Nearly unwatchable.

Thank You, I have.

The mini is mor unwatchable than the film.

Don't get me wrong.. I preferred the story more... I just thought the acting was unconvincing , and the costumes too damn distracting.

The miniseries actually made me leave the room in frustration multiple times. I had to watch it on my VHS (I was taping it), in 15-25 minute segments, to keep from damaging either myself or the television.

First off - say what you will about visuals not being the most important thing, but this IS A VISUAL MEDIUM. Lynch's version may have (by today's standards) dated visual effects, but if you saw the movie when it was relatively new like I did... it was great. Kind of like how kids today say that the old Superman movies suck because they look terrible - judge it by its time. The miniseries was abominable in visual representation. Terrible costuming (I cannot begin to explain the depth of the lousiness of the costuming), abysmal backdrops (which you can actually see move, presumably when the caterer arrived on-set and opened the door), physically uninspiring actors... it's an utter failure. They fixed many of these issues in Children of Dune, but that's another matter.

Second - acting. The balance again tips to Lynch. Let's go down the list of important players here...
Paul - MacLachlan vs Newman. Ok, so MacLachlan had a tendency to look stoned and suffered from 80s helmet-hair, but at least he was capable of more than one facial expression. Newman could pull off "petulant" and that was it (by the way... Paul was never petulant). Newman's acting was much less egregious in CoDune when his face was shadowed by the hood 90% of the time. Losing the Paul role in acting is about the biggest loss possible when telling the Dune story - central role.

Leto - Prochnow vs Hurt. Hurt can act, but not physically. Evidence the scene with Yueh's betrayal. Also, he looks all kinds of wrong for the physical description. Neither actor stands out terribly much to me in either film, so I'm willing to call this a no-contest and move on with the show.

Baron Harkonnen - McMillan vs McNeice. I might actually have to give the edge to McNeice here. McMillan looks the bit much better, as the Baron is described as a disgusting man, but McNeice does a better job of showing the Baron's subtle intellect.

Jessica - Annis vs Reeves. Annis. End of story. Reeves lacked any ability to emote. Both looked the part well, but Annis just kicks Reeves' ass up and down the film.

Stilgar - McGill vs Ochsenknecht. McGill has the look going for him from minute one, and neither actor is exactly memorable enough to make much headway beyond how they look. McGill wins.

Gurney - Stewart vs Moriarty. Do you have to ask on this one? On the one hand, we have a trained Shakespearean actor who has excellently portrayed characters of just about every possible stripe, and on the other hand we have... Hatchet Harry Lonsdale. Moriarty is a pretty good actor, but he is outclassed here and we all know it. For what it's worth, he is much better in CoDune than in here.

Piter - Dourif vs Unger. I remember Brad Dourif's Piter. I always will. I can't even remember what Unger looks like or if he had an accent. Dourif demanded your attention when he was on screen; he was menacing, precise, and sleazy. Unger was just there, somewhere, I think.

Yueh - Stockwell vs Russel. Russel was sniveling, Stockwell was a man fighting not to be completely broken. Russel's Dr. Yueh had no 3rd dimension whatsoever, and loses out of hand.

Other characters such as Irulan and Mapes were also better-acted in Lynch's adaptation, though the roles are of less importance. At least, Irulan's role SHOULD be of less importance. The fact that she became a pseudo-heroine in the miniseries is anathema as far as I'm concerned.
So, Lynch's version wins on acting. No real surprise, he had a monster budget to squander.

So, Lynch wins on visuals and on actors... how about immersion? Well, that's pretty tied to visuals and acting ability, so I feel a bit bad making it a third category for Lynch's version to run away with, but it does. If nothing else, the minute I see the background flapping in the breeze in the miniseries, I cringe and have to walk away for a while.

I could keep going, but I'm going to start wrapping it up, and with the most important part - book-to-movie adaptation.

Both fail. Seriously. Lynch added in a gods-know-what-inspired sound weapons system, and the mini changes the fundamental attitude of key characters.
So which fails more?

The mini. Yes, the sound thing was bizarre. Yes, it had no basis in the books. Yes, it annoyed me too. However, it did not break the entire spirit of the book - which is what making Paul into a whiny, conceited, self-centered, childish, and flippant brat did. I'm sorry, but when you take the main character who in the book was a messianic figure from page one and make him an emo-kid, you failed. Completely and abjectly. The mini loses.

In fact, you could have taken all the strengths of the Lynch film and removed all the weaknesses (save the Paul thing) from the mini, and taken only the best aspects - but if Paul was the Paul from the mini, the movie is a failure.

Dune was about Paul Atreides. The miniseries borked the Paul character. Instant lose.

Oh, and did anyone else notice they mis-spelled "Muad'dib" in the opener of part 2 as "Maud'dib?" *Sigh*

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Just felt I have to insert my oars worth.

I have only seen the first two of the miniseries and couldn`t justify wasting any more money on renting the third installment (I got the first two in one go).
OK, EVERY pronunciation is different to the Lynch film and on contemplation how are we to know exactly how Herbert intended the pronuciations to be made (although i read the names in the books as they appeared in the film, I read the first book before seeing the film.).
Like many others I was extremely disappointed at the miniseries portrayal (or wreckage) of the characters in the miniseries (miseries!). The characters were alot better in Lynchs vision.
The sets were awesome in Lynch`s film and the costumes and music fit the feel of the book extremely well. How could anything beat the feeling of the main theme music and how it protrays the epicness of the book so well? Baron Harkonnen`s theme music is also just perfect. I never thought much of Toto but in combination with the almighty Eno is just chillingly amazing!
In contrast the sets and costumes were utterly appalling in the miniseries and completely ruined the main attribute this vision of Herberts classic had over the film, the fact it contained more of the book and was at least twice as long (it also was a bit more faithful to the book), thereby prolonging what should have been a blissfull whirlwind through Frank Herberts DUNE!

There is something else I think a lot of people seem not to notice. CGI looks aweful, so much more so than models and backdrops. Only the most expensive and time consuming CGI works and even that is noticable as "unreal" in most places where as even in films like STAR WARS IV the models are only sometimes noticable as "unreal". CGI has no real texture MOST OF THE TIME where as models lose scale only where incorect camera lenses are employed. And both look aweful with bad bluescreening (which most is!).

Although I do now want to try to watch the miniseries again and hopefully see it to its conclusion. I think it has been long enough now since i read the book and hopefully i wont get too frustrated with the terribly poor acting, character assassination, set design and costumes to watch the thing through.

There are actually lots of projectile weapons being used on Arrakis. When Paul begins leading the Fremen raids, their tactics changed and part of that included using projectile arms. One scene displaying this is the one when Gurney and the smugglers are captured by Paul's band.

I think the biggest thing here remains the budget. 20 Million for 6 hours? in 2000? Lynch got 40 Million in 1984. Maybe the screen writer hadn't read the book, but he sure came closer to capturing the story than the Lynch version did.

The addition of Irulan was annoying, but it did get mingled into an important scene that was a part of the book (but not in the Lynch version). The Sardaukar uniforms in both versions bordered on just stupid.

I hope somewhere along the line that someone gives this story a proper, fully budgeted treatment. The original movie was a worse than awful in my opinion, mutilating the story and turning it into 80's pop-art. The mini-series was clearly Sci-fi biting off more than they could chew.

There are so many things about each that I like, and so many things that I dislike...

There's one (and only one) advantage Moriarty has over Stewart in this case: Gurney is frequently described in terms that make it obvious that he is NOT a good looking man - from the "doughy" looks, to the constantly-mentioned "inkvine scar." Stewart still wins, but I had to throw that out. In every other instance, the movie had a much better cast.

I absolutely HATED the strange costumes in the miniseries, especially the Bene Gesserit and those god-awful Sardaukar uniforms. The only outfits I really liked were the stillsuits - though I really liked the movie interpretation as well.

As...odd as the Guild members in the movie were, I prefer them to the gesticulating, pantomime weirdos in the miniseries.

I know why the movie used werding modules rather than the weiding way, but that still doesn't make me like them.

The Imperial dignitaries operating the turret gun in the movie: what? who? what?

I don't agree. Firstly; Paul's downfall was to a certain extent voluntary. I haven't managed to reread Dune Messiah for sometime, but didn't Paul 'want' his own downfall? He hated the Jihad and if he died it would just carry on. To stop it he would have had to take the final step that he wasn't willing to take because it would have meant Chani's death? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Secondly, I do agree the way Paul was portrayed was intentional. But I don't agree that it was true to the book. For example; at the Dinner Party, Jessica mentions that Paul doesn't allow himself to be enticed/distracted by the women, and he sticks to his responsibilities. In this version he wanders off to talk to Gurney, and ends up flirting with Irulan.

In the Book Paul is mature and intelligent. He was raised as an adult. Irulan comments that he had no companions of his own age - his companions were his teachers; Thufir, Duncan, Dr Yueh and Gurney. In addition to this he was being trained by his Bene Gesserit mother.
In the mini series Paul is petulant with flashes of 'power'. (For instance he can resist the Reverend Mothers voice - something that he wasn't able to do in the book.)

I think these changes to his character were made for 'realism' and to make him easier to emphasise him. Whether that actually worked is another matter.