From one of my earlier articles, re: Lynch's Dune:

"Wrestling Frank Herbert’s legendary epic sci-fi tome into coherent cinematic form is a task that has defeated a number of filmmakers, including the normally brilliant David Lynch. I am a huge fan of his other work, but Dune is the one movie in his back catalogue where he bit off more than he could chew.

Although it received poor reviews and bombed at the box office, Lynch’s Dune does have a few admirers who have tried to reappraise it. Typically what they’ll tell you is that you have to watch some fan edit or other that restores key footage, but although the shorter running time of the official version doesn’t help, posthumous fan tinkering doesn’t correct the fundamental problem of the dreadful script. Yes, you can praise the admittedly impressive production design, costumes, and casting (though Sting in a codpiece remains a hilariously wooden misstep). Lynch does show some occasional flair for spectacle — at least before the visual effects budget runs out — but whatever way you cut it, this is a lead balloon of a film.

Lynch’s version is baffling, oppressive, incoherent, joyless, and dull. It misses the essence of what made the novel great in its allegory of the politics around oil dependence, not to mention the damning critique of messiah figures. Huge swathes of vital plot developments are rushed over or omitted, and the film has none of the novel’s dramatic irony. On top of that, it adds unnecessary extra sadism in the form of the notorious “heart plug” sequence; a twisted Lynchian innovation that belonged in a horror film, not the Dune universe."

https://fanfare.pub/ten-bad-films-by-ten-great-directors-59204ff5ca8