why must it always be so badly done?

back in 2005 and early 2006, i was on a "dune" kick. i read all the novels and watched the disappointing miniseries.

i walked around thinking like a fremen, which was fun and not particularly challenging since during that span of time i found myself often hiking alone in the desert without enough water. i loved the series and cursed death for taking frank herbert before he could write another sequel, since things got boring in the middle of the series but were really picking up toward the end when he died.

i got the miniseries and was disappointed that with decent actors and modern sfx they couldn't do much better than they did. at least, though, the miniseries stayed kind of close to the plot of the first book. i wanted to see the david lynch film, which i could never find.

until yesterday, at fry's. so i bought it.

oh fuck me, does it suck.

i'm two hours into the three hour extended version because i can't stop watching because i paid for it, dammit, and i can't take it back. i'm hoping it gets better but it doesn't. it has patrick freaking stewart in it and it still sucks. that just doesn't make sense! i'd heard that it was "trippy" or "weird" or "oddly compelling" but that's all crap: it just plain sucks. argh!

and it doesn't even suck like the miniseries did. the miniseries is basically a faithful retelling of the novel. this one alters the plot for no apparent reason and obviously with no gain. why all the focus on the stupid emperor? he's not even supposed to show up until the end, really, and then only to get whacked. the jamis scene -- about the only "action" so far in the movie, at about 2 hours in -- was so badly done i nearly cried. sigh.

oh well, it passes the time.