Operation Desert Sequel

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Children is best enjoyed if one doesn't take it too seriously, though. (Sarandon plays a juicily over-the-top villainess, in a getup that makes her look like an evil B-52s singer.) You could write an encyclopedia detailing all the Tolkienesque mythology, invented religions and backstory behind the Dune novels--in fact, someone did--but the script does a good job of illustrating the action for the screen without getting bogged down in background. If you're a newcomer, you're better off ignoring the myriad guilds and secret societies at play and enjoying it more as a juicy religio-political soap opera, in which respect it is as satisfying as its predecessor (which Sci Fi is rerunning on March 16).

Still, Herbert was better with ideas than with dialogue, and that trait carries over here in such lines as "Nothing in this universe is as great as my love for you." And while Sarandon's wicked witch is campy in a good way, Daniela Amavia, as Paul's power-drunk sister, lacks emotional range; whether in moral turmoil or rage, she looks as if she is ticked off that someone messed up her mochaccino order. The true stars are the sumptuous-for-TV special effects and the Matrix-esque combat scenes. It's hard to get too earnest about any drama that includes the battle cry "Send men to summon worms!" but the message--"When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows"--does resonate. If only the whirlwind were usually so picturesque.