Children of Dune

(as I was writing that, I kept wanting to write 'Children of Doom' instead.  Has a bit of something, doesn't it?  It would either be a heartbreaking drama about bad life decisions, or a very strange sequel to the Doom movie.  hee)

Back on topic.

More of my time has been sucked away into the black hole that is a television mini-series!  Yay!  (I find it hard to seriously object to the time-sucking when the aforementioned mini-series has a very young James McAvoy)

How is this not excellent?

This is the first time I ever saw McAvoy act (or knew he existed) and it was only two years later that Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe came out.  I remember hearing the casting choice for him as Tumnus and my first instinct was--'but he's young!' while my second reaction was 'But he's good.' 

Honestly, my favorite parts of that movie include him and little Georgie Henley.  They made that movie special and magical and non-creepy.  I have friends who say that in the old BBC version they always got a child molester vibe off of Tumnus.  I say grrr to them in reply, but they do have a slight point.  (go here if you want to hear me talk about the BBC Narnia)

Back to Children of Dune.  (Doom!)  It's the continuation of the Dune miniseries that was produced in 2000, and while it has a higher budget it doesn't have all the same actors and actresses who played the same roles, so that's a bit of a bummer.  But the important people are still the same, and we get a couple of new faces who do credit to their characters. 

For the readers of the Frank Herbert books (the few, the proud) the Children of Dune mini-series is actually the combination of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.  As such it glosses over a lot of material but still manages to get the essence of the story.

It's been 8 years since I first saw CoD.  I had just watched an all day marathon of Dune that Sci-Fi had run, and at the end of it there was the first part of the CoD series.  I was entranced.  The story, the characters--it was all amazingly intertwined and complex.  I had to wait for the rest of the series to come out over the next two weeks (only a three part series) and let me tell you, that was some difficult waiting.  Possibly because I tend to get wrapped up in a story.

For this reason I love this modern age of ours.  We have Netflix and instant viewing etc etc etc so we have the opportunity to watch tv shows all the way through instead of having to wait week by week with the agony of possibly missing an episode and never being able to see it again.  Yay!

What can I say about CoD?  Well, it only really works if you've seen Dune--at least, in my opinion.  The music is beautiful (I own the soundtrack) and perfect and most of the acting hovers above the acceptable line, with only a couple occasional hilarious dips below.  ('So I tell you to summon wooorrms!')  And McAvoy is talented so therefore all is well.

But if any of you are at all inspired by my recommendations to watch it, keep in mind the fact that my Suspenders of Disbelief are very large and sturdy and that I like to approach everything I watch with a mind towards enjoying it in the way it was intended to be enjoyed.  (the following examples are not intended to be a commentary on the Dune or CoD series) Flimsy scenery?  Just use a bit more imagination (like in the Theater).  Bad SFX?  Use more imagination.  Bad script?  The story is still good.  Bad acting?  Well--that's less forgivable.  But if everyone is having a good time who cares?  I watch movies and tv shows to enjoy them, not to get all angry about how they aren't perfect.


A very happy Birthing Day to Haley Joel Osment (you're all grown up!) and Max Von Sydow (you grew up a long time ago!).  Many happy returns.