Where's the spice?

photodrome

A lot of derision goes the way of Lynch's version. Fine. But I'd rather have the story filtered through a distinctive viewpoint than this bland offering. Dune 2000 offers a huge panorama of characters, true, but very little characterisation. Paul is a whiny little prat - I've got Star Wars on video and I can watch Luke any time I like - no need to replicate him here. This Paul Atredies represents none of the traits that make him an interesting character. We don't get to see the sudden maturity of an innocent already learned and patient beyond his years. Instead we're given a brat who embodies none of the qualities the other characters somehow perceive. While the plot tells me that I'm watching the culmination of thousands of years of prophecy and selective breeding, nothing in the script or direction has convinced me of this.

Then there are the omissions. Yueh is almost a non-entity, for such a pivotal character. And the naming of Paul is over-simplified; his private family name (Usul) is skipped entirely, removing a nice illustration of his division between family man and messiah.

Aesthetically, the film is similarly featureless. The costumes are derivative rather than inspired and worse, they all look brand new. How is it that a race of desert dwellers are clothed in shining garments? Dunno, but the story is difficult enough without visual details sapping its strength. In addition, the film does nothing to convince me that this is an economy driven entirely by a single product - something Lynch's film did very well. I'd much prefer his version, though removed from the book, as it has vision if nothing else. This TV film is all unrealised ambition.


It was, I believe, a mistake on the part of the Sci-Fi channel to spring for a six-hour series. (I guess it's around five hours without commercials.) They went for 'event' rather than quality and the film suffers. Better a four-hour version with higher-quality effects and costumes. Desert locations would have added quite a bit as well. In the end, the best way to describe this film and its relationship to it forbears would be to point to "The Shining" - good book, good film, pointless series.

score 4/10

photodrome 6 December 2000

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0531758/