In 17 years of watching the Oscars, I am confident in saying that last night’s award show was my least favorite.
I should mention that at no point in this entry will I talk about who wore what or who looked the best.
Before the show even began, there were 3 reasons I was not excited about it. The first reason; the acting categories were all so predictable that I didn’t care about them. The second and third reasons; Steve and Alec. I was not looking forward to them hosting. I’m not a big fan of either of them and I didn’t think they could carry the Oscars. I was right.
When the show opened with Neil Patrick Harris singing and dancing, I thought I may have been wrong about the show being boring this year. He was fantastic! Great energy and start to the show. Then Steve and Alec came on and the energy went with NPH backstage and stayed there for the next 4 hours. The hosts had a few funny things to say during their opening, but mostly their jokes fell flat. I thought they were boring and that their self deprecating “we’re old, these young people don’t know who we are” comments were inappropriate. Morgan Freeman is older than both of them and has somehow managed to stay relevant to young and old audiences. Steve and Alec were forgettable and felt absent throughout the show. I kept waiting for Steve to whip out his banjo and sing us a tune. Thankfully, he didn’t.
Now to elaborate on my lack of excitement for the acting wins. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew who was going to win the acting Oscars this year. I wasn’t excited for them, not only because I already knew who was going to win, but because the wins for actor and actress felt like they were getting is because it was their turn. That seems to be the popular opinion anyway. Any other year, Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela would’ve almost guaranteed him an Oscar. He’s an icon playing an icon. It’s the stuff the Academy voters usually live for. Perhaps the fact that the movie in which he chose to play him in is based on a sports game worked against him? Who knows. I love Colin Firth, and just seeing small clips of his performance in “Single Man” gives me goosebumps. Again, any other year, he may have had a chance. The actress category was the same. Meryl and Gabourey were wonderful and may have deserved that Oscar, but they didn’t stand a chance against Sandra’s popularity this year. Can I just say that I think it’s sad that it took Sandra Bullock 20 years to make something worthy of an Oscar, but when a newcomer like Gavourey delivers an amazing, touching performance HER FIRST TIME ON SCREEN she gets overlooked because she’s new.
I did like how all the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees got some costar love prior to the announcement of the winner. It’s almost like they knew that the winners were obvious and that everyone deserved a little love before losing.
The acceptance speeches for actress and supporting actress were disappointing. It made both actresses unlikeable for me. I thought Mo’Nique was ungrateful and came off with a sense of entitlement that I don’t think she deserved. The character she played came through on stage and it made her performance a little less impressive to me. Hey, Mo’nique, when someone hands you a gold statue, you should take the chip off your shoulder before taking it. Sandra seemed to be trying so hard to be tough and not to cry. That, coupled with her lack of surprise, made her speech less touching. I didn’t feel happy for her, because she didn’t seem all that happy herself. She seemed repressed. Her attempt at being funny and referring to Meryl as her lover lacked class. Someone get that “miss congeniality” sash back from her, cause she didn’t deserve it last night.
Where did the music go? Every year there has been breaks in the ceremony for the best song nominees to perform. It made for a nice break and usually a light moment in the show. This year they opted out of the songs to make room for longer performance clips when announcing the acting nominees and a whole dancing number showcasing the best original score nominees. I liked both these things, but I still missed the song interludes.
I really liked that they paid tribute to John Hughes. It was fun to see some of the Brat Pack together again, and he really was a relevant film maker who deserved more than just a 10 second clip during the memorial part of the show.
Avatar won 3 Academy Awards. Technical awards, which to me is all it deserved. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Avatar is a movie for the eyes. When you’re not capable of seeing in 3D, like myself, the technology becomes less impressive and you must rely on the story to be entertained. The story was unoriginal and predictable, the acting in it was unimpressive and almost everything in the movie was created by computer. These are not factors befitting a “Best Picture” movie. People want the “Best Picture” winner be movies they actually went to see in theaters? Then stop going to see the same movie 3 or 4 times because you’re easily impressed by CGI and expand your horizons. Go see a movie that will make you have to actually think and use your brain for something other than differentiating between whether the character on screen is a boy or girl. The Academy Awards should not be “dumbed down” to accommodate the general movie seeing public who only go to the movies a hand full of times in the year. People who watch the Oscars are usually people who care about movies. Real movies. We go once a week and we don’t only go to the ones that have big name actors and/or big budgets.
Ok, now that I got that off my chest on page, let’s move on. Am I the only one who thought the constant references to Avatar and James Cameron were annoying? It seemed like everyone who wasn’t wining for acting made references to Avatar. Half the presenters mentioned it in some way. The other half and the hosts took shots at the movie or James himself, either in an obvious way or in jest. It was ludicrous. It felt like they were ganging up on him and the movie and bullying a bully, which I thought lacked class. Is James Cameron full of himself? Sure. Does he make good movies? Yes. His movies are among my favorites. Titanic, Terminator, Aliens. He’s brilliant, and he knows it. That doesn’t mean that everyone should choose the Oscars as a platform to take shots at him and his movie.
Now for the part I was actually very happy about. The Hurt Locker’s semi sweep. It really proved that people who know movies really don’t care about how much money it made and base their votes on the quality of the movie. Money does not always equate quality. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s the best. I was happy for all it’s wins, but mostly for “Best Director” and “Best Picture”. Historical moment aside, Kathryn Bigelow was adorable when she won. She looked so happy, humbled, overwhelmed and , more importantly, grateful. It was great to see a “Best Director” go up there and not come off as full of themselves. Martin Scorsese was the last director who came off as cute on stage when he won.
I was rooting for “Locker” to win. It was one of my favorites last year and I was so happy it won. It was strange to see a movie win best picture and not have a stage full of people. There were maybe 10 people up there, with the cast taking up only 3 spots. Again, Bigelow looked so happy, it made it easy to be happy for her.
So congratulations Kathryn and “The Hurt Locker”! Thank you for making a boring Academy Award show worth the wait with your win.
Here’s hoping they go with better hosts next year. Might I suggest Neil Patrick Harris?