Thoughts on Oscar

Well, the Oscars were just as exciting and just as boring as usual. But before I go onto that, I offer this.



Simply, cannot wait. Huge fan of the first film, and thinking adding all kinds of exceptional talent to the second film can only help make things better. Going to be a little weird seeing Don Cheadle as Rhodes, but anything is better than Terrence Howard. Glad I managed to fit the clip into a post without it covering up the side parts of the blog.

But onto the real reason for this post, the Oscars.

So going into tonight's show, I was really apprehensive. Likely not as much as the Academy themselves, but as a film fan, it really was a bit of a nailbiter at the beginning of the show. All the talk was on Avatar and The Hurt Locker, and if having the wacky ten nominees for Best Picture meant anything that would help or hurt either of them. While we do not know whether they did have an effect or not, about halfway through the show, likely after The Hurt Locker took two sound awards that everyone pegged were going to Avatar, it was clearly going to be a night for the critically acclaimed Iraq war drama.

I kept posting on my Facebook all my random thoughts throughout the show as opposed to live blogging like in the past, and I think it worked out quite well for me.

So without further adieu, a non-ordered list of thoughts.

- Loved the opening song by NPH. Just a really great number from a really funny guy. I imagine he may be hosting the show in the future.

- Really liked the way they did the Best Original Song nominees this year with one long video as opposed to individual live performances. Ensured that we saw the original singers in action, and only got a snippet of each song as opposed to the entire thing. Or worse, a random musician flown in specifically to sing the songs and either fail miserably or bore the audience to death with how long it goes on for.

- The interpretive dance number? Thought the dancing itself was incredible, but the bit was just out of place. Seemed totally random and likely could have been replaced by the orchestra playing the music over scenes from the nominated films, or just another video showing the musicians in action.

- Precious taking Adapted Screenplay. The second monumental surprise of the evening (after The Hurt Locker nabbing the sound awards). I remember saying on an episode of The Movie Chasm (which will be posted shortly after I get more available space to host the show, and upload all the other episodes that are waiting in the wings) that Precious would take it, but later on regretting it because I had forgotten about Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner's incredible screenplay for Up in the Air. But somehow, that incredible screenplay lost out. A real disappointment for Reitman, who had the unstoppable film before December and suddenly dropped the ball after Avatar came out. In his incredibly short career, he already has 3 incredible films under his belt, and he really should have been awarded here. While I did really enjoy Precious, that film was made more by the performances than it was by the adaptation of the novel. The award really belonged to Up in the Air, which sadly got shut out completely as a result.

- The horror montage? With the exception of a random inclusion of Twilight, was a real highlight for me. Just a really well crafted video, and a solid tribute. And it doesn't hurt that they included a bit of Evil Dead II in there.

- I liked the five previous winners congratulating the acting nominees last year, but it took up way too much time. Was glad to see it was killed off...until Best Actor and Actress late in the evening. But instead of winners, they just kind of got a ragtag group of actors to say words about everyone. The best person to talk about Jeremy Renner was Colin Farrell? Really? And the best to talk about Sandra Bullock was Forrest Whitaker? And Oprah? Come on. Either go with your original, interesting idea with previous winners, or just don't do it at all.

- Sandra Bullock winning was a bit of a disappointment. As I've said previously, I still have not seen The Blind Side, so for all I know she really is incredible in it. But to me, it just kind of feels like the Academy was giving back to someone who simply had a really good year. But The Proposal really was not that great a film, and from what I saw of it, All About Steve really was pretty awful. So clearly, this Oscar is either going to help enlighten us to more interesting performances from Bullock, or make us forget about her again like we did before 2009.

- Jeff Bridges' speech was probably the best of the evening. Loved that he kept saying "man", but really think he could have done more of an ode to The Dude. Unfortunately, no one will remember that he won for Crazy Heart. They will wonder why he was not even nominated for The Big Lebowski.

- the montage for John Hughes was incredible, but where was Farrah Fawcett on the "In Memoriam"? And now that I'm reading, where was Bea Arthur?

- Ben Stiller's costume and makeup? Really well done, but made for a really annoying bit of the show. I did love the irony in presenting Best Makeup dressed as a Na'vi, yet the category did not feature an Avatar nomination.

- The Hurt Locker dominating Avatar was a total surprise. I really thought Avatar would take more than three (Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects), and did not think The Hurt Locker would take six. But I am very glad it did. I already know people are saying how years from now we will look at the Avatar snub the same way we look at Citizen Kane losing, and Star Wars losing. And we just might do that years from now. But the reality of it is, James Cameron and his crew swept the Oscars with Titanic years ago, and irrevocably changed the way films were made. The film tied for most nominations ever (14) and tied for most wins (11). And it was the highest grossing movie ever made...until Avatar. In essence, James Cameron topped himself and proved that he continues to dominate in the film world, even if he takes an extended break and just makes documentaries for a few years. Why in the hell should the Academy award someone who basically did the same thing he already did years before, and won for at that time? Yes, the waves of change are already in place with what Avatar has done for 3D. Don't believe me? Look at Warner Brothers scrambling to upconvert Clash of the Titans to 3D in time for the film's release on April 2 (pushed from March 26). But sadly, with the potential exception of Transformers 3 (which I already dread), there are no films that are taking advantage of the 3D used so incredibly in Avatar. Every movie on tap for 3D is simply a post-production upconversion which speaks more about the film distributors wanting to make more money at the box office than it does for advancing the way films are made.

But I digress. Avatar is an amazing film, and a truly immersive experience. It is the kind of film that forces audiences to experience it in a theatre, because they simply will not get the same effect when they watch it at home. I already know the film will not hold up when I watch it on Blu-ray, in 3D or not, because it simply will not measure up to how amazing it was to see in a theatre twice. But Avatar, when boiled down to its nuts and bolts, is simply an incredible piece of entertainment. A wildly expensive one, but a film that makes you remember why you like watching films. The Hurt Locker on the other hand, is a powerful, emotionally charged film that is gritty, real and simply riveting. It is one of the most intense films I have ever seen, and is just a great movie all around. And whether it is true to reality or not, it gave us a slice of the Iraq war in a way that is simply unmatched by every other film about modern warfare. It deserves its accolaids, and is the deeply layered film that Avatar simply is not.

As for Bigelow, the huge undertaking of making The Hurt Locker is nothing compared to James Cameron and Avatar, but she still put in an incredible amount of effort into the film. She won the award not because she was a woman, but because she made an effective and admirable film. I'm glad she broke the wall down for female filmmakers, and I can only hope we see more being nominated. But they will have to measure up to the greatness Bigelow put on display from the beginning all the way to the end of The Hurt Locker. It is a haunting film, and one that does not leave you all too quickly. I'm very glad it won Best Picture, because now it means people will have to rush out and see it. I only wish they had done it before hand.

- Finally, Alec and Steve did a great job as hosts, and were incredibly funny. But save for a few sketches, they really did not do much for the show. I was expecting them to appear much more often and offer more quips, but they seemed really toned down for the majority of the show. Kind of disappointing.

All in all, an interesting show. I went 16/24 (missed the screenplays, the shorts, Best Foreign Film and the sound awards), so while not impressive, it still was not all that bad. As for next year, I imagine NPH is already on the short list to host it. Here's hoping they don't struggle to nominate ten films again...