Alec Newman is fairly new to the screen and was a bit old, and not self-absorbed enough, to play Paul as well as Kyle Maclachlan did in 1984, but he has developing charisma and his performance at times radiates Muad'Dib's complexity. The only one who is clearly better is William Hurt in the expanded role of Duke Leto, as opposed to Jurgen Prochnow in the original. The calibre of the cast in the first film was so high that they pose a hard mount for any followers to climb. Production design is EXCELLENT, especially when reminded of the total outlay for the film. The special effects are for the most part CGI and bluescreen and are very effective for the money spent. He makes do by using a lot of international actors, and filming in Prague and Tunisia had to help. The movie is hamstrung a bit by a lack of budget - considering the subject matter, $20 million for six hours isn't much, and every penny and then some is there on the screen. I don't feel gypped by this adaptation - it feels proper. In other cases I was thrilled by Harrison's renderings - of the Fremen sietches, much more livable than in the book, and the scenes where Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother. For many elements of the film his production designers, who did a first rate job, borrowed heavily from the 1984 Lynch adaptation, especially in their portrayal of the Harkonnens, who are comic-book villains again without a dash of dangerous cunning. This causes it to be slow moving at times, but it becomes more and more engrossing as time goes on. One gets the feeling when watching that Harrison really cares about the source material, and wants the viewer to be included in its richness. He slowly unfurls the intrigues and action of the novel, allowing character to be built and introducing the nuances of the novel, sometimes in clever ways, at other times not so subtly. John Harrison's new adaptation takes the breadth and depth of the book and really makes a go of it.
If you don't know the novel at all, you could be lost. If you can just try to forget that rain falls on Arrakis at the end (without reason), the rock group Toto's score, the ridiculous and distracting attempt to allow the characters' inner monologues be heard on screen, and the truncation of many plot elements, you can stand it. In its defense, however, it contained very high production values, lavish production design, a stellar cast, and much incredible visual imagery that sticks in the mind. The depth of this novel cannot be conveyed in a two hour film, and David Lynch was badly undercut by the producers, who changed things to match their own desires. The 1984 film adaptation was an abortion. I'm not talking about the whole book series, I'm just talking about the original novel. Others would disagree, but they would have to admit that it is up there, even if it isn't their #1. I consider Frank Herbert's "Dune" to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time.
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