Storm Raven said:
Well, any sequence involving the navigators was entirely extraneous - they don't appear at all in the initial book.
See, I loved the introduction with Shaddam IV and the Third Stage Guild Navigator. The fact that the scene isn't actually in the book isn't important to me. It brings the Dune universe to life, a perfect example of how the film speaks volumes in the visual language of the medium. Ever since seeing the movie, I picture the Guild Navigators as they were in Lynch's film, not how Herbert (eventually) described them.
I guess books is books and films is films and never the twain shall meet, even in the case of adaptations. Each medium has its own imperatives, strengths, and limitations.
Most notably, the long, tedious, and pointless sequence in which they float around and fold space is extraneous.
I agree with you here. There was a little too much human/manatee/genitalia hybrid floating around in energy-goo even for me. However the end of that scene when the heighliner silently appears in orbit around Arrakis is gorgeous. It's as memorable for me as when the Millennium Falcon first jumps to light speed in Star Wars.
The rain at the end was extraneous, and totally screwed up the story.
The rain was a powerful visual metaphor that drove home the idea that Paul was a Messianic figure. I think it worked in the context of the film. In fact, I think the film needed something like that. You couldn't do justice to the books concept of the Kwisatz Hadderach (sp).
The silliness involving most of the scenes with Baron Harkonnen and the mentats was tacked on, including the ludicrous flying Baron.
Again, some of the stuff that I liked best, the memorable details that transported me to a version of the Dune universe, something radically different from some piece of generic sci-fi. Oh, and for 20-odd years I haven't been again to get the Baron's doctor's rhyme out of my head, "Put the prick in Pete"... Bad cinema is what I forget immediately after seeing it. What endures, for what ever reason, is good.
Anyway, it's like I suspected, what I thought were the films strengths you found to be its weaknesses. There's not accounting for taste --mine included, obviously.