Dune (1984)

Often called David Lynch's worst film, I might call Dune a confused, shoddily told story were it not for how awesome the film is.  Yeah the story is told through long scenes of plotting and exposition and through rushed montages but the great bits more than make up for it.  The sets look amazing, the effects are great (for the time), and there are plenty of great, surreal, dreamlike images.  It's also hilarious, especially any scene involving the Baron and his minions.  It features many of the actors Lynch would come to use in his later films, although aside from that and despite the great direction and an appearance from Lynch himself, I wouldn't have been known that Lynch had made it without foreknowledge, as it's just not in his particular style.  Kyle MacLachlan, sporting a mullet and glowing blue eyes is Paul Atreides, the saviour of Aractus (I think?) a planet full of mind-altering substances and the spice, a substance that makes interstellar travel instant without requiring movement by folding space.  When his people are sold out and betrayed by shifty eyed Dean Stockwell in a bid to get revenge on the Baron, Paul is forced into hiding with his mother and then is found by the Fremen, natives of the planet, who he ends up leading into battle against the powers that control the universe.  Or something.  The spice is the key to control of the universe so they destroy spice production, and then they defeat the Baron and the Emperor and Sting all in one climactic worm-riding battle.  The first worm-riding scene is one of the most epic things I've ever seen.  Apparently Frank Herbert, the guy who wrote the book, had a problem with Paul being portrayed as a literal god figure in the end, but looking at the story a certain way it makes more sense that he's not a literal figure but rather the logical removal of the false emperor of the known universe and his "plans within plans."  The way it's all put together it seems really rushed in places because the studio screwed with it, but it's still good.