A quick disclaimer before you read the rest: this is only the 2nd Oscars show that I've watched (the first being last year's), so my knowledge is extremely limited. Please feel free to disagree and educate me.
Compared to last year's academy award, I have to say this one was less suspenseful. Whereas last year's Oscars had a ex-husband vs ex-wife showdown at the end (James Cameron vs Kathryn Bigelow), the winner of this year's Best Picture, The King's Speech, was very much expected. The same could be said for the other 2 major awards, best actor and best actress, where Colin Firth and Natalie Portman were very much favored to win.
But that didn't make this year's academy award any less enjoyable. I felt that the hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway brought much more life and energy to the show than last year's hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. For one thing, having two good looking young actors was much more pleasing to the eye than having two old people. But more importantly, I had the feeling that Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Martin were trying a bit too hard trying to be funny, whereas Mr. Franco and Ms. Hathaway had good chemistry together, seemed much more natural with their jokes.
One huge complaint though, was that the show lasted for almost 3 hours including commercials. I blame this on the excessive amount of categories present, most of which I couldn't care less about. For example, there are two categories for music, original score and original song; two categories for sound, sound mixing and sound editing (what the hell is the difference anyway? seriously, can someone please explain); two categories for something "visual", best visual effect and best cinematography (again, would someone please take time to explain in the comment what the difference is). Then of course there's best costume and best makeup, which, sorry if I'm being insensitive, but I don't give a rat's arse about those two categories.
I do like, however, that because of all these minor categories, my favorite movie was able to take home 4 oscars: best cinematography, best sound mixing, best sound editing, and best visual effects (I'll leave you to guess what the movie is). But still, the presence of all these minor awards just made the show a overly long, and had me falling asleep wondering when they were finally gonna give the Best Picture award to The King's Speech and end the show.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
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1 comment:
This year's Oscars were certainly less suspenseful, and mostly agreed with expert picks. Still, Academy Awards aren't always predictable and that element of uncertainty makes it worthwhile to watch.
Although I agree that the length of the broadcast is long, it's not unprecedented. For the past 37 years the Academy Award ceremonies have run over 3 hours with some even breaking into 4 hours. It's a ceremony, and it is meant to celebrate the achievements of everyone who took part in a production of a film, so 3 hours is short considering the number of people who work in this industry. Better yet, it builds the tension to the final awards and keeps you guessing whether the winners of the other awards will win best picture in an upset.
As for the categories, this is the one opportunity for those who work hard behind the scenes and don't get all the publicity that actors, directors and producers are afforded in the marketing of a film. Don't hate them for dragging on the ceremony just because you've never heard of their names; would Black Swan look the same without choreography, make up and costume design? These people deserve the recognition for their creativity and contributions to cinema.
I admit that I do not know the difference between sound editing and sound mixing or any of the other more subtle differences (at least to those not in the industry), but they are significant enough that the Academy Awards decided to create a separate award and unless you can find a way to collapse those two jobs into one, respect the presence of the categories. I'm amused that you only like the categories so your favorite film can boast 4 Oscars even though The King's Speech also won 4, including 3 of the 4 Oscars that actually matter. But that's just me being insensitive to your insensitivity. Just being nominated for an award is an honor, regardless of category.
I also very much enjoyed Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts, although I felt that there were awkward moments when they attempted to interact and joke with each other. That said, they still did a great job keeping the ceremony lively. James Franco could have taken on the cover of Playboy in that gown and wig.
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