Rating of
2.5/4
"Dune" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/21/11
A strategically vital mining planet is the subject of a power struggle between duelling Houses that form part of a planet spanning empire in the far future. David Lynch's ambitious stab at bringing Frank Herbert's complex series of novels to the silver screen was something of a heroic failure. Vilified at the time because of its wordy script and erratic fidelity to the source material, Dune is nowhere near as bad as many make it out to be. It has much to commend it; it includes a believable sense of galactic empire, some nice costume design and (for the most part at least) a strong cast all presented with a really nice otherworldly, dreamlike atmosphere. Unfortunately its flaws include poor sets, very dated special effects and some unbelievably hammy performances from the villains of the piece (unsurprisingly, Sting is particularly bad). Add to the fact that some pretty hefty plot points are skimmed over using montage and voice overs and you have a very mixed bag of successes and failures in bringing what (certainly at the time) was probably an unfilmable story. A brave, if flawed attempt that with the right creative team could be ripe for a remake.
