I love the look of the Lynch film. I still wish he'd revisit it to do a proper remastered/finished Director's Cut, rather than the unauthorized version he Alan Smithee'd himself off of. There was stuff in the theatrical release that works better, stuff in the extended cut that works better, not to mention the sloppy unfinished VFX shots (every frame with non-blue-eyed Fremen), the painful placeholder recycled footage, some sloppy cuts, etc. But overall, I love the casting, I love the production values, I love the score...
The SyFy miniseries hurt. The stillsuits the Fremen wore looked like tattered rags held together with spit and hope. Paul's best friend in the household was Gurney, but in this series it felt like they couldn't stand each other when they were in the same room. Doctor Yueh was revealed as the traitor (spoiler alert) in the same scene he was introduced, so there was no emotional impact to it. The Duke was just so blandly performed... And the Fremen's eyes glowed for pity's sake! The hell? No! Bad! It's just a stain, people. *sigh* The only thing I liked better, really, was the Sardukar uniforms.
As with Lord of the Rings, there were many attempts before even the versions we do have. Any new take has the potential to do right by the property or utterly drop the ball. We won't know until it happens.
--Jonah
