Children of Dune (2003)

 

Just to be clear: this is a made for tv miniseries, not an actual film.

'Dune' is a pretty influential and brilliant sci-fi series, even if it's not the easiest of reads to get through thanks to heady concepts concerning religion, politics and a lot more. Yet, it keeps on inspiring people, so naturally several attempts were made to turn it into either film or series. This one is pretty decent, but it can be a tough nut to crack if you have never actually read the books. 

It's pretty dense.

The events of this film tell the story of the second and third book in the 'Dune' saga. Paul Atreides is now supreme ruler of the known universe and the desert planet of Arrakis is transforming into something verdant and green. However, things are not all going great, as the Fremen, Paul's loyal fighters and subjects, are becoming complacent and malcontent with the changes that happen too rapidly. Many people conspire to bring down the Atreides and to top it all off, Paul's sister Alia is slowly going insane because she has multitudes of people in her mind since before birth.

Yes, if you've read the books, this all makes sense. If not, you're pretty much screwed.

During a terrorist attack, Paul loses his eyesight and after the birth of his twins he realizes he can no longer predict the future, so he goes into the desert to die. Meanwhile, Alia takes over until Paul's children are old enough, but once again plots within plots within plots turn up and things are never as straightforward as one would like.

If it seems as though this is all rather vague, again: the books help. 

The series is fairly accurate as far as the story and characters go, which is a big plus. Most of the actors do a decent job and the dialogue is oftentimes lifted verbatim from the pages. This is also its biggest flaw, as it is a lot of information and background that you can only get through the written word. Also, because it's a tv-series, the CG isn't all that wonderful and often looks like cutscenes from early 90s videogames. Luckily for us, most of the attention goes to dialogues, which also makes this a rather talkative film/series. 

It's hard to recommend this for people who have never read the books, as it is quite tough to follow this way. But for fans of the books, this is decent enough, even if the pace is at times rather slow.