MovieChat Forums > Dune (2000) Discussion > 3 Really Bad Things About This

3 Really Bad Things About This

posted 18 years ago by moustachegai
27 replies | jump to latest

Firstly, let me make myself clear that I enjoyed this more than the movie version. The plot here is more rich, motives more explored, and leaves less holes. I especially like the truer martial arts instead of the sound wave attacks.

They did all the hard things right in this. But it still wasn't perfect for me.

The 3 things that really grated on me most were things that were so easily avoided and could have made it a masterpiece!

They were:

1) The hilariously weird costume design. It looks very far behind and dated. The weird pointy hats, shiny material and bright colours. It was like watching a children's show from the early afternoons.

2) The poor cinematography. There. I said it. Usually I'd say Victorio Starrodo is amazing (he did Apocolypse Now and Last Emperor ffs!) but here it looks plain bland and very, very cheap. His painting with colours look's like he was taking the piss. The parts were they make the Barron overtly red and angle the camera is laughable. I really don't understand why they took out the inner monologues and employed this technique. It's far too more contrived, blatent, and distracting. It's a shame because around that year there was some very amazing shot shows, eg: Star Gate SG1, Star Trek Voyager, ER, 24, and hell... even Lexx looked better. Maybe I just hate his new adopted lighting setups and Univisium. Or maybe the colour timer dared not stylise it as much, who knows...

3) The actor who played Paul shouldn't have been directed and written like such a bitch. Or maybe they could have gotten a different actor, I'm not sure on this one.

Though, I enjoyed the cheap "obviously painted landscape" production design. They were on a tight budget so no real picking at that. I was breath taken by alot of the set design, but the inability of the cinematography to hide its faults really did make it look cheaper than it should have looked.

Your thoughts?

[–] LondoMollari1 18 years ago

"1) The hilariously weird costume design. It looks very far behind and dated. The weird pointy hats, shiny material and bright colours. It was like watching a children's show from the early afternoons."

This was really the unfortunate result of having a low budget. The costume design in the Lynch film was vastly superior but then again, they had double the budget to work with. This is most pronounced with the stillsuit design. The stillsuits in the miniseries looked like plain pants and shirts with some funky lines on them. The stillsuits in the movie simply looked real and convincing. The costumes for Dr. Yueh, the Mentats and the Sardaukar were laughable. Is this sci-fi or a Renaissance festival?

I dont quite understand what you mean about Alec Newman being directed like such a bitch. I actually thought he was very good in his performance as Paul. He actually goes through a more compelling transformation than Paul does in the movie version.

[–] moustachegai 18 years ago

I don't think the costume design was a result of low budget. Unless of course, it was VERY, VERY, VERY LOW budget. It was just very poor design choices. Simply taking off the hats and using less clashy colours would have helped immensely. Instead we got lime green silk on blue cotton, or $3 wallmart khaaki combats for stillsuits wtf lol. It's really, really bizare because there's some incredibly talented costume designers working on this.

The $20 million is still quite alot of money for a 4 episode series. That's almost the same cost as the original Star Wars movie taking account of inflation. Each Star Trek The Next Generation ep cost $3 million and they looked damn lovely. Robert Rodriguezes films always looks damn sweet. Did the cast and crew of Dune Miniseries get too greedy with their paychecks?

What I meant by Alec Newman directed like a bitch, was that for the most part he was had that sarcastic, aggressive, and moaning air about him. I didn't get the sense he was likeable or a leader :\

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[–] agent_tau 18 years ago

Am I the only one who liked the costumes?

If Plan A doesn't work, you should have a Plan B, not Plan A recycled

[–] sambal56 17 years ago

I hope so, I really like the book, but I have no idea why both in the film and the miniseries (although the movie had better costumes imo) use these weird clothes. I think the series is better in that they take away all the weird eyebrows and ugly faces, but these new costumes, really bring down the added plus. The scary thing is that this was approved by Frank Herbert, which kinda means that it is close as how he envisioned his universe. So I see little hope to finally see an adaption of this great book(s) where I'm not distracted by all this weirdness going on in the background. Heck, I would even prefer it if they all reused the old star wars costumes as moneysaver. I bet the stormtroopers in sandcolor make a whole lot more convincing Sardaukar than these roman gladiator/samurai style characters.

[–] jimmyzimms 13 years ago

>The scary thing is that this was approved by Frank Herbert,
Don't see HOW as he died in 86 and I am pretty sure that this scifi channel min series wasn't in pre production years before there was even a scifi channel! :)

[–] LondoMollari1 17 years ago

Irulan looked great in everything she wore but I hated the costumes for the Mentats, Sardaukar, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit and the stillsuits. The stillsuits in the Lynch film looked so much better IMHO.

[–] boutetr 17 years ago

by agent_tau (Fri Aug 10 2007 13:13:56)
Am I the only one who liked the costumes?

No your not. I thought they where fine for the most part although I didn't care for the Harkonen troop uniforms. I know the floppy hats of the Sardaukar get a lot of ribbing but it seemed like they made them sort of silly looking as if the Sardaukar where daring anybody to make fun of them so they could kick some butt.

I even prefer the mini still-suits over the movie only because it seems rediculous to make something like that out of black mat'l for a desert planet.

[–] Mex5150 17 years ago

I even prefer the mini still-suits over the movie only because it seems rediculous to make something like that out of black mat'l for a desert planet.

Why? I used to live in Egypt, and you often see people wearing black Abaya both in and far out of the towns (i.e. in the desert).

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[–] overhere-4 15 years ago

It's a post-modern world.

[–] ContinentalOp 17 years ago

"Am I the only one who liked the costumes?"

No. I liked them. I prefer most costumes from the film version (I love Victorian and early 20th Century uniforms) but I do prefer the Harkonnen soldiers in this. The nuclear workers of the film had their charm (and did make some sense) but they were better here.

Regards,
The Count

The Apple Scruffs Corps, 07

"Imagine"

[–] imdb-3046 17 years ago

The main effect I found jarring was not the painted backdrops (which, as an occasional visitor to the theatre, I can live with), it was the grey desert mouse which was very similar to Fingermouse, a character on British TV children's programme Fingerbobs from the 1970s. A google images search for "Fingermouse" will bring up many examples.

[–] krisluvkev 17 years ago

I perfer the cast from the movie that's for sure and the costumes in this one were a little weird. But the worst of the worst is William Hurt he sucked in this he was a pansy of a ruler.

[–] bikebryan 17 years ago

How was he a "pansy of a ruler?" Not all rulers have to bark out orders and scream and yell to get everybody motivated.

The Duke motivated through his actions. His men were loyal to him because he was loyal to THEM. He was viewed as fair and just, and inspired his men by ACTIONS, not WORDS.

How did you want the Duke to act?

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[–] Bernnard_Black 17 years ago

I liked some of the costumes, and am in the minority I guess that I really liked the still suits. The fact that they included the hoods and masks was great. I do think that Yueh's and Hawat's costumes were just laughable, though.

[–] RustyShackleworth 16 years ago

I only watched a little of this version of Dune when it first aired on SciFi but the one thing that got my attention was the costumes because they were so different from what we saw in the 1984 Lynch film.

I just recently watched this version of Dune on DVD and pretty much liked it and for the most part I like the costumes.

The Harkonnen soldiers looked like Samurai, I liked them but I hated that stupid triangle thing on Fetd’s back. I’m pretty sure the actor who played him did too.

What I didn't like and don't understand is that we barely see Thufir Hawat or Yueh in this series. They are important characters and I think we see them on screen more than 5 moments. When Leto discovers Yueh betrayed it almost means nothing because we barely even get to see who Yueh is.

What evil drives the Car?...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWea3Eu97E

[–] soue37-1 15 years ago

The costumes in this did look very odd - bright garish colours and weird designs. Still, I don't mind them as much as they tend to suit the Dune universe. After all it's obvious that Herbert was influenced by Medieval/Renaissance history and mythology when he wrote Dune, so why shouldn't the characters dress in similar (although highly stylised and uglier) versions of period clothing?

One of the odd things I find with Sci-fi is how everybody in the future seems to dress like the people of the present. This is even more jarring when you look at Sci-fi shows from the 1970s and 1980s where Spaceship pilots have afros and wear flaired trousers.
Do modern fighter pilots dress like WW1 aviators? Of course not. Why should future astronauts wear 20th century NASA jumpsuits?
Why do spaceships a thousand years into the future fly around like wood and fabric biplanes? (A great point Isaac Asimov made in an interview when discussing Battlestar Galactica).

Most Sci-fi (or should that be Space Operas?), whether it's Dune, Star Wars, or Battlestar Galactica tend to be highly influenced by history and mythology. Unfortunately this series tends to be influenced by the very worst aspects of historical fashion (16th Century Landsknecht military uniforms anyone?)

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[–] SinisterCreep 13 years ago

Though, I enjoyed the cheap "obviously painted landscape" production design. They were on a tight budget so no real picking at that. I was breath taken by alot of the set design, but the inability of the cinematography to hide its faults really did make it look cheaper than it should have looked.

I thought the painted landscape was the worst part of this. looked awful and completely unconvincing.

[–] ghtx 13 years ago

"2) The poor cinematography. There. I said it. "

I agree with this point. I was expecting the cinematography to be the best thing about this movie, coming from three-time-Oscar winner Storaro (BTW he won an Emmy for this). But, like the costumes, it is so over-the-top and artificial that it is more distracting than beautiful. The look of the Harkonnen scenes is weak (red, angled). I like some of the clever uses of unexpected colors (e.g. bright greens in night shadow scenes). But the main problem with the cinematography is just that everything else about the movie is so awful, that in a sense the cinematography can't help but be awful. Lipstick pig.