IMO, Broadcast News was the only movie he fit. In general, I feel the calibre of acting was much higher in Lynch’s theatrical “Dune”, but of course that movie deserves it’s own thread.
Secondly, the wildly inconsistent quality of the CG. It’s been a while since I saw this series, but I recall shuddering at times at how cheap the effects were in some of the scenes. I don’t know if this was a budget issue; all I know is that it interfered with my enjoyment of the show and made it hard to give it a fair assessment while watching.
The art direction, particularly the costuming, was pretty bad IMHO.
I think they felt they had to make a statement by consciously deviating from anything that was found in the Lynch version.
That was actually the biggest mistake made. Instead of taking all that was good from the Lynch movie, and just making the story better (truer to the novel); they went out of their way to make a new look and feel, and coming up with a rather soulless version. Many remakes make this mistake I feel; they don’t adjust, they makeover.
One other nit was the way the death of Paul and Chani’s first child was handled. In the book it was an “offscreen” event. In the miniseries they show a soldier menacing the innocent child.
I know it bothered my wife to no end; in fact she refuses to ever watch the series again because of it. I assume menacing children would strike some people nerves. It wasn’t necessary.
Children of Dune hits the mark. It had the advantage of never being done before, so there was nothing to compare it to other than the novels. The changing of the children’s ages was annoying but understandable. They seemed to have improved on the artistry in that series, it was less “garish”.
Well, that’s my take anyway. YMMV.