Children of Dune - March 16th
 

I just saw that Children of Dune premieres on the Sci Fi Channel on March 16th.

So who here plans to watch it on tv, who plans to wait for the DVD, and who plans to pass entirely?

Me: I have a hard time devoting a specific time (2 hours - 3 straight nights) to this, but I want to see it. So I'm likely to videotape it (what's that?) and watch it soon, then probably buy the DVD thereafter.

I plan on Tivo-ing the whole thing and watching it when I can.

If the DVD matches the quality of presentation of the second release of the first series, I'll be buying that as well.

A few links:

Thread about TIME article: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=277526

Thread about DVD release: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=274674

Charity auction: http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/scifichannel/

(win items and then leave them negative feedback about the Farscape cancellation ;) )

I'm TiVoing it.

I don't think I can wait for the DVD to come out so I'll be watching it this weekend.

Interesting idea, but they'd just get another account if they needed it in the future.
rotfl rotfl


Yeah, I'll be watching. But, as usual, it'll be a day late (tape delay).

And, of course, it'll have to go in my collection.

I'm all over this. You think I'm going to miss Susan Sarandon being evil, amping her already potent sensuality into the stratosphere? No way.

I am pumped to watch the miniseries. The last 2 days i rewatched the 3 Disc Dune:Special Edition set again and it made me more anxious for sunday night to come

capt

The UK won't get this for months probably, so I'll get the DVDs.
Amazon just sent me a notice saying it's now available for pre-order, out in May 20th I think, so not too long to wait.

Can't wait to read all your reviews when you lucky people get to see it this weekend.

no cable so waiting for DVD's.

Dude, my Sci-Fi channel only works between 7-8PM CST on Friday, and after next week it won't be working at all.

Devin at CHUD has already seen the miniseries and put up a review. He says he enjoyed it even though the acting and the effects were absolutely horrid across the board. Even Susan Sarandon turned in a godawful performance according to his review. If that's true, yech! Dune has too many dialogue intensive scenes in order for the acting to be bad. This is one miniseries where the acting has to be solid for it to work.

Ive seen a lot of reviews that say that the movie, effects and acting are very good. So who knows. Ill judge it after i see it

capt

I'm going to replay both series and watch 'em back to back (yeah, it'll be a LONG night), but fun! I enjoyed the first one, but it's been so long, I figured might as well watch them both.

Let's just hope the acting and the effects are better than the original Dune mini-series. If not, egads it will be terrible. I'm hopeful though.

oooh - better go check and make sure the vhs started taping it.

I liked it. Considering everything else on tv these days. I thought it was just as good as the last series. I will be getting this on DVD.

I liked it. So far I think it's much better than the first mini-series.

It's better than the last one. Effects have improved a bit, but still not nearly as good as they should be. Alec Newman gave a good performance. A couple of others gave a good performance, but the rest are just blah. Amazingly, Susan Sarandon gave one of the weaker performances.

My biggest problem may be with the source material. There's too damn much standing around in fancy sets and costumes while having long-winded discussions. Give me some action, some suspense, and some drama. Cut out all talking.

Oh well, I enjoyed it enough to keep watching.

I'd say the acting's definitely a step up. But yeah, 4 episodes might have worked better though -- 2 for each book. This one just seemed really rushed as a "complete" version of "Dune Messiah". Hopefully the next two won't feel that way.

IMO, Paul's effect should have been used on Duncan Idaho. As a ghola, he's supposed to have . They did a better job with the spice eyes though. Last time it just looked like someone was using way too many UV shots -- very badly done. Just no blue on blue, but decent enough.

Still hate the stillsuit design though. Not sure why nobody can do a good one for the screen. I've seen great drawings/paintings of what they should look like.

edit -- this one for example: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/07...CMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I mean they're supposed to be full face for crying out loud -- virtually complete protection from moisture loss -- obviously they would have something covering the eyes.

Im a fan of the first miniseries and i like this one so far as well. Better looking, good acting, and a lot of intriguing things

capt

Definately looks better than the first one.

No distracting costumes/clothing.

The direction is definitely a major step up from the previous series. The new director definitely has a sense of style that John Harrison lacked.

That having been said, the source material for the new miniseries just pales in comparison to the original. No matter how much frosted flakey nuts you use, you just can't polish a turd...

I don't recall the books ever describing Still Suits as covering the eyes. They only have a tube for the nose and mouth.

Maybe not. I'm just remembering the descriptions on how efficient they were and all that. Either way, the current series is an improvement over Lynch's but not as good as it could be IMO.

That's how I recall them.

Damn, I'm going to have to go home tonight and find the appropriate passages, but I'm 99.9% certain that the "tube for nose and mouth" thing was an invention of Lynch for his film version.

I'm pretty certain that Herbert described the stilsuits as being much more covering of the face and body extremities. (I always pictured something closer to what Khan is first seen wearing in Star Trek II.) Of course, it isn't particularly cinematic to have your main characters wearing so much garb in a film... so Lynch and Harrison both seem to have improvised.

These miniseries (the first one and this new one) don't seem to be stressing water conservation as much as they should anyway. That is something that is hammered home again and again in the novels... but here it seems like an afterthought.


Overall, though, I thought last night was pretty good. They managed to do a fairly decent job telling the story of Dune Messiah with only about 90 minutes of screen time. (Although the acting was a bit rough in spots and many of the scenes were too heavy on dialog.) They score a lot of points for finally including a scene involving Bene Gesserit hand signals.

I don’t think there was anything for the mouth, other than a tube to drink recycled water from. IIRC, there were plugs fitted in the nose, and one was to inhale thru the mouth, and exhale thru the nose, thus trapping any exhaled moisture (and, I think there was mention of quite a bit of moisture in exhaled breath). Although, that doesn’t exclude the possibility of a mask covering the whole face. (I will patiently await your research. :))

(Haven’t seen the latest yet, but…) I agree that conservation was not mentioned much. In fact, in the first mini, when Stillgar (or whoever) spat there was a pregnant pause that I think only those who read the book would understand. Maybe. Hell, you could probably do a whole mini on the pages upon pages about water and conservation. But who would watch?

Also, if you want to get picky, there’s no mention of the proper way to walk without attracting a worm. With an epic as monstrous as this, there are a lot of things that have to be sacrificed.

Didn’t Harrison’s version use off-the-shelf masks, like you might find at a hardware store? I thought that was pretty lame.

Seems I'm the only one really disappointed with this so far. The acting by pretty much all of the newcomers was sub-par. The replacement for Stilgar being the worst. And with them chopping the story up so much the acting was what should have carried the series.
They seemed to not even bother highlighting the fremen eyes to be consistent with the first series. They did do it, but not nearly as strong as before. A minor annoyance, but I feel its probably something I can chalk up to budget constraints. I liked the way the first mini-series had the feel of a theatrical play. Not doing the sequel in the same style is just one more inconsistency to add to something that already is different enough.
Due to them cutting out so much from the book (this first part was all of Dune Messiah as mentioned) a lot of stuff seemed to jumped around too quickly. There was no feeling of cohesiveness. I mean Lynch couldn't fit the first book in one movie even with most of it as exposition and changing stuff. Why would they think they could do the second book in one?
I really noticed the lack of Vittorio as cinematographer (we lost his great lighting for scenes) and I think that John Harrison should have directed this one also if for no other reason than that whole consistency thing I look for in good sci-fi. Anyone know why he didn't?
I really hope the next two parts get better. Although seeing Muaddib's son in this one I kept being reminded of Hayden Christensen from Episode II (i.e. really bad actor, but looks good on the cover of teen magazines).

From an article in the Boston Globe, it appears the director didn't even read the book. Either that or he's a total moron.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/0...friction+.shtml

At any rate, I liked the first movie enough to wait for this one to hit DVD. That way I won't have to suffer through commercials and get anamorphic/surround sound as well.

The stillsuits don't cover the eyes but they DO cover the mouth and nose unlike the stillsuits in the '84 movie. I mean come on, WHY WOULD A STILL SUIT BE BLACK....IN THE DESERT????? :eek: It looks cool but black in not practical in that situation.

The DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA has an accurate drwaing of the stillsuits. The 1st Sci Fi series were closer to what the book says about stillsuits.

Who else thinks Julie Cox is hot?

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0287839/...CIFI_00060.jpg

I'd rather have Sarandon :drool:

...and I'd rather have Jessica Brooks who plays Ghanima. :D

Me

Just watched the first episode tonight. I thought is was great and Alec Newman did a great job. All three (or 4 if you count Sarandon) are perfect for their roles, ie hot. I very much enjoyed this first installment and look forward to watching the next two.

Show 1: not too bad. A little plodding in a lot of places, but I assume it’ll pick up now that much of the backstory is out of the way.

From the gripes department: you couldn’t possibly cover everything from the book. But, for some reason, I have a problem with the crysknife not being sheathed unless blood is drawn concept. Just something I’ll have to overlook it, as with the first mini.

And I do miss the blue eyes effect. Yeah, I know many have bitched about the way it looked in Dune, but having established that look, I miss it.

Julie Cox is a very striking woman, very classically beautiful and an excellent actress.

The actresses who play Chani and Alia are also lovely and exotic. For whatever you might think of the miniseries (I felt the second night was pretty spotty), the women in many of the major roles provide for material that is definitely spankworthy.

WOW, tonight's episode is very cool.