Gold Bugged

[Wookie 1]

Still, not only would I say a nomination would be utterly deserved, it would've been of tremendous historical note as Lana Wachowski would've become the first transgendered Oscar nominee.

I can't shake the ugly suspicion that this is at least part of why Cloud Atlas has been so thoroughly snubbed. Oh, the Wachowskis have enough clout in Hollywood that noone in the business is going to say it to her face, but I'm sure there there are some amongst the older and/or more conservative elements of the Academy who don't want to give 'that sort of person' the recognition of even a nomination.

The thought that the Academy, who are still kind of looked up to as the authority on film would be THAT out of touch with society is a worrying sentiment.

Except they really arent that out of touch with wider society - non obviously city liberal opinion.

In response to the 'Why do they keep saying "Marvel's The Avengers"', I could be mistaken, but I thought it was called 'Marvel's The Avengers' or 'Avengers Assemble' in the UK because of a popular classic British TV series and subsequent movie about a crime-fighting duo called 'The Avengers'. They have to include 'Marvel' in the title to avoid confusion/copyright issues I suppose. Probably the former.

That ^^ It was massive in the 1960's-1970's

 

[Paradoxrifts]

For the life of me I'd like to know what exactly is different between Cloud Atlas and Life Of Pi, when both films seem to be crying out, "Ask me what it means, ask me what it means! I'm ever so profound and smart! Ask me what I mean!"

 

[Arec Balrin]

One thing cross my mind: Avengers was an undisputed triumph. Marvel gambled massively and it shouldn't have worked, it should have been an anti-climax after four years of building up to it. Then Joss Whedon happened. No Best Director, no Best Screenplay. The question I'm left with is "How much better would the Avengers have had to be to get academy recognition?". It wasn't just good 'for what it was' but good overall and able to be enjoyed by casual and fan audiences. what didn't the academy like about it? That's right- the fact that it was a crowd pleaser, kills any film's chances stone-dead. Had Heath Ledger not died, lending gravity to the sub-text of his TDK performance, he probably wouldn't have won Supporting Actor for that year, simply because the film was actually liked by audiences. I'm feeling Django is only there for the context of slavery, except that if the main character was instead that of a Chinaman used for much the same purpose in the wild west; the academy wouldn't give a crap.

The academy is irrelevant now, a marketing tool and bugger all else. No sentiment, no glamour, no pulse.

 

[mykalwane]

Agree with Bob. Though other then it being the big awards for movie, why should we care. I don't get why it matters. It lost its power of meaning years ago, and now is just the old Hollywood people patting themselves on the back. Hell it is rare for it to look like it is a chance to be anything worth while gets the awards. The movies that end up being loved or praised for being good, that is why people remember them years afterwards. Shouldn't the movie being good, be good enough?

 

[Sixcess]

The question I'm left with is "How much better would the Avengers have had to be to get academy recognition?"

As the third highest grossing movie of all time it probably should have got some more nods, given that the Academy loves to reward box office success, but The Avengers doesn't really aspire to be anything other than a really good superhero movie. I don't say that as a criticism - as Samuel Goldwyn once said, "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union."

But the only two movies to have been bigger hits, both of which did clean up at the Oscars, did have something that gave them a veneer of 'respectability' - Titanic was a romantic costume drama and Avatar - although part of the despised sci-fi ghetto - had its eco-friendly message, as well as being directed (again) by James Cameron, who is very much a favourite of the Academy.

That said, this is still a really conservative year for the Academy. Perhaps they'll poke their collective heads out of their shells in 2015 long enough to give Peter Jackson some awards for the final instalment of the Hobbit trilogy, but I wouldn't even count on that given this year's nominations.

The odd thing is that the sci-fi ghetto is a relatively new thing. In addition to the technical awards it won Star Wars got nominations for Best Director, Best Film and even Best Supporting Actor (for Alec Guiness) way back in '77. You'd think that 35 years on the genre would be more respected, not less.

 

[SixShooter]

Zero Dark Thirty should only be a contender for best adapted screenplay, since the original was fed to Bigelow and Boal by CIA agitprop. Again, the film, nor the acting in it, was all that good, even excluding the bad politics.

 

[SixShooter]

I mean just consider that Maya in ZDT, is basically some cowboy character, bordering on being some idealized Mary Sue. "I CAN GET BIN LADEN IF ONLY YOU BUREAUCRATS STOP GETTING IN MAH WAY!!!"

 

[Lionsfan]

Hey Bob, do you see the possibility of the Oscars losing prestige and relevance among the audience by the clear dissonance between what the elderly voters chose and the informed audience actually like?

I feel like people have been saying this sort of thing for a while now. The Oscars are here for the foreseeable future


OT: I'm disappointed. One, Bob I couldn't disagree with you more, than your opinion of Silver Linings. Yes, the story is generic, but I thought both Cooper and Lawrence acted the hell out of that. I never really saw Lawrence as a manic-pixie dreamgirl either. To me, they both felt like real characters

Second, I'm disappointed that Moonrise Kingdom wasn't nominated for Best Picture, but Original Screenplay isn't bad either

 

[Remus]

The Globes is so much more enjoyable to watch. Ben got the Best Director nod when he wasn't even on the list for the academy. It hits that sweet spot between the Academy and Peoples Choice - which was disgusting this year as "the people" were represented by a bunch of Team Bella, Bieber-screaming tweens voting on their Iphones.

 

[RTR]

I think Ben Affleck may have found a real life scenario where he can say the words "Argo fuck yourself"

 

[itsthesheppy]

Nice to see the Academy Awards maintaining their standard of mediocrity.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

How is this an outrage? Don't we have the same pattern every year? They're ALL oscar baits.

The politically correct oscar bait. (The one for which the little girl got nominated)
The socially relevant oscar bait. (Zero Dark Thirty)
The historical drama oscar bait. (Lincoln)
The brand new auteur's oscar bait. (Django)
The movie nobody saw oscar bait. (Silver Play-something)
The nice generic little oscar bait. (Argo)

The only movie I'm surprised didn't make the list was Cloud Atlas (as an epic concept oscar bait). TDKR? Dark Knight didn't make it, are you really surprised about TDKR? The Avengers? By-the-book hero movie. The Hobbit? An embarrassing experience. And in case the Academy would only nominate the last movie, like they did LOTR (even though Fellowship was the best of the three).