Dune Part Two - 5 nominations

 

• 
  • Best Sound

  • Gareth John 
  • Richard King 
  • Ron Bartlett 
  • Doug Hemphill
• 
  • Best Achievement in Visual Effects

  • Paul Lambert 
  • Stephen James 
  • Rhys Salcombe 
  • Gerd Nefzer
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Mary Parent 
  • Cale Boyter 
  • Tanya Lapointe 
  • Denis Villeneuve
• 
  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Greig Fraser
• 
  • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Shane Vieau (set decorator) 
  • Patrice Vermette (production designer)

Before I describe a bit about Dune Part 2 (and frankly, the story is complicated enough rendering it nearly indescribable in a short blog post), I want to remind you that Dune Part 1 was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 6 of those. At the time, I thought surely that when Part 2 came out, it would be the leading candidate for Best Picture and that Denis Villeneuve (who took the unfilmable story and made it very filmable) would be a shoo-in for Best Director.  He's not even nominated, and beyond the Best Picture nomination, all the accolades are in the technical categories for production craft.

So what happened? I can't pretend to know. But if you look at the other films nominated for Best Picture, there is a way to describe the stories, there is something that sticks with you. Wicked's got hummable songs and a power cast. Emilia Perez has songs and a power cast. Nickel Boys has history and a whole different way of telling a story. A Complete Unknown has Timothee Chala... ok, that's one for Dune 2, as well.

In addition to all of that, Dune has also released a tv show which has the same characters and family intrigue, and it's just possible that people are simply Dune-d out. When you add that the movie inconveniently is very hard to describe, it's hard to get the buzz. (You know, that movie with the sand monsters and something about spice, maybe? is hardly the catchy narrative that some of the other nominees can claim.)

To be sure, the second film is as good as the first and certainly as impressive as a work of science fiction and I enjoyed it once my memory kicked in from the first installment. (I highly recommend doing some sort of review of the first film before you begin the second, there is no "last time on Dune 1"...) But if I were cutting the nominees down to just 5, Dune 2 would not make my list. And frankly, if I had to kick one out to make room for Sing Sing (review coming soon), this would be the one I would choose. And no, there is no chance of my being able to describe the plot succinctly, so for the first time in 12 years of blog posts, I'm skipping even trying.