Children of Dune

Well. As I mentioned earlier, completing the Dune series gave me an incentive to see the SciFi channel's highly acclaimed Children of Dune miniseries. Last week I rented watched it. (As usual, I will include minor spoilers - read at your own risk.)

Hrm. I am torn about this movie. On the one hand, it was an excellent film that really captured the "feel" of Dune. Many aspects of the world matched my inner imagination exactly, and for that I give them kudos. Furthermore, they did a fairly admirable job of sticking to the general plot outline of Dune: Messiah and Children of Dune. True, they had to edit out large sections for time considerations, but that's understandable; they kept the overall idea intact. One particularly impressive scene was at the end of the Dune: Messiah part, where Chani is giving birth.

Yet. There were many niggling little (and a few not-so-little) details that really rubbed me the wrong way. A simple, careful reading and analysis could have dealt with most of the problems. Example: Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers should have blue eyes, from melange use. Lasguns should have been used significantly less, and shields with blades quite a bit more. The Bene Gesserit should have been implicated quite a bit more in the machinations - I felt their potency and power was marginalized, left in almost as an afterthought. Leto II's transformation should have matched the description in the books. The twins were far older than they should have been, reducing some of the impact of their memories, abilities, and wisdom.

If these were the only problems with the movie, I'd be more than happy. My largest issue, though, is their treatment of Ghanima. In the movie, she's the "weak" twin who mistakenly thinks Leto is dead protecting her, who is merely carried along by events. That is far from the truth. In the books, she and Leto plan everything out beforehand, and while she does place a memory block on herself so she'll believe Leto is dead (never can be too careful around those Bene Gesserit), it's intentional. More importantly, in the books she orchestrates events back at Arrakeen, manipulating all of the forces off each other. She's brilliant, not an impulsive waif. Gah.

Or at least that's how I view it. Nonetheless, I'd highly recommend this movie to anyone who has already read the books. One may not get its full impact if you do not read the books first; but that's true of all movies based on books.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the amazing job done for LotR.