The Dune miniseries is adequate as a book adaptation, and adequate taken alone, just not remarkable in any aspect. Its main weakness is losing much of the feel of the story. Water doesn't seem all that important, because characters rarely wear stil suits, and there aren't seals on doors or windows. This makes certain rituals surrounding water seem much more trivial than they should be.
Costume design gets in the way in many cases. The strict regulation of color reminds me of the Destiny's Child video, in which the band members are all dressed in clothing the same color as the room and the sofa they are sitting in slides through other monochromatic rooms in various colors. In many cases the costumes seemed like overdone versions of what someone thought sci-fi clothing should be, without much creativity. Also there are a lot of cat in the hat style velvet hats and suits. The main exception to this is the costumes of the emperor and his entourage, which are well done with a distinct Japanese influence. The computer graphics are somewhat fakey, given that almost all the sand is computer generated. Large expanses of desert don't look so powerful when they are obviously blue screened. So visually it's not that good.
The acting is pretty good, although I feel that casting is flawed. Case in point; casting a 26 year old as Paul makes him seem more like a whiney mama's-boy than a prodigy. Also a lot of the dialogue is a little awkward, from trying to clarify concepts without a narrator.
Possibly if they had made Irulan a narrator rather than a character...
My advice is not to see this. Six hours (with commercials) of your life is a lot to waste. If you are interested in a good film adaptation of the book, then see the 1984 version. It preserves much of the feel of the book, and doesn't alter the plot any more than this version. If you are looking for a good film in the sort of genre as Dune, then this miniseries isn't for you. As I said earlier poor visual feel and cheesy costuming interferes with the flow.
Costume design gets in the way in many cases. The strict regulation of color reminds me of the Destiny's Child video, in which the band members are all dressed in clothing the same color as the room and the sofa they are sitting in slides through other monochromatic rooms in various colors. In many cases the costumes seemed like overdone versions of what someone thought sci-fi clothing should be, without much creativity. Also there are a lot of cat in the hat style velvet hats and suits. The main exception to this is the costumes of the emperor and his entourage, which are well done with a distinct Japanese influence. The computer graphics are somewhat fakey, given that almost all the sand is computer generated. Large expanses of desert don't look so powerful when they are obviously blue screened. So visually it's not that good.
The acting is pretty good, although I feel that casting is flawed. Case in point; casting a 26 year old as Paul makes him seem more like a whiney mama's-boy than a prodigy. Also a lot of the dialogue is a little awkward, from trying to clarify concepts without a narrator.
Possibly if they had made Irulan a narrator rather than a character...
My advice is not to see this. Six hours (with commercials) of your life is a lot to waste. If you are interested in a good film adaptation of the book, then see the 1984 version. It preserves much of the feel of the book, and doesn't alter the plot any more than this version. If you are looking for a good film in the sort of genre as Dune, then this miniseries isn't for you. As I said earlier poor visual feel and cheesy costuming interferes with the flow.