Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 14, 2020

Maybe it was Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune’s opening shot of a heraldic banner unfurling in a violent snowstorm with an unfortunate horde of dead fighters scattered on the frosty ground which finally made evident to me what has probably long been obvious to many viewers: Frank Herbert’s Dune franchise bears certain unmistakable similarities to George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. In running to the Google machine after this sudden revelation, I of course discovered that these similarities have long been the stuff of internet chatter, which wasn't all that surprising since I'm often on the tail end of such phenomena. That said, a cursory sampling of sites that came up in my initial search suggests that there doesn’t seem to be any firm evidence that Martin ever overtly mentioned Herbert or the Dune books as providing any inspiration for his own tomes. That said, it’s at least marginally feasible to simply replace a few family names, the general setting, and exchange dragons for sandworms, with the basic underpinnings of rivalries and the quest for power shared between the two tales remaining largely interchangeable. Children of Dune was highly regarded in its day for continuing with the miniseries adaptation of Herbert’s gargantuan saga that was begun a couple of years earlier with Dune. Fans of Herbert’s work had long clamored for a more fully realized adaptation of the source novel(s) after David Lynch’s Dune appeared in 1984 to some pretty widely variant reactions. The show may not have aged perfectly well, though, with some of its overheated soap operatic elements coming off as hokey, a descriptor some may feel is also relevant with regard to what were in their day highly praised special effects, but which to modern day eyes more used to better CGI, can come off as positively quaint at times.

Children of Dune is split into three more or less equal parts, with Part One: Messiah charting the continued adventures of Paul Atreides (Alec Newman, reprising his role from the first miniseries). A lot of supporting characters are basically trotted out in this first episode, including scheming Princess Wencisia (Susan Sarandon), who some may feel bears certain machinating similarities to one Cersei Lannister. Princess Wencisia is the younger sister of Princess Irulan (Julie Cox, also back from the first miniseries), who is in an arranged (and forced) marriage with Paul. Just to fill out these already complicated family dynamics, Paul's mother Lady Jessica (Alice Krige, replacing Saskia Reeves from the first miniseries) serves as a kind of counterweight to Princess Wencisia. There's a whole kind of weirdly silly subplot featuring a kind of clone of Duncan Idaho (Edward Atterton) who's supposedly been "programmed" to assassinate Paul after key words are spoken, in a science fiction update of The Manchurian Candidate.

Part Two: The Children brings Paul's grown children Leto II (James McAvoy) and Ghanima (Jessica Brooks) into the mix, with their Aunt Alia (Daniela Amavia) serving as regent. Structurally, this is kind of an interesting "middle section", since it's ostensibly going to be about "the kids", at least as evidenced by this episode's title, but which actually devotes at least as much if not more time to a kind of psychological breakdown on the part of Alia, which also involves Lady Jessica. Some obvious seeds are planted, though, that finally bring the ever nefarious Wencisia back as a nemesis.

Unsurprisingly, a kind of cliffhanger ending in the second part where Leto II and Ghanima seem to have fallen into a deadly trap is miraculously escaped from in The Golden Path, with Leto II taking off in one of this miniseries' oddest but kind of coolest conceits to more or less become a hybrid with a sandworm, something that does feature some perhaps unfortunate makeup and other effects as his human form begins to disappear under an almost organically growing outer shell. His "new, improved" state does grant him exceptional powers, however, which play into the story's climax, where a kind of Red Wedding occurs that is both like and unlike the one in Game of Thrones.

There's a lot to like in Children of Dune, but the miniseries can seem kind of hackneyed at times, and I'm frankly not sure if the special effects in particular have stood the test of time. Performances are often genuinely involving, even if the entire enterprise has the slightest tendency toward camp at times, something that may be best (or worst, depending on your point of view) personified by Susan Sarandon, who comes off like a cross between Cruella DeVil and Princess Aura.

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is often a tale of two presentations, with practical elements like sets and costumes offering rather good overall levels of detail and fine detail. Fine stitchery and at times very small woven patterns can be easily discerned in a lot of the costumes, and props often offer similar texturing. The palette is very nicely suffused throughout the presentation, with oranges and yellows especially vivid. The CGI on the other hand can look incredibly soft at times, a tendency which, when coupled with some of the more "sepia" toned moments, started to remind of me early greenscreen "epics" like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow at times. The special effects won an Emmy (as mentioned below in the Supplements section), but they probably simply won't completely pass muster for modern eyes. This is perhaps most noticeable in some of the digital compositing which places characters in barren desert environments, where things can look patently fake a lot of the time. CGI with regard to characters is a good deal more convincing, and some of the scenes with sandworms are very well done.

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Huge washes of sound courtesy of effects like flying craft or even elements of Brian Tyler's score can pan through the side and rear channels quite invitingly, and the glut of (supposedly) outdoor material does offer regular assortments of ambient environmental sounds. Indoor "palace intrigue" scenes can also have a fair amount of surround activity, though this tends to be established with lone effects being placed discretely in individual channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this presentation.

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

In the first such instance of this happening that I can recall in my personal reviewing experience, while this disc is officially labeled region free (with "A, B, C" logos on the back), and the main miniseries played fine for me in both my Region A and Region B players, the supplements are Region B locked, so you will need to have either a Region Free or Region B player to access them. While ostensibly in HD, these all look upscaled:

• The Making of Children of Dune (HD; 13:23) has some interesting interviews with the creative staff and gets into both the adaptive process as well as the actual shoots. This has some pretty bad interlacing anomalies and it also looks slightly anamorphically stretched.


• Storyboard with Audio Commentary (HD; 6:05) offers director Greg Yitaines discussing various VFX sequences.


• Visual Effects (HD; 3:28) starts with a nod to the FX team's Emmy Award for this effort, and then shows some of the compositing and green screen work that went into the production.

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune manages to digest a frankly ungainly amount of material into a relatively straightforward and understandable miniseries. There's a lot of relationship dysfunction running rampant in this piece which makes it play kind of like a science fiction cousin of an old Douglas Sirk film, but anyone who enjoyed the miniseries version of Dune will most likely enjoy this one, too. Technical merits are generally solid, and for Herbert completists if for no one else, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune comes Recommended.