Death to the MS and a Pox on its House! (Score 1)

It seems that earlier posts have discussed the major problems with the MS, but I would like to add my own little pissed-off observations to add to the flavor. First, say what you will about the puss-filled movie Baron, but at the very least he scared the hell out of me. If memory serves, within a few minutes of his introduction he senslessly killed a servant by pulling the kid's heartplug while floating around and screaming like a madman. He was a creditable villan. Conversely, the MS Baron is a jackass who couldn't scare anyone to save his sad little life. He'd look more at home munching candy in a sweatsuit than actually plotting to take over a planet. While the performance indicates that he MIGHT (?) be some kind of brillant plotter, he's just not dangerously crazy enough to convey the novel's Baron. Second, if I hear another character say, "There's an old ancient saying that. . ." followed by some pathetic slogan or cliche from the contemporary United States, I'm going to be forced to hunt down and stab the MS's "writers." This kind of dumbing down of the novel's language offends the hell out of me and destroys the story's uniqueness IMHO. Third, the acting is really, really bad. I mean the kind of bad that is usually only found in dinner theaters. It's been mentioned before but it can't be understated. It's that bad. Fourth, the scene in the MS with the Harkonen attack didn't convey the sense of a true invasion. While the movie at least had a couple hundred Mexican solders as extras duking it out, the MS "invasion" was tiny. Also the Harkonen troops' costumes were terrible. Where the hell did they get those helmets? Maybe this shouldn't be too much of a suprise, given the overall level of costuming in the series. For that matter, why did the MS screw up the practice fight between Gurney and Paul? That was supposed to be a knife fight? WTF? And they took out the part where Gurney immediatey attacked Paul after the later's "mood" remark. That was one of my favorite parts of the book. It really illustrated the pressure that the characters were under before their move to Arakas. Not to mention the novel's inner monologe where Paul questioned Gurney's loyalty during the attack. Talk about treacherous surroundings. All in alll, I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the series so I can have more to bitch about. I guess that the SFC wins. My spleen has been vented.