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Now I didn't think Dune was completely awful, but it is rather disappointing. That said, it is a somewhat interesting failure, not in how bad or good it is but what it could have been. Starting with the good things, the production values are superb and actually elevate the film. The costume and set design are spot on, while the special effects are stunning. While Max Von Sydow and Patrick Stewart are quite weird in their roles, they are weird in a good way as they are very enjoyable here. And Francesca Annis is gorgeous.
However, everything else doesn't work. First off, I didn't think David Lynch was the right director for this. Don't get me wrong, I do like Lynch and his films especially The Elephant Man and Mulholland Drive. But when I think of Lynch, I think of haunting and surrealistic, not taking a mammoth book and condensing it into a three hour movie. Granted, I do not go against directors who do something different once in a while, but this didn't feel like Lynch. Speaking of the length, I think 3 hours is not enough to do justice to this wonderful book, it should have been at least a 5 or 6 hour mini-series, and the pacing is often stodgy. The script is awful mostly, often cheesy and dull and the story feels bloated and skimmed over, taking elements that were so good in the book and either poorly exploring them or leaving them out entirely. At times it wasn't very easy to follow either. The music score is mostly mediocre, while I was both surprised and disappointed at how much overacting there was, Von Sydow and Stewart aside. Kyle McLachlan is a bland lead, while the rest of the cast try to make amends for the script and fail spectacularly.
All in all, a big disappointment and a (interesting) failure. 4/10 Bethany Cox
4/10
