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From: cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Having Dune by Halving Dune
Message-ID: <237@calmasd.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 12-Jan-85 03:42:30 EST
Article-I.D.: calmasd.237
Posted: Sat Jan 12 03:42:30 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 04:00:11 EST
References: 
Reply-To: cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth)
Distribution: net
Organization: Calma Company, San Diego, CA
Lines: 36
Summary: 

Save Chani. Paul has got to have some kind of interest other than power.
Of course if you save Chani the princess should stay also. On the other
hand you have a point about the Emperor. His Highness was so totally
unimpressive that I wouldn't have missed him at all. (Where in Dune did
it say that he was a puppet of the Spacing Guild?) Following him into the
sink are Gurney and Duncan. Their parts were so miniscule and unimportant
that I almost missed Duncan's last stand (I didn't realize what was going
on until after someone else said "Oh, that was Duncan.")

On the gadget side, the person who thought of the weirding modules should
be executed by them. Slowly. They removed almost all of the importance of
the Fremen; essentially they became convient warm bodies for Paul's neat
new guns. _Dune_ was essentially about a battle; at least give the battle
some kind of flavor. Ten seconds could be spent on the Saudaukar to
at least give everyone an idea of why they were so feared.

I don't think we needed to see Paul training on Caladan.
Toss the spice harvester's destruction and rescue of the crew.
Agreed, the Shadout Mapes wasn't necessary.
Good effects when the Guild navigtor moved the 'liner, but totally worthless
    to the plot.
There must be a better way to get background information to the audience than
    the intro they used.
The rain at the end was mindless. Get rid of that scene right away. 

In short: less special effects, more character development and plot.

Parting shot: I didn't like the way they handled the sandworms. I was 
impressed, but I wanted more. I wanted to see a greater size difference
between run of the mill worms, the worm that Paul rode, and the worms
at the end. I also couldn't stand the dialog. It sounded like a bad gothic
novel. Because of that, and the shortness of everything, I hated the movie.
I still have hopes that with the cut material it could be salvaged.

Cheryl Nemeth
All opinions are my own...