Dune

[Zarana-X]

I'd never seen this movie. I'd heard good things about it, so I set my DVR to record it and give it a go.
It's only 2:15 long. I tried to watch it 3 seperate times and fell asleep every time.
Here's what I got from it. The story is kinda boring, they are struggling to maintain control of a planet that produces some magic "spice" that reverses aging, and makes interplanetary travel possible. Boring political stuff.
The costuming, and miniature effects are very good, as are the sets.
The Creature effects , are um, convincing, but not impressive, there is this fleshy caterpillar creature, with eyes that remind me of Steve Buscemi's "Crazy Eyes" in Mr. Deeds. His mouth also looks like a deformed vaginia. I don't think either was intentional.
The practical effects are bad. One time the caterpillar alien is shooting beams from his mouth while he is floating in space and it looks horrible, another time some guy is jumping/falling down a mountain and it looks totally cut out and imposed over the landscape.
Anyway, after trying to watch it 3 seperate times, and being bored to sleep, I deleted it.

[Felix]

I was really excited to see this Sci-Fi movie as a kid, it had positive recommendations, but yeah...I fell asleep too. Tried watching it again as a teen on TV....fell asleep that time, but it re-aired that same weekend and I caught the second half of it.

I suspect only Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" was probably able to make it through the whole movie in one sitting without falling asleep.

[Bravo]

Harsh.

I sort of like the movie. I see why it doesn't work for a lot of people.

I actually saw it in the theaters as a kid, because my father was a fan of the book. Try imagine seeing it as a 10 year old. Even with coaching I didn't quite get it all. It was darkly filmed. And the toys sucked. That was my initial impression.

The movie was directed by David Lynch, an oddball "cult" film director...this was as close to mainstream big budget as he got (he was rumored to have been offered the job to direct Return of the Jedi, he claims he would've turned it down). They aired a longer "Alan Smithee" cut (made without the director's approval) on t.v. in late 80's, and it made the story clearer. This also made Lynch disown the movie forever.

The longer cut made me like the movie. I read the book around that time.

Lynch is strange, so the "vagina-mouthed creature" in the aquarium is definately suggestive in appearance. Also, they do not look like that in the book. BTW, if you didn't make it far or understand, the caterpillar creature (Guild 3rd stage navigator) is/was actually a human, evolved by taking the SPICE over decades. There are no aliens in the Dune universe as far as I know (aside from wild life, like giant worms).

The Spice allows the Guild Navigators to calculate safe interstellar travel, because thinking machines were banned after they enslaved humanity in the past (the book was written in the 60's, IIRC, waaay before The Matrix or Terminator). So the advancement of culture relies on a lot of eugenics, mind/body altering drug usage/mental conditioning and stuff. The movie says it allows the Guild to "fold space", which is not in the book IIRC, it just allows them to see safe routes through space.

The book was too long to make into one movie. SyFy channel made a miniseries of it, but the effects were crappy CGI and the actors were weak.

[Zarana-X]

I remember them using the term fold space, and thought that may be where thy got "Space Fold" in Robotech, instead of space jump, hyper jump, teleport, etc.

[Felix]

There were a lot of similarities between Dune & Star Wars, definitely felt like Lucas stole a lot of stuff from Dune.

Spice
Desert Planet
Giant wormlike creatures/Sarlaac/Asteroid Monster/