Dune

[Buster's Uncle]

There was nothing wrong with the series, as such; just, in the final analysis, it wasn't all that good. 

I never got why the movie was such a flop.  I thought it was ok.

[Unorthodox]

It was one of those I'd stop if looking through the channels and saw it, but never really made a point of making sure to catch it.  Good as a monster of the week show (or god of the week as the case may be here), not so good when trying to form larger plotlines.

The spinoff sucked royally.  Space vampires.  Seriously? 

[Buster's Uncle]

yeah; never got into Stargate Lite at all.

[Lord Avalon]

You don't bring a knife to a gunfight, unless you have a shield belt which negates the guns. 

Stargate didn't have religious environmentalism, just religious we stole technology which makes us vastly more powerful than you puny humans, so worship us ism.
 

[Unorthodox]

I will say the whole shield thing was very poorly done in the movie.  Why bother even foreshadowing it and never utilize it later?   

But the shields didn't do much at the first of the movie thanks to the drill gun thingamabobs.  Was that nonexistant in the book? 


Stargate was on over the weekend on cable.   


One thing that bugs me with scifi in general:

Why do humans always know how to use alien tech?  (props to District 9 there) 

And why are Aliens typically stagnate when it comes to researching even better stuff? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno as to the latter.  Bad writing, mostly, I think.

There were indeed no drill gun thingamabobs in the book, or sonic weapons, either.  Shields were the whole reason for all the knives -they stopped bullets and exploded like nukes when hit with lasers- and no sonic weapons.  Neither movie nor miniseries bothered to explain that; a pretty serious oversight.

[Unorthodox]

I suppose the shield protects from the nuke explosiveness? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Nope, it 'splodes, and it 'splodes the laser, too - that's why there should be no guns.  None of it makes any sense, otherwise.

[Lord Avalon]

IIRC, shields even stop a fast knife thrust.  You have to be slow enough to get through the shield, yet fast enough to hit your opponent.

Stargate was on over the weekend on cable.   

One thing that bugs me with scifi in general:

Why do humans always know how to use alien tech?  (props to District 9 there) 

And why are Aliens typically stagnate when it comes to researching even better stuff? 

Uh, humans have Top Minds working on alien tech?

My impression is that the Goa'uld took over hosts that knew how to use technology, but not how to research.  And any that became powerful enough to be a System Lord were too busy fighting other System Lords to do research.  Or if one tried, other System Lords would gang up and stop it.  It was only after Anubis was overthrown and thought dead, that he did anything.  First he attempted to gain power through ascension, and when that wasn't permitted, he went into research.

If you have enough technology to enslave masses and be thought a god, maybe you're not too curious about creating more, just curious enough to try and find more powerful Ancient relics.  And you'd squash any curious underlings who might create something that could overthrow you.

More generally, being immortal or very long-lived may lead to stagnation.  One government, too.  Humans, by comparison, breed like rabbits, are short-lived, and the various nations fighting creates an environment for rapid invention.

[Geo]

Okay, that was a re-introduction to Dune. 

[Zoid]

Yeah, yeah, LOTR is supposed to be "THAT GOOD", too.  It sucks.  So do the movies.

You ARE crazy!

[Unorthodox]

The movies COULD have been good with someone who knows the meaning of the word "edit". 

[ariete]

I saw again the movie recently and i'm watching the miniseries in these evenings. In the miniseries is all explained much more in depth, and the special effects are a bit more made better than the movie (even if the spice harvester model is more cool in the movie). Also in miniserie you lose those mentally ill characters of the film as the cardiovascular valve and other about the figure of the Baron as BUncle said. A bit more slow but i can say frank herberts is more well done compared to movie (and this is also seen when riding the worm).

Stargate i remember is a cool movie, but i could watch it again, it's long time since I even watch because unfortunally I don't have it, the miniseries i never follow when tv broadcasted it ... maybe i did wrong