Wait. So, are movies getting better or worse?
Last night, the event that all cinema geeks such as myself wait in agonizing anticipation for, finally came. The red carpet was rolled out and every celebrity from the A-list to the F-list rolled in telling the camera men and women who they were wearing. All seemed perfect and everything was a go for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, but then why do I sit here writing with such a lack of satisfaction and enthusiasm with how the supposed climax of the cinema-year played out?
The first few awards came and went with their usually side of apathetic nature and I thought to myself, “It’ll get better when the bigger awards with the big name movies get announced,” but no such luck. With each progressing award presentation, I felt this growing feeling of dissatisfaction when all of the expected excitement never showed up. So I began searching for what was making this Oscar night so...dull.
The hosts? Now Anne Hathaway and James Franco look like the perfect hosting-duo on paper, and the opening cinematic that featured Alec Baldwin was quiet funny, but when it came down to the two of them being on stage, all the proverbial crickets in LA were chirping away. But I don’t think that they were the cause of all my confusion. After all, Anne Hathaway actually did display a near perfect host-like demeanor and I’ll give James Franco the benefit of the doubt. He did have to go through the whole show waiting for his nomination category to be announced...and he still managed to have his funny host moment when he came out in full drag featuring a pink dress, blond wig and make-up. Very tasteful, might I add.
So if it wasn’t the hosts, then perhaps it was just the layout of the show in general that made it lose it’s pace. All the actual moments where things could’ve gotten exciting, such as Anne’s musical number or the lackluster original score presentation, were cut too short or weren’t interesting enough. And with all the A-list presenters that were lined up you’d expect more humor and entertainment. But once again, I don’t think that this was the cause of my inexplicable dilemma.
I wasn’t dissatisfied with the actual winners of the awards. I believed all the receivers to be very deserving. So then how could it be that in my first official year of being a movie geek, that I was unimpressed with the Superbowl of movies? This was the first year where I made sure to see every movie that was nominated and I loved everything about every single one of them. I was enthralled and captivated by these movies whereas, in previous years, I would have found them boring. It was my coming of age into cinematic maturity. I wouldn’t have more than a sentence of criticism about any particular movie that was nominated this year.
Maybe that’s the problem, then...the movies are, in fact, too good.
Watching the award show itself, one would expect it to make the audience feel the same excitement that they get out of watching the movies that are being honored. But with such high expectations, no one would be satisfied. Such was my problem. I fell in love with each one of the movies that were nominated and thus expected each of them to be recognized in some way or another. No wonder I felt such disappointment; what with 10 movies being nominated for best picture, only 6 of them winning any actual awards and the most that any individual movie won was 4. Then there were bad movies like Alice in Wonderland which ended up taking home 2 awards and the terrible movie, Wolfman, bringing in the award for make-up. All of this happened this year when I’m used to excellent movies getting their dues. For example: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King winning 12 Oscars and Slumdog Millionaire winning 8. Now that makes for exciting television.
However pleased I was with the results of the winners, I still feel this longing and hope that the movies that weren’t recognized will become so. And I suppose I can’t be disappointed for movies being too good. That’d be crazy. If anything I should be hopeful that this year has set a new precedent for movies to come, and that new precedents will be set with each coming year’s movies. To those bold enough to try, I say good luck.
For a full list of the nominees and the winners from The 83rd Annual Academy Awards, go to: http://www.imdb.com/features/oscars/2011/nominations
No comments:
Post a Comment