Too much of everything

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

David Lynch did good with what was a rather dusty book at its release in the 60s; it reads (and therefore views) like Buck Rogers slash English costume drama after decades of much more modern Sci-fi greats, and doesn't satisfy.Herbert displays lack of knowledge in the field, and in pulp this was compensated for by fantasy, but as with pulp this too lacked innovation - with one exception: the Sandworms. They became truly iconic; the concept, established. The Spice was stolen from Asimov like much else in the 60s; there's some attempt at politics but it never takes off beyond quarreling families, medieval style.After Star Trek made the movies (also without knowledge in the field) and the partially mature/partially childish Space Fantasy of Star Wars, this movie came at exactly the wrong time (and, essentially over a decade too late).A few memorable scenes, but you will want to know that you want to watch this to have the patience to stay for the duration. It's educational in that it tells the story of an immature mind; the writer.

Nothing post 1984 can even come close to being as good as this one, I like the fact F\X were used sparingly, & the actors were all top notch too. This was brutal sci-fi @ it's best.Now movies like this are deemed socially unacceptable sadly :(

Someone went through the book, picked out the most memorable lines, threw them in a blender and poured out a script. What a mess.

I saw Dune when it first came out with a group of high school friends in 70mm Dolby at the Cine Capri in Phoenix. We were all avid science fiction readers and had read all of Frank Herbert's books. Despite all its short comings I still love this movie. The state of special effects in 1984 were just not advanced enough to adequately pull it off. It was also unrealistic to try and cram all the first book into a single two- hour movie. It did, however, have a stellar cast; but they were a bit hampered by an odd, awkward screenplay. I can only imagine what could be done now with modern special effects and a series of movies like The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit or Star Wars. I agree wholeheartedly with the review by Nergal-Is-Risen. I was amazed by the number of 1-star and 10-star reviews this movie received by users on IMDb—quite a bi-modal distribution! Love it, or hate it, people are passionate about this movie.