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Wow, Dune's not that hard to understand. My ex explained it to me in a pretty short time before I watched the miniseries (and the sequel) and it made sense. Also the miniseries is much better.

The second navigator scene I understood just from her review, even as she was talking about it being pointless and confusing. The thing was doing the "folding space" bit to travel between the worlds.

I've never seen this movie. I don't think I will either.

I mean, I'm sure she was exaggerating to some degree for comedy's sake, but really. The Navigators OD on Spice so they can do exactly as they're named...navigate. Spice is the whole reason the events of Dune take place after the Atreadies land, I'm not sure I'd be that quick to call it a McGuffin. Harkonnen hates them due to a family rivalry steeped in the political hierarchies of the current empire, if I remember right, and it's fueled even further when Paul's family is given control of Arakkis.

If you want to watch Dune, I recommend finding the miniseries. I watched Dune and Children of Dune, and I thought they were very good. You also get more on things she said were vague, like Paul's sister and the stay with the sand tribes, and why Paul becomes such a badass.

Are the books better? Maybe I'll just read the books.

bhamv3 said:

Are the books better? Maybe I'll just read the books.

Click to expand...

I haven't read them all, but once you hit a certain point the quality really nosedives. They're a little daunting too, each one's fairly large and like any high fantasy/sci-fi it can get a little dry here and there. I think the movie only focuses on the first book, but the miniseries covers three or four.

Spice is not a MacGuffin! The role of spice in the Dune universe is well defined and shapes it's economy. It's not a side-issue to the plot, it is central to the motivation of the characters and has real effects on the world besides being an object of desire. Spice has a purpose in Dune, it has an actual function in the world. It is a plot device, but it's not a MacGuffin.

Why did someone who cares nothing for science, or for science fiction, review Dune? NChick just comes across as dumb as a brick in this review, "folding space, whatever that is". Dammit woman, watch a show on the Discovery Channel with Michio Kaku or something. Heck, watch a recent episode of Doctor Who Confidential where an astronomer explains the concept of folding space to Karen Gillan. Folding space is not a unique concept to Dune, nor is it even unique to science fiction. It's not a real method of travel, yet, but some physicists think it might be someday.

The book is pretty good. I haven't read any of the other Dune books -- when the first book is a self-contained story, I usually avoid reading any sequels as they're rarely as good.

I did not even bother watching much of her reveiw on this as once she started spouting that MacGuffin bit about Spice it seemed clear that she did not know what she was talking about.

All I know about Dune, I learned from the game, Dune 2.

She certainly seemed out of her depth on this one.

I found it a bit frustrating that the book got a passing mention as if it was an accessory to the movie. After all, one of the points that the movie should be criticized on is how it adapted and changed the source material. (Weirding modules? Heart plugs? Really?)

I never liked the film, but I love the books (the first one, anyway, maybe the next two as well), and I'm honestly a bit boggled that she seems to have been so confused.

I'm not sure why, in a sci-fi film, you can be confused about the spaceship navigator looking not particularly human, for one thing. Also, it's kind of important to note that one of the reasons a lot of folks dislike the film is because of its macguffin-esque treatment in the film versus its enormous importance in the books.

I had a Dune video game a long time ago.

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

I have no idea where it came from, now that I think about it. It just showed up at our house once Dad bought a computer. I loved it.