Thursday, February 09, 2006

The Spice Must Flow

Last Christmas, while shopping with Dave, I purchased the Director’s cut of the SciFi Channel’s production of Frank Herbert’s Dune (that was a mouth full). With all the Holiday hubbub it was shoved into a box and quickly forgotten about.

Friday night, while perusing the bookshelf for something to read, my eyes landed on the book. This then triggered my memory of buying the DVD. The next step in the chain reaction was a whirlwind of activity throughout my house as I searched high and low for the DVD. Fortunately I finally did find it. I started watching it Monday night after work. It is a three DVD set, so I viewed one each evening finishing the show last night.

I watched it when it was on TV in its original broadcast but don’t remember it being quite so “made for TV” as it seemed this time. I actually like the David Lynch version better (yes, I am the one) and found myself continuously comparing the two variations. Where as both adaptations had their strong points I liked the characterizations and costumes better in the Lynch version. Each took more liberty with the story line that I would have preferred, but I understand with a story that involved, somethings had to go. Both had some decent special effects shots, but overall, both were a bit lacking in this department. I think the casting was stronger in the Lynch version as well – yes I know it had a considerably larger budget.

Don’t get me wrong, I did like the SciFi version, however, I believe if fell a bit short of its potential. The SciFi Channel version could have over come some of these short falls it had not put most of its money into the hat budget. See below:

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