
I just finished watching the first season of Dune: Prophecy and am beside myself. Having read all of the many books in the Dune series from Frank Herbert, and on to his sons, this is the first time that I’ve ever felt that a visual production matched it’s literary equivalent. It was magnificent.
The story is told from the perspective of the Bene Gesserit around the time of it’s founding following the Butlerian Jihad against the thinking machines. The storyline is impossibly rich, much like the books. It is detailed beyond belief, with all the right characters in all the right places with all the political scheming, revenge, retribution, and desire for human survival we’ve come to expect.
I was disappointed at first upon hearing some of the one star reviews given Dune: Prophecy right after it’s initial release, with descriptive adjectives such as “plodding”, and even a few of “boring”. But then I remembered another complex piece of fiction that started its conversion to visual form in the same manner, That was Blade Runner whose screen release was panned, but later grew to be rightfully recognized as the classic it is now considered to be. I loved that movie from day one and had to have a permanent copy in the most technically advanced form available at the time of it’s release, and in that day it was Laserdisc. I’ve had a copy of it in every later advanced form since, including DVD and Blu-Ray.
The point I am making is that the great things in life aren’t always recognized by everyone as the masterpieces they are, especially when they are new. Mozart died a debtor in his time, but he was recognized by some as the genius he was and he continues to inspire musicians to this very day.
For those who find Dune Prophecy “plodding”, I would suggest to find another story, maybe more clad in tights and a cape – ala “Marvel Comics” as this just simply isn’t your cup of tea. I happen to also love the action and adventure genre and it fits nice into the cinematic 120 minute formula. I love Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, the whole world of characters there. But just because I love that genre doesn’t mean I can’t also love the the work of Dune, albeit for different reasons. It’s a different animal. A different genre, after all.
Dune Prophecy, follows the warp and weft of the fabric of Dune. All the threads are there, and they are interwoven just as delicately as Frank Herbert originally did. The series learn from the mistakes of past ventures. The doomed 1984 Dune film by David Lynch failed because it’s storyline was too great to fit in the typical 2 hours. The script was heavily edited and thus left many storyline issues unresolved. It tried to make up for it with lush visuals, and a wonderful soundtrack by Toto. The result was, that it left many confused. The plot lurched from one extreme to the next with no seeming connection. For those of us who were already familiar with the Dune universe, we we left wanting. A glimpse of something that could be great, but was ultimately flawed.
Today, we aren’t limited to the 2 hour cinematic feature. Internet-streamed features can be of any length, and can be serialized any number of manageable episodes. Here we see actors giving first rate character performances; there are no Hollywood megastars to pierce the wall of believability. This is a first-rate production.
And, yes, I binge-watched the whole thing. It was that compelling.