Frank Herbert's Dune series is one of the landmarks in science fiction writing. Winner of virtually every major award within the genre it should be read by everyone even remotely interested in sci-fi and at least in my opinion everyone else as well.
Bringing the series to the screen has presented considerable challenges due to the sheer size, scale and complexity of the source material. Since Herbert creates an entire universe replete with a political, economic and social system attempting to recreate that on screen is a serious undertaking.
This dvd mini series which has been shown on both hallmark and the sc-fi channel and covers the second and third books in the series: dune messiah and children of dune. During this period we see Paul Atreides' chikdren evolve into full adults and suffer the consequnces of their father's actions.
Made by the same people that filmed Dune for television a lot of the actors are familiar though oddly Steven Berkoff plays Stilgar, a slightly odd piece of casting to my mind. Happily, they appear to have had a substantially increased budget from the first outing resulting in some of sets and costumes actually appearing less cardboard like than previously.
The actors do a competent job given the sheer difficulty of the task they are undertaking and the direction is good without being outstanding. The decision to film both books in one is understandable but does lead to some omissions that leave the series feeling a touch jerky.
Being a huge Dune fan and consumer of anything remotely connected with the universe its difficult to be too impartial here. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Herbert's creation up on screen and would recommend this to anyone. However, since this is the second mini-series unless you are very familiar with the books I would suggest watching the first series prior to this one. Even then the person i viewed this with having not read the books was a little confused in places.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
A good review but you don't really tell us much about the plot at all? I've never heard of this series before so a little info on what it's about and who it stars would be good here, Lucie xxx
Children of Duneis the sequel to the Sci-Fi Channel'sFrank Herbert's Dune(2000), and ... more
surpasses that earlier mini-series in every way. The screenplay is again by John Harrison, who has combined Herbert's novelsDune MessiahandChildren of Duneinto three 8...
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