A box office failure and a personal disappointment for director David Lynch, I don't have much good to say about it either. There were a few big-time actors within this film, including the one and only Sting, as well as the pre-Star Trek Patrick Stewart. Overall the effects were bad - both visual effects and special effects - and there really wasn't much at all to be praised within this film. This being the first review of a book-turned-film where I've read the book (and recently, too), I know the story is there. The plot, the intrigue, the characters - it's all there, but Dune, as it's presented in this form, just didn't fulfill its potential in any of its departments. There was a strange mix of forced narrative, spoken thoughts, and a God-like narrator, mashing into a confusing held-by-the-hand walk through the history and plot. The 80s pop-synth and classical soundtrack did not mesh well, either, which could be a broader analogy of this film. This is perhaps the harshest review I've done since the inception of the Katsography, but this one deserved it. For the first time in my life, I think I'll say - skip the movie and stick with the book.
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1/6/2010
3 comments:
In addition, I will be watching the Dune mini-series in hopes of seeing some sort of worthy cinematic adaptation of the book, but because of its serial nature and non-cinematic exposition, I won't review it here.
From what I remember, the mini-series wasn't that great either. I do remember liking the Children of Dune mini-series but maybe b/c the later books were'nt as good as the first and the movie didn't have as much to live up to, or maybe I was watching it at 1 am, I can't be sure.
Supposedly another Dune adaptation is going to make it to the silver screen soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Why is it that fantastic stories like Dune rarely get made into equally brilliant movies? It has been done Peter Jacksons LoTR did it. I will admit that I think Dune and LoTR are complex and intriguing in very different ways.
The mini-series has been worlds better in my mind, and though I'm only about halfway through the six hours, the mere time given to develop the characters and story is worth the watch.
There seems to be a culture of image - things carried into the mini-series not because of reference in the book, but because of the previous screen adaptation - and that just screams laziness or at least the inability to create something original.
The budget is extremely low, which draws parallel results to the film - which suffered from lack of technology, rather than funds. Like Stuart says, it would be nice at some point to see a good sci-fi director, paired with a great production design team, and adequate actors to match the phenomenal story that's already been written.
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