Review Detail

This may be controversial, and please do not throw stones at me, but I actually prefer the Sci-Fi DUNE mini-series over the David Lynch version. I mean I have read the original Dune many times (and yet strangely, I have never read any of the sequel novels), I own and have watched all the various versions of Lynch's epic, including Spicediver's masterpiece but I have always had trouble with Lynch's vision of the characters and Dune universe.

Thus when news broke that Spence was back (!!!) and his return project was going to be the Frank Herbert Dune mini-series, I was overjoyed!

And I was not disappointed. This is a very entertaining fan edit.

Chopping over 100 minutes and cutting the narrative down to less than three hours, the movie is dense with rich (and only essential) story and moves at brisk, but never too fast, pace. The cropping of the footage to widescreen looked good to me, nothing seemed lost or off center. The music replacement (fantastic choices btw) is very well done and really enhances the epic feel of the movie.

Epic. That is the word that kept coming to mind as I watched this edit unfold. From the new score, the space opera style costumes, the soundstage sets/matte paintings and theatrical performances, this fan edit really felt like (and I mean this as the highest form of compliment ) an Old Hollywood Demille style biblical epic.

My nitpicks are very small... I thought the new opening credits could have benefited from a different font choice... they just did not match or set up the tone of the style and nature of the story. Also noticed the end credits are the French Language version... no biggie. The vast majority of cuts are seamless, though there were the odd one here or there I noticed. A couple of times I thought the new audio might have been a tad on the loud side and could have been dialed down slightly more.

But in terms of story, I agree with most of Spence's choices. This is not an edit about trying to be more faithful to the book, this is an edit about telling a good story. And Spence does this exceptionally well.

Highly recommended.