Made by Hallmark & originally broadcast on the Sci-Fi channel as a 3 part serial adaptation of Frank Herberts Dune I was mainly watching this to see if it was any better than the David Lynch movie. It probably cost a lot more (actually it was half the price of its 1984 movie counterpart at only $20 million) as is evident by sets, costumes and some of the special effects.
Its pretty annoying right away with Alec Newmans Paul Atreides unable to pronounce Thufir (calling him Toofer) and Ian McNieces Baron Harkonnen unable to even correctly pronounce his own families surname, neither can he pronounce Leto (Layto he says when it should be Leeto though). The chap playing Gurney Halleck wasn't a patch on Patrick Stewart and likewise the chap playing Thufir Hawat never came close to Freddie Jones' movie portrayal. With William Hurt playing Duke Leto you have to wonder if he knew what he was letting himself in for trying to follow in Jurgen Prochnow's footsteps.
At least in this version more is made of the role of Duncan Idaho (both he and Leto have gone to Arrakis 1st to establish themselves and Duncan is sent to try and contact the Fremen, it also differs from the movie as Paul and his mother Jessica travel to Arrakis without Leto). The Lady Jessica at least shows some type of personality in this as she shows she wishes to be equal with the natives of Arrakis speaking to them in their own language, the Shadout Mapes (Arakeen housekeeper) also has a strange accent and her pronouncement of Harkonnen sounds a lot like the Douglas Adams Hitchhikers characters the Haggunenon. The serving girls pronouncement of Muadib is also likewise brutally mangled.
After the arrival on Arrakis it appears there are mercenaries communicating with someone inside the palace (I wondered if this was supposed to mirror the Harkonnen suicide troops in the movie), the fact we see Dr Yueh (he'll never be as good as Dean Stockwell from the movie) sat next to a window in the very next scene is a good "tell" as anyone familiar with the movie knows he does in fact turn out to be a spy. It is even ironic that one of the lines spoken by Jessica to Yueh is "we have spies everywhere", unaware she in fact is talking to a spy herself.
We see a difference in stillsuit design (rather than being black like the ones in the movie in this version Pauls is coloured with desert camoflage however Leto's appeared to be green camoflage for some unexplainable reason), their "Ornithopter" is pretty similar to the shuttles used in the movie but appears to be a smaller vesel. The Spice Harvester actually reminded me of a cross between a Jawa Sandcrawler and an Eagle from Space 1999. It also appears the design of the worms has improved (more like the reimagined Sarlacc Pit from Return Of The Jedi).
In this version of Dune the colour scheme for the Harkonnens has been changed from Blondes wearing black to Redheads wearing red, its a very red colour palette indeed which is quite hard on the eyes in certain scenes in fact. The scenes in the Harkonnen court do heavily indicate how much money was lavished on sets leaving nothing for actors anyone has heard of. Another character who struggles and incorrectly pronounces Muadib is Liet-Kynes the Imperial Ecologist (originally played by Max Von Sydow in the movie, the actor playing him here is a complete unknown as is the case in most of the roles in this mini series. It is sad to think that only William Hurt and Ian McNeice represent the known cast for me).
As for the various parts of the mini series part 1 lasts 1 hour and 38 minutes, part 2 lasts 1 hour 35 minutes (and is subtitled Maudib so they couldn't even spell it right) and part 3 (subtitled The Prophet) lasts for 1 hour 36 minutes rounding out at an epically long 4 hours 49 minutes which is even longer than the longest cut of the movie. I guess for me this was more a spot the difference game as I didn't find much I liked about this new version. If you are a scifi fan and haven't seen the movie then this will probably be quite enjoyable if a little long.
For me every mistake or mispronounced name was painful, likewise the unknowns of the cast struggling to try and follow in the shoes of their movie counterparts. This version does have the advantage of more time to develop characters like Princess Irulan who hardly appears in the film. Gurney is a fuller personality too, not just shown as a soldier we also get to see him in his troubador aspect with a very lute looking Baliset. The character of Stilgar is introduced much earlier in this story and the character of Duncan (with his awesome Scottish lilt) is much better used, especially writing him into the scenes with the Fremen. It is Duncan & Liet-Kynes who save Paul & Jessica from the desert (instead of Yueh giving them stillsuits and Paul using "the voice"), sadly for a Fremen even Liet-Kynes can't bloody pronounce Muadib either (effectly the story pretty much jumped the shark right there when a Fremen leader can't even correctly say the name of a legendary Messiah).
Into watching part 2 I did find certain sets looked rather cheap like the desert outcropping where Paul tells Jessica he knows about his unborn sister, that particular set had a very cheaply looking painted backdrop. I'd seen more convincing matte work on 70's Doctor Who. A lot of the "sand dunes in the background" are actually so badly painted you can see the seams where the sheets of artwork are connected totally ruining the illusion of endless desert. Another special effect it seemed they no longer had money for by part 2 was the glowing blue eyes of the Fremen completely ruining any notion of continuity, they are there then gone but then just as suddenly back again. More names were being mangled in part 2, Chani being called Cheney by pretty much everybody was most notably annoying.
At least this version gives a good reason for Paul to be named Muadib as he does actually see the mouse he chooses to be named after (so they totally decided to drop the idea of Muadib being his secret name and not even bother calling him Usul), likewise the Desert Fremen are portrayed differently here showing themselves to adept as killers without the initial need for Paul or Jessica's Weirding training. This is used eventually when the Fremen decide to wage war to liberate Arrakis though. This does explore the politics & plans behind the the various occupations of Arrakis more thoroughly through Irulan and Feyd.
More is made of Gurneys role showing him as a smuggler, in this Paul & Chani have a son (this is mentioned in the book but overlooked in the movie) who is killed in an attack by the Emperors Sardaukar troops, Pauls sister Alia is captured (unlike the film where she is sent by Paul) and the end completely ruins everything that had gone before by asking you to accept that people fighting with knives will beat men with guns who vastly outnumber them. More is also made of the family relationship between Atreides & Harkonnen as shown by Paul calling Feyd cousin just before he kills him. Irulan agrees to marry Paul in the name of peace with Chani remaining as his concubine.
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