I spent most of my day watching SciFi's Dune and Children of Dune on DVD, since I've been on this major Dune kick lately (I'm currently re-reading Heretics). I waited for Rac to show up, but she never did. I assume she'll be back tomorrow to start her internship, and Kyle said she was supposed to work at the bookstore, too.
Anyway, I couldn't stop comparing SciFi's miniseries to Lynch's Dune, and I guess I ultimately decided that they were even. What the SciFi version lacked in the Lynch version's awesome style and feel, it made up with a much better screenplay. But even more than that, Children of Dune beats them both hands down.
SciFi's version ultimately told much more of the Dune story, which I found more satisfying, because there was no way that David Lynch could tell the story in a mere 2 1/2 hours (or even in his 4-hour Smithee version). However, the acting in the miniseries leaves much to be desired.
I thought that in many cases, casting was waaaay off. Skaskia Reeves, who played Jessica, looked more like somebody's mother than a Reverend mother. She wore 70's housewif garb in sietch. I mean, c'mon. I don't think that she had quite the poise for the role, and she didn't really get the chance to portray the power in the character. I thought that Alice Krige did a much better job in CoD as an aging Jessica. The woman in the Lynch version was a wonderful young Jessica, though. She even had the weird hair working for her.
Stilgar never seemed to convery his gravity or wisdom, he was kind of just there. The Baron was okay, but he never really conveyed any real menace. The guy in Lynch's version was disgusting, but at least he had you convinced that he was pure evol. This version did accurately portray the Baron's homosexuality, though, which was a gutsy choice. Which makes me want to wax academic about the negative portrayal of homosexuality in the saga which was probably influenced by the fact that Herbert never accepted that his second son was gay. I think the only positive portrayal was with the Fish Speakers in God Emperor, and that was kind of weird and random.
Suffice it to say that they could have gotten Haley Joel Osment to play Feyd-Rautha and it would have been better than Sting in a black diaper-thing in the Lynch version. I was pleased.
Don't even ask about Piter (Sorry, Brad Dourif was Piter), Yueh, or Thufir. Bloody awful, not to mention the costumes they had to wear. No 60 year old man should ever be forced to wear purple and teal silk in the same outfit, okay? And the poor Emperor looked like he ran a gay Egyptian disco. No, no, no. Shoot the costumer. Thanks.
Plus, Paul is not supposed to be blonde!! Sorry.
Speaking of people to shoot, the director waxed all orgasmic about the cinematographer and the lighting crew. It was awful. Tell me, since when does the first moon of Arrakis flood everything fluorescent green? Neon green, even? Ugh. And spice eyes are supposed to be blue, but never did it say that they were glow in the dark. Creepy. CoD did this better, more along the "inky blue" that Herbert described. And I don't need eyesore red lights everywhere to tell that we're on Giedi Prime. The prescence of the big fat man was enough, thanks. The effects were also goofy at times, the water of life sequence in particular.
The good? A lot of the story got across, and a surprising amount Kynes' ecology, though I would have liked to see more about the Bene Gesserit (and the Missionaria Protectiva, as Ramallo was not a Bene Gesserit missionary like Jessica suggested). Karel Dobry stood up to Max Von Sydow as Liet Kynes. I was really happy when he came back in CoD as Korba the Panegyrist. And the worms were awesome. They looked so cool. And Chani was a great casting choice despite Barbara Kodetova being a teensy bit too old to play young Chani. She got the essence of the character right. Although I was a smidge annoyed that they never showed Paul and Chani using their secret names.
And I was able to make my peace with most of Irulan's scenes being completely fabricated. I realized that in a way, she bound it all together, giving voice (or exposition) to the things that non-readers should know but there was no non-awkward way to show. She also filled in for numerous minor characters like Lingar Bewt's woman and Margot Fenring. Less characters, less complicated. And it was good that they showed her affection for Paul early or it'd been all "huh?" when they filmed the sequels.
And I liked Alec Newman as Paul much better in Cod. He's very good at playing it petulant, but he just didn't work out as a Fremen for me. I could see him as an Emperor, and he surprised me with his ability to play the Preacher so well.
As I mentioned, Children of Dune was soooo much better. It's really the second and third books of the series combined, and I've gotta say, the screenwriter, John Harrison (who directed the first one) got it nearly perfect. He overlapped parts to make them better interlock, and I was okay with him making the twins about 18 instead of 9 because I didn't want to see child actors butcher the characters and it worked fine with the timeline. A few things were out of order, but it all worked out, and even though some details were changed (Irulan should have been one in the plot to ruin Paul, Chani confronts Irulan about the childbearing thing instead of Paul, etc.), it all worked.
Greg Yaitanes did a much better job in the director's chair. He apparently also fired the horrid costumers and lighting techs, because everything was so much better visually. The cityscapes were marvelous and well done. The desert no longer looked 2D. CGI-backdrops no longer felt plasticy. The palace was an awesome set, much more organic than any set in the first series, and Edric was such a cool character to look at.
The acting was much much better. They replaced Jessica and Duncan (Edward Atterton, who played Arthur in The Mists of Avalon), with actors who could bring their characters to life. Alia was played by Daniela Amavia, who is just gorgeous. In fact, she an
asphyxia could be twins. She also was an excellent actress, portraying her descent into madness better than most would-be Lears. And damn them that her awesome workout scene was not done in the nude, as it was written. Damn them all.
Even those who'd been so-so, like Reverend Mother Mohiam</i> were much better the second time around. Julie Cox was a great Irulan, and she did a great job transitioning from naive princess to coquette to unrequited love to dedicated stepmother.
Jessica Brooks was okay as Ghanima, because she wasn't given a whole lot to work with. She should have been able to show a few of her strengths (self-hypnosis, her memories within), but instead most of the plot went to Leto. James McAvoy out-acted every single person in the first mini-series. That's saying a lot for a guy whose destiny is basically to become a giant God-Emperor sandworm. He made it work.
I only had a few gripes, and one was of a purely awful CGI dream-sequence when Leto was in spice trance-- it looked like a badly-realized video game. The fact that Gurney and Jessica orchestrated the spice trance was also tidily left out.
And, uh, whoa with the thinly veiled incest. Herbert's got beef with gays but wanting your brother is okay? Leto and Ghanima wanted each other so bad. Soooo bad. The chemistry was funkadelic. I mean, I know they have their parents living inside them and all, but come on. It wasn't even subtext. They couldn't keep their hands (and lips) off of one another. The movie conveniently left out the part where Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, too. In the book, it's made clear that the idea of a mating between the twins is seen as disgusting to both, but in the movie, it's sad that Alia's final, gut-wrenching words, "I want my brother," made me think, "Yeah, well, so does Ghani."
But the coolest thing was totally the montage at the end of part I of CoD where each of the characters met or awaited their fates. It was all underscored by Inama nushif, a gorgeous vocal track by composer Brian Tyler and sung by Azam Ali. I might buy the soundtrack just to get it. And to boot, the lyrics are all in Fremen. It was just so poignant. I was actually very moved by the sequence, the many ways that many of the characters met their deaths, Chani with calmness, Mohiam with regal resignation, Edric with panic, and Korba with all-out terror. And Chani's death scene was so well played by the two actors.
I think that's all. Whoo. Long-winded.
The funny thing was a part where Alia is scanning the dunes with mechanical binoculars. The alphabet seen from the inside of the binoculars is actually Aurabesh, the Galactic language in Star Wars. The fact that I know that is kind of scary. But hey, at least I can't read it fluently anymore. Geek? Me? Nah. I'm sure it was an crew joke or something, and I found it extremely funny.
I think I'm done for the night. It's almost 3:30 am. I'll wait until tomorrow to talk about my New Years Eve. I assure you, it was a doozy.
Anyway, I couldn't stop comparing SciFi's miniseries to Lynch's Dune, and I guess I ultimately decided that they were even. What the SciFi version lacked in the Lynch version's awesome style and feel, it made up with a much better screenplay. But even more than that, Children of Dune beats them both hands down.
SciFi's version ultimately told much more of the Dune story, which I found more satisfying, because there was no way that David Lynch could tell the story in a mere 2 1/2 hours (or even in his 4-hour Smithee version). However, the acting in the miniseries leaves much to be desired.
I thought that in many cases, casting was waaaay off. Skaskia Reeves, who played Jessica, looked more like somebody's mother than a Reverend mother. She wore 70's housewif garb in sietch. I mean, c'mon. I don't think that she had quite the poise for the role, and she didn't really get the chance to portray the power in the character. I thought that Alice Krige did a much better job in CoD as an aging Jessica. The woman in the Lynch version was a wonderful young Jessica, though. She even had the weird hair working for her.
Stilgar never seemed to convery his gravity or wisdom, he was kind of just there. The Baron was okay, but he never really conveyed any real menace. The guy in Lynch's version was disgusting, but at least he had you convinced that he was pure evol. This version did accurately portray the Baron's homosexuality, though, which was a gutsy choice. Which makes me want to wax academic about the negative portrayal of homosexuality in the saga which was probably influenced by the fact that Herbert never accepted that his second son was gay. I think the only positive portrayal was with the Fish Speakers in God Emperor, and that was kind of weird and random.
Suffice it to say that they could have gotten Haley Joel Osment to play Feyd-Rautha and it would have been better than Sting in a black diaper-thing in the Lynch version. I was pleased.
Don't even ask about Piter (Sorry, Brad Dourif was Piter), Yueh, or Thufir. Bloody awful, not to mention the costumes they had to wear. No 60 year old man should ever be forced to wear purple and teal silk in the same outfit, okay? And the poor Emperor looked like he ran a gay Egyptian disco. No, no, no. Shoot the costumer. Thanks.
Plus, Paul is not supposed to be blonde!! Sorry.
Speaking of people to shoot, the director waxed all orgasmic about the cinematographer and the lighting crew. It was awful. Tell me, since when does the first moon of Arrakis flood everything fluorescent green? Neon green, even? Ugh. And spice eyes are supposed to be blue, but never did it say that they were glow in the dark. Creepy. CoD did this better, more along the "inky blue" that Herbert described. And I don't need eyesore red lights everywhere to tell that we're on Giedi Prime. The prescence of the big fat man was enough, thanks. The effects were also goofy at times, the water of life sequence in particular.
The good? A lot of the story got across, and a surprising amount Kynes' ecology, though I would have liked to see more about the Bene Gesserit (and the Missionaria Protectiva, as Ramallo was not a Bene Gesserit missionary like Jessica suggested). Karel Dobry stood up to Max Von Sydow as Liet Kynes. I was really happy when he came back in CoD as Korba the Panegyrist. And the worms were awesome. They looked so cool. And Chani was a great casting choice despite Barbara Kodetova being a teensy bit too old to play young Chani. She got the essence of the character right. Although I was a smidge annoyed that they never showed Paul and Chani using their secret names.
And I was able to make my peace with most of Irulan's scenes being completely fabricated. I realized that in a way, she bound it all together, giving voice (or exposition) to the things that non-readers should know but there was no non-awkward way to show. She also filled in for numerous minor characters like Lingar Bewt's woman and Margot Fenring. Less characters, less complicated. And it was good that they showed her affection for Paul early or it'd been all "huh?" when they filmed the sequels.
And I liked Alec Newman as Paul much better in Cod. He's very good at playing it petulant, but he just didn't work out as a Fremen for me. I could see him as an Emperor, and he surprised me with his ability to play the Preacher so well.
As I mentioned, Children of Dune was soooo much better. It's really the second and third books of the series combined, and I've gotta say, the screenwriter, John Harrison (who directed the first one) got it nearly perfect. He overlapped parts to make them better interlock, and I was okay with him making the twins about 18 instead of 9 because I didn't want to see child actors butcher the characters and it worked fine with the timeline. A few things were out of order, but it all worked out, and even though some details were changed (Irulan should have been one in the plot to ruin Paul, Chani confronts Irulan about the childbearing thing instead of Paul, etc.), it all worked.
Greg Yaitanes did a much better job in the director's chair. He apparently also fired the horrid costumers and lighting techs, because everything was so much better visually. The cityscapes were marvelous and well done. The desert no longer looked 2D. CGI-backdrops no longer felt plasticy. The palace was an awesome set, much more organic than any set in the first series, and Edric was such a cool character to look at.
The acting was much much better. They replaced Jessica and Duncan (Edward Atterton, who played Arthur in The Mists of Avalon), with actors who could bring their characters to life. Alia was played by Daniela Amavia, who is just gorgeous. In fact, she an
asphyxia could be twins. She also was an excellent actress, portraying her descent into madness better than most would-be Lears. And damn them that her awesome workout scene was not done in the nude, as it was written. Damn them all. Even those who'd been so-so, like Reverend Mother Mohiam</i> were much better the second time around. Julie Cox was a great Irulan, and she did a great job transitioning from naive princess to coquette to unrequited love to dedicated stepmother.
Jessica Brooks was okay as Ghanima, because she wasn't given a whole lot to work with. She should have been able to show a few of her strengths (self-hypnosis, her memories within), but instead most of the plot went to Leto. James McAvoy out-acted every single person in the first mini-series. That's saying a lot for a guy whose destiny is basically to become a giant God-Emperor sandworm. He made it work.
I only had a few gripes, and one was of a purely awful CGI dream-sequence when Leto was in spice trance-- it looked like a badly-realized video game. The fact that Gurney and Jessica orchestrated the spice trance was also tidily left out.
And, uh, whoa with the thinly veiled incest. Herbert's got beef with gays but wanting your brother is okay? Leto and Ghanima wanted each other so bad. Soooo bad. The chemistry was funkadelic. I mean, I know they have their parents living inside them and all, but come on. It wasn't even subtext. They couldn't keep their hands (and lips) off of one another. The movie conveniently left out the part where Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, too. In the book, it's made clear that the idea of a mating between the twins is seen as disgusting to both, but in the movie, it's sad that Alia's final, gut-wrenching words, "I want my brother," made me think, "Yeah, well, so does Ghani."
But the coolest thing was totally the montage at the end of part I of CoD where each of the characters met or awaited their fates. It was all underscored by Inama nushif, a gorgeous vocal track by composer Brian Tyler and sung by Azam Ali. I might buy the soundtrack just to get it. And to boot, the lyrics are all in Fremen. It was just so poignant. I was actually very moved by the sequence, the many ways that many of the characters met their deaths, Chani with calmness, Mohiam with regal resignation, Edric with panic, and Korba with all-out terror. And Chani's death scene was so well played by the two actors.
I think that's all. Whoo. Long-winded.
The funny thing was a part where Alia is scanning the dunes with mechanical binoculars. The alphabet seen from the inside of the binoculars is actually Aurabesh, the Galactic language in Star Wars. The fact that I know that is kind of scary. But hey, at least I can't read it fluently anymore. Geek? Me? Nah. I'm sure it was an crew joke or something, and I found it extremely funny.
I think I'm done for the night. It's almost 3:30 am. I'll wait until tomorrow to talk about my New Years Eve. I assure you, it was a doozy.