New Dune miniseries

[Fyron]

Oh well, if there is spice in only one planet that makes the "Dune Universe" way to easy from an strategy point of view.
Even a 3rd grader would realize that controlling the spice will be controlling the galaxy.

Umm... that is the entire point. Maybe you should actually read Dune before you bash it.

[ March 18, 2003, 21:49: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Master Belisarius]

[quote]Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

OMaybe you should actually read Dune before you bash it.

Agree! Specially with the word "READ".
Was the first book to get the HUGO and NEBULA at the same time. And really I don't know a SF fan, that after read the book disliked it... but of course, that our universe is so big that I'm sure that should exist somebody that disliked the book.

[ March 18, 2003, 22:17: Message edited by: Master Belisarius ]

[raynor]

Originally posted by Chronon:
I thought the mini-series wasn't too bad, but David Lynch's Version was the worst movie I have ever seen.

I can't believe you liked the mini-series better than Lynch's movie? At least the movie tried to stay true to the source material. The writes for the mini-series seemed to look at the book and say, "This is way too complicated for folks to understand." So, they tried to water it down. For example, they decided it would be too confusing for Paul to be known publicly as Paul Maudib and privately as Usul. So, he just because Muadib, period. They took out the sonic weapons because that would be too expensive for a cheap SciFi channel movie. They decided upon a very weird pronunciation of Harkonnen. The acting throughout was pretty horrible. There were just so many odd deviations from the book that really didn't make sense. All in all, I thought it was pretty horrible.

I had to go back and re-read your post to see if you had read the book. I'm really surprised you liked the mini-series better than the Lynch film.

Oh well... different strokes for different folks. Definitely, no offense intended. As you can see, I really, really didn't like the mini-series.

Edit->I remember that most folks didn't like the Lynch film because it tried to cram so much stuff into one film. I thought, given the time constraint, that they did a pretty good job. But I definitely wouldn't have minded if they'd made three feature length films of that original caliber.

[ March 19, 2003, 01:19: Message edited by: raynor ]

[Instar]

I dont mind Dune (having not read any of the books yet or anything), but my roomie has had me watch this marathon for too long (Ive seen ever part at LEAST 5 times! GET A LIFE!) Sheesh

[Fyron]

Edit->I remember that most folks didn't like the Lynch film because it tried to cram so much stuff into one film. I thought, given the time constraint, that they did a pretty good job. But I definitely wouldn't have minded if they'd made three feature length films of that original caliber.

I too prefered the original Dune movie to the mini-series one. I just couldn't suspend my disbelief with the excessive use of poorly-painted backdrops in place of footage of sand.

[DocShane]

Originally posted by Instar:
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat. The two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.

OT: ROTF LMAO !!!! Hehehehe....

Thanks Instar!

[Cheeze]

I happened to enjoy the mini-series more than the movie. Sure, having 6 hours to tell a story over 2 makes a HUGE difference. What I really liked in both Scifi miniseries was the focus on intrigue and the machinations of the major players, and how these either came to fruition or failed. On a production level, I enjoyed the many accents of the characters, that little detail caught my ear and was enjoyable. I liked the Baron Harkonnen character and how well the actor played that role. The Baron seemed more believable and less a caricature. His reappearance in Children of Dune and excellent presence was a welcome surprise. I rather liked all the players in both miniseries and how the characters were presented. The actress who played Alia/Aliyah(spelling?) is a real cutie!!

Sting was a far better Feyd, no doubt about that!

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aloofi:
So spice can be eaten and is a fuel at the same time?
Isn't that kind of wierd?
I guess I know now why I didn't like it in the first place.

Is not a fuel.
It's a drug that use the Navigator Guild's pilots to control the space ships in the transtellar travels.
This drug give them a "prescience" that they need to control the ships.

---

Yeah, sorry for confusing the issue - I was trying to keep the explanation short and left out too much. The basic point is that the Guild has an effective monopoly on space travel, because of the Navigators; the House that controls spice production on Dune/Arrakis has a huge amount of power because the spice is essential for the Navigators to do their job; and as for the strategy of ruling the universe by controlling the spice, any House that attempted to do so would find itself at the receiving end of a large Imperial warforce, transported by some angry Guild Navigators. Of course, that's assuming that the House got farther than the planning stages before the Guild figured it out and started denying travel services to the plotting House. Kinda hard to take control of a planet when the only reliable transportation is based on a Guild that has a vested interest in protecting free access to the planet...

And, as others have mentioned, the strategic importance of Dune/Arrakis is the central point of the book and one of the major drivers for the postulated sociopolitical structure. (The other major driver is the ban on "thinking machines", a ban dating back to the "Butlerian Jihad", a war between "thinking machines" and humans).

BTW - no-one's mentioned the fact that the Dune series doesn't use sentient alien races: the Guild Navigators are mutated humans, the Bene Gesserit and Mentats are highly trained humans with drug-enhanced abilites, and the Tleilaxu are a weird sect of human society that's learned how to manipulate genetic codes.

[Will]

I liked both mini-series, "Dune" and "Children of Dune". Of course, I come from the perspective of only hearing that the Frank Herbert novels are excellent, and not experiencing that excellence for myself (yet). Since I don't really have an original to compare them to, I thought they were good.

Someone made a comment about the bad acting in the first original... sure, it wasn't the greatest acting, but it wasn't the worst. I was able to suspend disbelief, and that is enough for me. Perhaps I have been desensitized because of all of the bad acting (and writing, and directing, and ... etc.) I've seen in student films here...

Anyway, I'll probably go to a bookstore and grab the books sometime, and read them over the summer.

[Fyron]

Anyway, I'll probably go to a bookstore and grab the books sometime, and read them over the summer.

That is a most excellent idea. If only others would follow suit.