Let me get straight to it. Hurt Locker was a good movie, but it wasn’t great. I was actually bored in many parts of it and probably wouldn’t even recommend it. I think the academy gave Kathryn Bigelow the award for best Directing because they had the opportunity to give it to a woman and make headlines. Did I think Avatar should have won Best Picture? No, but I do think James Cameron should have won Best Director. But more on that in a bit, let’s go through some other awards, you’ll have to read all the way through to read more about this debacle 
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The show was pretty good…Neil Patrick Harris had a great opening and they probably should have just let him host the whole show, but instead we got Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. They are much funnier than their writers let them be, but they did the job. The Actor and Actress in Supporting Roles went to the right people, Christopher Waltz for Inglorious Basterds and Mo’Nique for Precious. Up was also the obvious pick for Animated Feature Film because you know, it’s Pixar (I actually have yet to see the film but I knew it would win…it’s on my list!). Up also won for their Original Score. Avatar got a few gimmies like Art Direction and Cinematography and won the most obvious for itself, Visual Effects. It felt like everyone won for that movie except Mr. Cameron. The Hurt Locker got the rest of the gimmies including Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Writing (Original Screenplay), and Film Editing.
Now to the stuff I didn’t know much about. I caught a glimpse of Logorama while they were presenting the award for Short Animated Film and had to watch the movie right there and then so I found it on YouTube. It is probably the most creative film I’ve seen in quite a while…you definitely have to check it out. For the Short Live Action film, The New Tenants won which had a lot of actors I like, which surprised me, so I have to check it out now. The Secret in Their Eyes won for best Foreign Language Film….that’s kind’ve where I draw the line, I watch a lot of movies, but I’d like them to be in English.
I’ve only seen one of the documentaries out of the 10 (feature and short) that were nominated and I really feel that they were the best movies of the Oscars this year. They each look amazing and deliver an amazing message. The Cove won for feature length and Music by Prudence won for Short. I’m going to make it my mission to see all of these movies as well as a couple others from the Best Picture category that I somehow missed like Crazy Heart which won best Actor through the Dude, Jeff Bridges and Original Song through Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.
To me, Up In The Air and Inglorious Basterds were the best films this year. Quentin Tarantino got screwed as Chrisoph Waltz was the only one to get an award for the film and he really deserved it. But that also gives a nod to Tarantino who created such an amazing character. Up In The Air didn’t win a damn thing even though it was nominated 6 times…it didn’t even win for Adapted Screenplay which went to Precious (I don’t know how I feel about that one). Another great film, but wrong type of film, was Star Trek which won one gimme…Makeup.
Now on to the big ones. Director and Best Picture. The Hurt Locker won both. I don’t think it should’ve won either. For Best Picture, I truly believed it should’ve been Inglorious Basterds or Up In The Air. They were truly great films that delivered a great story with great actors and were shot ridiculously well. For Best Director, James Cameron was robbed. The involvement he had in his film which can really be considered his baby was unparalleled. It was 10 years in the making. Don’t think of it just as technology, from every aspect of the film…the story, the world that was created, the actors, the everything, the sum of all the parts…James Cameron touched everything, his influenced guided the film to what it is today and what will be remembered for decades to come. Do you remember the film that won? I already forgot it…
Oh, and a period film won for Costume Design, surprise surprise, but I loved Sandy Powell’s speech which pretty much said what I just did…surprise surprise.
So, what did you think? Let us know in the comments!
Tags: Alec Baldwin, Avatar, Christopher Waltz, Crazy Heart, Inglorious Basterds, James Cameron, Jeff Bridges, Kathryn Bigelow, Mo'Nique, Neil Patrick Harris, oscars, Precious, Quentin Tarantino, Sandy Powell, Steve Martin, The Cove, the hurt locker, Up, Up In The Air
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
