Frank Herbert's Chidren Of Dune: Two-Disc Set DVD Review

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Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (TV...

Title: Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune: Two-Disc Set

Region: One

Genre: Science Fiction

Stars: Alec Newman, Julie Cox, Edward Atterton, Ian McNeice, Barbora Kodetová, Steven Berkoff, Daniela Amavia, P.H. Moriarty, James McAvoy, Jessica Brooks, Jonathan Bruun, Rik Young, Martin McDougall, Gee Williams, Klara Issova, Zuzana Geislerová, Karel Dobry, Ivo Novak, Alice Krige, and Susan Sarandon

Writer: John Harrison

Based on the Novels “Dune Messiah” and “Children Of Dune” By: Frank Herbert

Director: Greg Yaitanes

Feature length: 260 minutes

Extras: “Making Dune’s Children: The VFX Revealed” Featurette, Storyboard Comparisons

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Two-Disc Amaray Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 28 For Each Part

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound

Year of Television Broadcast: 2003/DVD Release: 2003

Home Video Distributor: Artisan Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Frank Herbert’s “Dune Chronicles” are among the most popular series of science fiction novels ever written. “Dune” was published in 1965 and was the first novel to win the Nebula Award and shared the Hugo Award. In 1984 a feature film adaptation directed by David Lynch with a screenplay written by Lynch premiered theatrically to both critical panning and a lackluster box office in America. However the film found a cult following on home video and through cable and television broadcasts in part because of the cult notoriety of Lynch’s other films that followed. In 1988 “Dune” was re-cut without the approval of David Lynch, who subsequently had his directing credit changed for the “Special TV Edition” to the Director’s Guild alias “Alan Smithee” and his screenwriting credit changed to “Judas Booth.” Although never made officially available on home video in America, “Dune: Special TV Edition” did turn up for sale legally on DVD and laserdisc in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The theatrical cut of “Dune” was eventually re-released on VHS, laserdisc, and DVD in America through Universal Home Entertainment and it seemed that fans of “The Dune Chronicles” would have to satisfy themselves with both cuts of “Dune” and the novels for some time.

Then Executive Producer Richard P. Rubinstein, who had produced several theatrical and very successful television collaborations with George A. Romero and Stephen King purchased the television rights for “Dune” and long time colleague John Harrison wrote the teleplay and directed the miniseries adaptation or remake, which premiered in 2000 on the Sci-Fi Channel as “Frank Herbert’s Dune.” The miniseries was both critically and commercially successful, winning an Emmy Award and paving the way for a miniseries sequel adaptation of the next two books that make up the original trilogy of “The Dune Chronicles” entitled “Dune Messiah” and “Children Of Dune.” With most of the original cast returning to reprise their roles from the first miniseries and even one returning as a different character as well as some new cast additions, “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” was produced with a teleplay by John Harrison and screen direction by Greg Yaitanes. “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” made its premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel on Sunday, March 16, 2003, at 9pm with the other two parts following on Monday, March 17, 2003 and Tuesday, March 18, 2003 respectively. Now about two months later, “Franker Herbert’s Children Of Dune” is about to make it’s debut on DVD-Video for suggested retail price $26.98 with a VHS counterpart priced for rental.

Twelve years have past since Paul “Muad’ Dib” Atreides (Alec Newman) ascended the Lions Head Throne after vanquishing his mortal enemies the Harkonnens and banishing the Emperor Shaddam IV and his Royal House Corrino to the harsh Imperial Prison Planet Salusa Secundas. In these years he has watched Arrakis become the new center of the Empire and seen the terraforming begin to take shape as patches of green grass and water now appear on Arrakis, changing the very desert ecology that has afforded the human race of it’s one most important commodity, the spice. Though it may take a thousand years to change the face of Arrakis completely, Paul is troubled by the effect it is having on the great sandworms that need the desert sands native to Arrakis to survive. With this symbiosis broken, the changing of Arrakis from a desert planet to a lush green world could eventually send humanity into another dark age since without the worms, there can be no spice and without the spice, there can be no intergalactic space travel performed by the spacing guild, whose navigators require tremendous quantities to fold space and make faster than light interplanetary travel possible.

In addition the legend of “Muad’ Dib” has sparked a galactic jihad that has spread across the universe and the revolution he has started has perverted into a corrupt, brutal, and totalitarian regime. Paul knows only one way to deliver humanity out of this chaos and that is by taking the “Golden Path” and demystifying his mythos. However forces within the royal court and out among the deposed House Corrino now under the leadership of Princess Wensicia (Susan Sarandon) in league with the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood are conspiring to bring Paul’s rule to an end by presenting him with a “Trojan Horse” in the form of a cloned Duncan Idaho (Edward Atterton), who was a great alley and friend to House Atreides. Paul sees that he must allow the events to come to play themselves through with the hope that his “Pre-Born” son Leto II (James McAvoy) will guide humanity down the “Golden Path” of freedom by making a sacrifice even Paul fears. In Paul’s absence his sister Alia (Daniela Amavia) rules as Regent, while displaying symptoms of “Abomination” as the memories and personalities within her, including that of the evil Baron Harkonnen (Ian McNeice), her maternal grandfather, vies for control of her mind and places the heirs to the throne and humanity’s salvation at risk.

Finally and for the first time, the second and third books of Herbert’s “Dune Chronicles” have been dramatized as a sequel to “Frank Herbert’s Dune.” Scripted by Jon Harrison, it wass wise to include both books and integrate them into one miniseries in part because alone neither book is as impressive as the first book, but collectively “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” makes for a good continuation as well as a conclusion to the first miniseries and unlike the first miniseries, which also suffered from the understandable comparisons of Lynch’s dramatization, one can completely judge “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” on it’s own merits as both a stand alone film and continuation of “Frank Herbert’s Dune.”

The pace of “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune is much faster and includes an epic score by Brian Tyler that is far more invigorating than the score that Graeme Revell composed for the first miniseries. The quick pace serves the miniseries well because there is more action and less introduction and whatnot that had been necessary in the first miniseries. However people who have not read the books might find the events that follow a little confusing at times so it definitely does not hurt to have read the books or seen the first miniseries, but I should note that “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” is a lot easier to follow than the 1984 feature film adaptation of “Dune” so I doubt viewers unfamiliar with the story will get lost. Basically part one of “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” covers the second book in “The Dune Chronicles” entitled “Dune Messiah” while integrating elements between the second and third book in the series “Children Of Dune” enough so that the second and third parts follow nicely together with the first.

What is great to see is that so many actors from the first miniseries have returned to reprise their roles in the second miniseries even for smaller, but still important roles. Returning for “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune “in addition to Alec Newman as “Paul Atreides” and Ian McNeice as “The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen” are Julie Cox as “Princess Irulan Corrino,” Barbora Kodetová as “Chani,” P.H. Moriarty as “Gurney Halleck,” Zuzana Geislerová as “Reverend Mother Mohiam,” and Karel Dobry, who played “Dr. Kynes” in “Frank Herbert’s Dune” plays the character of “Korba” in this one.

Steven Berkoff steps into the role of “Stilgar” with some nice intensity while Alice Krige takes over the role of “Lady Jessica.” Other noteworthy performances include Edward Atterton as “Duncan Idaho,” Daniela Amavia as “Princess Alia,” Jessica Brooks as “Ghanima,” Gee Williams as “Bijazz,” and James McAvoy rises with a charismatic performance as “Leto II.” Susan Sarandon is a standout as “Princess Wensicia.” She delivers an icy and calculating performance that never goes over the top and lends every scene she appears in an added sense of dimension. My only caveat with her performance is in one scene where she looks as though she is either trying to strut or having trouble walking on high heels, but otherwise Sarandon does a fine job.

We get to see a different Arrakis than we had in the previous miniseries and finally get to see what the surface of Caladan looks like as well as external and surface images of the planet Salusa Secundas. The special effects and production value are equal to if not better than the first miniseries though some CGI effects like the Guild Ambassador looks more like a cross between a goldfish and a man than the way the navigator was presented in the first miniseries and the Laza tigers look a bit too CGI even for television.

One can see a lot of classic archetypes come to life within “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” that will draw some interesting comparison with biblical and contemporary images. If Paul Atreides was in a sense like Moses delivering the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh in “Frank Herbert’s Dune,” here he takes on a role sort of like “John The Baptist” paving the way for Leto II whose destiny and price for saving humanity also requires a supreme life altering sacrifice. If one compares the religious regime of Muad’ Dib” to the totalitarian oppression of the Empire in “The Star Wars Saga” one can view “Leto II’s” role to “Luke Skywalker’s” role in helping to redeem his father in “Star Wars: Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi” in that in both cases we have fathers whose actions have helped to create an environment that is like an oppressive machine and need their sons to help them redeem themselves by bringing “balance” through destroying the machine that threatens the free will of all life forms. Please keep in mind that this is a general comparison between two popular archetypal series and nothing more.

By the end of “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” the viewer is left with a sense of closure as well as a hint of what is to come if Sci-Fi should produce a third miniseries based on the fourth book in “The Dune Chronicles” entitled “God Emperor Of Dune,” which I hope they will.

Artisan Home Entertainment presents “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” as a two-disc set with parts one (86:14) and two (85:45) on the first disc and part three (87:15) on disc three. I was surprised to learn the film was shot in high definition thus as a result this 16 by 9 enhanced transfer looks spectacular on DVD. Having seen the miniseries already on VHS screeners provided by the network for review purposes before the miniseries premiered and then having caught it during several airings on Sci-Fi, I could say without a doubt that this is the best looking and sounding presentation of “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” that I have seen yet. All three parts are presented in the (1.77:1) aspect ratio of their original letterboxed television exhibition with a very nice and discretely mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound that gives the vision sequences a three-dimensional feel and the little sound nuances lost in stereo broadcasts can be greatly appreciated by screening the miniseries within this DVD set. An English Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded as options too.

What I did not like about the way the miniseries is presented is that right before the end credits for parts one and two are about the start, they are cut and the viewer gets a still stating “the saga continues” before being returned to the menu screen. Personally if they are going to try to present the miniseries as one long feature than the parts should have been edited together instead of the obvious cutting. I would have preferred the parts presented with full opening and closing credits being presented just as they were on television. However there are no scenes missing other than the obvious chopped off closing credits for the two parts. The second and third parts begin just as they did when they aired on Sci-Fi only without the opening credits appearing as we hear the opening theme music and watch the screen action, like the majestic view of the now imperial city of Arrakeen as seen in the miniseries. The first disc opens with a beautiful montage of scenes from the entire miniseries while the subsequent menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate with the exception of the scene selection menus, which are rather slow if not cumbersome.

There are not many extra features included in this set. In fact while this two-disc release of “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune” is definitely better than the original two-disc DVD release of “Frank Herbert’s Dune,” one hopes that a better “Special Edition” release like the “Director’s Cut: 3-Disc Set” Artisan released of “Frank Herbert’s Dune” last year follow, though at this time I am not aware of any such set being planned for release anytime in the future.

What we do get is a featurette entitled “Making Dune’s Children: VFX Revealed” (13:24), which features brief and at times slightly out of focus videotaped interview clips with Writer John Harrison, Director Greg Yaitanes, Editor Harry Miller, VFX Supervisor Michael McHugh, and other members of the effects team discussing the challenges of designing the scenes while the film was in production. In particular the sand worm capture took the longest to complete and thus that sequence is explored in great detail along with the tiger scenes and the virtual sets. Four picture in picture storyboard comparisons (6:06) that can be viewed as one reel or individually are included and are made up of “The Worm Capture” (2:54), “Landing” (: 27), “Riding The Worm” (2:08), and “Worm Rising” (: 34). An insert with chapter stop information inside is included within the two-disc Amaray keep case as well.

“Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune: Two-Disc Set” is not exactly the “Special Edition” release I was hoping it would be, but it is by far the best way to view this epic miniseries at home. “Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune: Two-Disc Set” will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 from Artisan Home Entertainment and is definitely worth checking out.

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