Fear is the mind killer...



If you've been following this fascinating blog of mine, you know I'm reading and watching the Dune series. Right now I am reading "Children of Dune", and so far it's great.

All of the Dune books take place in our universe, but over ten thousand years from now, therefore the story is considered Sci-Fi, but really the whole focus of the [book] series is religion, politics and how they can be used to manipulate societies and power. There is also a strong emphasis on character development, which causes the story to move at a snails pace, but makes for a great, involved read.

David Lynch tried making the story of Dune about spaceships and laser guns, which made the movie pretty convoluted and confusing to watch if you are actually trying to figure out the plot. No character development, and the storyline seems secondary to making a weird sci-fi movie geared towards the post-Star Wars crowd.

I tried watching Dune the mini-series, and although it follows the storyline almost annoyingly perfect as far as dialog is concerned, the production is one step up from an Ed Wood film. Maybe Ed Wood meets Dr. Who. It seems like whoever directed/cast the series didn't really even bother to find actors that matched the description of the characters in the book. I figured the Fremen would all be mysterious, fierce warrior types who were advanced in technology, yet in the miniseries, Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen tribe who had to basically kill his way to the top, is a fat, balding white dude with a weird Italian-ish accent. That was just one example of misrepresentation of characters. There are many more flaws that I wont go into right now. The Fremen thing pushed me over the edge and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I sent the whole thing back to netflix without even finishing. I know I know...the movie is never as good, but come on man!!! At least try.