[geeks] more on dune

[gsm at mendelson.com]

I watched the miniseries. The second part, "Children of Dune" is still 
downloading and probably won't be here for a day or two.

I did not like it as much as the first movie.  

It was much slower moving. Since I was watching it on a computer screen, I
took advantage too often of the pause button to go an check my email, look
at facebook, and so on.

I did not see much difference in the portrayals of the characters, except
that I thought the baron was badly done. He was too nice and not homosexual 
enough. 

Not only did the baron hate women, he enjoyed destructive sex with boys.
I remember the scene in the original movie where there was a quick flash 
to one hanging in the closet, left over from some debauchery.

I would have preferd a meaner baron than the miniseries one, and while not
a nicer one than the movie, a little less of the on camera evidence of it.

I also found it funny that the original movie used some sort of psuedo
arabic pronunciation of the names, this one used strictly British ones.

I may remember wrongly, but wasn't Chani (played by the lovely Sean Young,
still interesting from Blade Runner), Stilgar's daughter? Personally I'd
rather have looked at her than see the new one's breasts, which were quite
nice :-) 

Speaking of breasts, why did they have to show them? I'm not really a prude,
but I have two sons (14 and 12) at home, and I'd love them to see the show.
I'd think they'd enjoy it, but the little extra there is a show stopper.

In the end while I would say the miniseries was different, I would not say it
was better, explained more, or was more entertaining. While I did actually
buy a video tape and later a DVD of the movie, I'm not sure I'll even bother
to back up the miniseries to DVD ROM before I delete it.

All in all, if you have any imagination at all, I suggest that you read the
book, and don't bother with the rest of the series.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.