Shelled out for this Arrow video copy, as I’m seeing the new version this weekend. Well this version looks wonderful with the set, costume designs and colour schemes, all avoiding a simple shiny look for the future. The designs for the sets keep referring to different time periods, making it more alien even now. The 3rd stage Guild Navigator is a unique design, somewhere between the Starchild of 2001 and the baby of Eraserhead. Even if some of the effects shots have dated, the miniatures and the sandworms are still triumphs. However, the difficulties with this film are apparent. Kyle MacLachlan is weak as the lead. The film feels as if it is trying to explain too much and rush through things at the same time. The voice over narration that must have must have been added to try and make things easier for the audience just makes it seem stranger. Yet despite this, the strangeness of the film is what gives it life now. Yes, the dialogue goes between profound and silly but so does the dialogue in every Star Wars film. Yes the plot goes all over the place but in terms of being a space opera, it’s got more interesting visuals and performances then ‘Jupiter Ascending’ and ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.’ While it may have failed, now nearly 40 years later, it looks more ambitious, challenging and gloriously strange than a lot of things now.