Dune ★★★☆☆

Watching at a friend’s house at DVD quality on a TV with motion smoothing left on gives the production, especially in the early scenes, the quality of watching a strangely high-budget episode of classic Doctor Who. The film is in general a mess, stuffed with voiceover and exposition to try and over-explain what is happening at all times while still being a muddled, confusing mess if you aren’t already familiar enough with the novel to give you a structure to support the avalanche of scenes that this film throws at you. Still, it’s just kind of a visual delight to watch. I dare say it might actually be better absorbed with all the dialogue muted and just grand musical accompaniment to match the visual spectacle and theatrical acting.

Also interesting to examine as the origin of Command & Conquer via Dune II. Some influences are obvious (harvesters, carryalls), but seeing Paul casually flinging around a prop minigun like it’s nothing makes me wonder if their presence as light infantry weapons in this film is the reason for the otherwise very strange decision that the basic troops in Tiberian Dawn are defined as being minigunners rather than riflemen.