Dune (1984) The Alternative Edition Redux | Special 1080p Edition

I've watched David Lynch's 'Dune' more times than I can remember since I was a kid, in various different versions and transfer qualities (sadly never at the cinema... yet). This time it was Spicediver's 'Alternative Edition' fanedit (which I've seen before) included on the big 6-disc German UHD/blu-ray boxset, in mostly lovely 1080p (due to some rare deleted sequences varying in resolution). In my opinion (not widely held), Lynch's 'Dune' is near perfect already, so it doesn't need changing but I'm happy to have more of the thing I love. e.g one of my favourite moments in all of cinema is "...also known as Dune... DUUH DUUH DA DAAAAH!!!" so having that changed, however beautifully edited and audio mixed by Spicediver, isn't what I'm ideally looking for in a fanedit. Lines are removed, music is changed, scenes are reordered to flow differently with new ones etc. 15MaF's 2.5-hour, all-HD, mostly just extended 'Deluxe Edition' fanedit is more my speed, it's the TV cut stuff but polished to the Lynch high standard. However, moments like Thufir's death are beautifully integrated here by Spicediver, even if the source video quality is very poor. Thankfully all of these different cuts can co-exist on my hardrive together (and now in my blu-ray collection), so the 'Alternative Edition' is great for the times when I want a different and more fulsome take on the material available.

There is a black frame at 38.29 (on the mkv time stamp, or thereabouts on the blu-ray), soon after the line "Mother tell me", so I've knocked a point off Visual Editing for that. Otherwise the editing is fantastic. Another point off for Enjoyment, for reasons I already explained above and a point off Video Quality to reflect the lower res material that is occasionally dropped in (although it's presented as best it could be).

This is the only way I would want to watch Lynch's Dune. Spicediver has put an incredible amount of work into this edit, going far beyond simply adding in deleted scenes and such. This include building new in-world exposition scenes, fixing a lot of audio effects, and even some video effects, Some of the deleted scenes have poor video quality but the audio is still fairly smooth which makes the seams less jarring.
Lynch's Dune has a number of flaws, but it also has a huge number of strengths (for example the art design, important plot elements left out of New Dune, and the Atreides actors). Unfortunately the theatrical version is unwatchable. Spicediver has done the worlds a massive grace by constructing a worthy cut of Lynch's vision.

Dune (1984) The Alternative Edition Redux [The Spice Diver] edit (playtime 2h:58min):
Up until the current remake of Dune part one (2021) and Dune part two (2024), this is the closest thing available which correctly portrays the story as written in the book. The other versions available in 4k won't give such a cohesive story. The current remake attempts to follow the book, but does take a few liberties with the character's behavior in certain scenes; which did irritate diehard fans of the book. But considering the big budget, all-star cast, and now especially the epic scale of part two... it would be best if one would view the Spice Diver fan edit first, and then move on to Dune part one (2021), followed by Dune part two (2024). It will prove to be most satisfying. Dune part three is still in development as of this writing.

From a technical point of view, I'm not knowledgeable enough to rate this.
For me, as a FanEdit n00b, this looks amazing.
yes, I see the video quality jumping a bit, inconsistencies like first contact with the Fremen, it is very grainy and he is very dirty, next scene in the village he is crisp hi-quality and clean.
That being stayed, I soo glad those scenes are in there because as an avid reader of the first 5 books, I felt the original movie was very rich and true to the story in the first part but once we are at book 3 and 4 (Paul life among the Fremen), I always felt they rushed trough the story, skipping important scene, or reducing scene that are a pivoting point in the story to a short few seconds section.
This Edit relay stays way more true to the story, especially book3 and 4.
And in the scope of eth complete dune story, the first 2 books are just a short intro, setting the stage for the REAL story.

So as an avid DUne enthusiast, you have made me very happy with this edit.

I really wanted to give Narrative and Enjoyment an 11

Thank you SpiceDIver

First of all, the audio and video edits are very well made.
The narrative is improved on this version and some of the riskier editing decisions actually end up improving the flow and feel of the story.

As it has been said before, some of the added scenes have noticeably lower video quality, but as there was no other possible source for them, there was likely no other way. Even with that caveat, they do fit here and including those scenes was the right decision.