Oscar Poll 2010, Final Score
99 out of 127 = 77.95%
“Avatar” vs. “The Hurt Locker”
Wow. Can I just say “wow”? Best picture completely and totally blew me away... not to mention Best Director. Now, don’t get me wrong. I knew “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” were the only two contenders for Best Picture no matter how many movies were stuffed into the category. But honestly, I thought “The Hurt Locker” was a long shot, even though it’s my favorite of the year. A very long… long… shot. I’m stunned.
Some folks in the media have been likening The Hurt Locker’s victory to that of David over Goliath… but I don’t really see the comparison unless David was a Kung-Fu Master and Goliath simply had a glandular disorder. Hands down, The Hurt Locker is better movie… and its victory proves that just because a movie is the most expensive or makes the most money doesn’t make it the best… unless we’re giving out an award for Marketing.
I’m not saying Avatar was a bad movie. Quite the opposite. It was very good. When I, finally, saw it over the weekend, I felt comfortable with the possibility of it winning Best Picture. However, for me, the measure of a true Best Picture is the marriage of four very important components of film making: Direction, Writing, Acting, and Technical Achievement. Although Avatar had amazing Direction and mind-boggling Technical Achievement… it was lacking in two very important areas: Writing and Acting. And I can’t be the only person who feels James Cameron’s epic is lacking in these two areas because the Academy neglected to recognize Avatar in those areas as well.
In short, I could start a drinking game based on the number of times Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington ambiguously referred to “science”. James Cameron is an idea man… who shouldn’t be writing dialogue.
Ultimately, selling me a best picture that does excel in each of the four components is very tough. However, The Hurt Locker, has is the perfect marriage of all four. I am very happy to see the Academy’s ten movie voting experiment pay off ensuring the best movie took home the gold.
No comments:
Post a Comment