I think the issue is this. Acting and Film making are arts in of themselves with their own standards and skill sets, and the Academy Awards serve to reward them. It's not supposed to be a general worship of pop culture despite what people have tried to turn it into, and as a result The Academy has tried to intentionally focus on the basics rather than what any paticular group's tastes are.
Awarding a good movie, that happens to be rooted entirely in current trends, is anathema because down the road that movie might not age well as trends change. In comparison period dramas tend to remain "relevent" having dealt with a documented period as opposed to "of the moment" pop culture.
Someone like Andy Serkis doesn't get more credit because his gimmick is relatively new, and it remains to be seen if it's still used or is even relevent 10 years from now. While he's talented at what he does, there are some questions as to whether he's actually skilled in the ways the Academy is supposed to evaluate... how much of his acting is simply wearing the digital tech well, and how much is actual acting? That's a valid question. Given time he might be recognized for a lifetime achievement if nothing else, but I can see why he's not loved by The Academy.
Current events, message movies, and chick flicks which are steeped in pop culture and current trends, all tend to fall under the same problem.... enduring relevence. What is a hot issue or something "everyone agrees with" now is not nessicarly going to endure. The Academy isn't opposed to the issues, but prefers to see yesterday's issues with a known resolution covered as they are thus timeless and part of history. Not to mention that touching on things like sexuality amounts fo playing politics, like it or not while the left wing is blowing it's own hard very loudly, the nation is divided almost 50-50 on a lot of those issues and it remains to be seen given the divide whether a lot of the victories being won are going to last. The Academy might applaud a movie about the gay rights crusade 20 years form now when the issue is over, but isn't going to laud praise on a political picture with huge amounts of opposition... especially if that message is the big thing selling the movie beyond anything else.
The point is that I understand what The Academy does, and why. I also understand why it's admissions criteria is so tight, after all if it started getting politically correct about it's membership so to have a membership indicative of current minority trends or whatever, it would become more about the politics and current trends than enduring movies and the art of acting and performance itself.
To be honest I kind of thing the Academy Awards should stay more or less like they are now. Though I think nowadays might be the time to try again to create competing awards shows based more around pop culture. Various networks/websites/etc... try this but none are universally accepted... and that's the big problem. If those people ever get together and try and create some kind of hybrid production regularly for pop culture, we might see something more currently relevent... but I think that would only really work if The Academy was still doibng it's thing to represent a traditional counterpoint and rate things in part based on their abillity to endure, and on the pure skill of the actor and/or film maker's craft.
See, I don't think The Academy watches a movie the same way the typical audience does. They aren't weighting things purely on entertainment value but in terms of skill and construction, but also whether or not a story/production is liable to remain relevent many years in the future. I mean you can pick up something like "The King's Speech" and even if it puts you to sleep, the story it tells deals with the kind of events that are going to be understandable and relevent 100 years from now. Some woman's movie, or chick flick about the enduring friendship of two women as they cope with modern society and find love... less so, even if well acted and well constructed 100 years from now jokes/entertainment based on say twittering or whatever probably aren't going to work, and people aren't really going to empathize with the point of the movie simply due to how the world has changed. Such movies rely on connection btween the female viewes and the protaganist that will no longer be achievable.
