Dune (1984)

Director: David Lynch

Writers: Frank Herbert, David Lynch

Composer: Toto

Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Richard Jordan, Francesca Annis, Brad Dourif, Jose Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie Jones, Virginia Madsen, Everett McGill, Kenneth McMillan, Jurgen Prochnow, Paul L. Smith, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell, Max von Sydow, Sean Young

More info: IMDb

Tagline: You are about to enter a world where the unexpected, the unknown, and the unbelievable meet.

Plot: A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis when they assassinate his father and free their desert world from the emperor's rule.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Nope.

I recently watched this for the first time since seeing it in the theater in the Winter of '85.  I remembered a little from then but not much except that it was OK which is about how I feel about it now.  It's neither horrible nor great.  I've not read the books or explored anything else from the series.  There's a lot of narration in this picture which only works sometimes.  When it doesn't, it's bad and bad in the way that it feels like they're trying to get way too much from the thick novel it hails from.  Cinematically it gets in the way and I would have preferred either a longer film or a stripped-down version to help the pacing flow more easily.  That's easy for me to say since I haven't read the book.  Still, it's got some nice moments.  It's neat seeing so many familiar faces.  My biggest issue is the slow as snails tempo the film takes.  I was fighting sleep more than a couple of times.  It was neat seeing a lot of steampunk before steampunk was a popular thing.  I realize this was from thirty years ago but the effects could have been better.  They don't hold up well.  The set and costume designs are great and lovely to look at but that's about it for me.  The Universal Blu-ray looks great (some might be turned off by the grain but that's film for you) and there are lots of extras, none of which I was interested in checking out after watching it.