Avatar, boo hoo

[dalekboy]

There are all these folks crying about Avatar not getting Best Picture. I like Avatar, it's visually stunning, and technically brilliant, but to me Best Picture should also include the script, which in the case of Cameron's film had some serious issues.

Of the films I had seen in the Best Picture category, I would have rated District 9 significantly higher. The story wasn't one we'd seen variants of thirty-seven times before, and the main character wasn't charismatic or likeable. That's a brave movie-making choice right there.

As for people complaining about Bigelow winning Best Director, and them saying she only won because she's a woman, here's a can of shut-the-fuck-up, drink deep.

She won in spite of being a woman. If you can't accept that little fact, you're part of the problem.

Comments

[cloudsprite.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. The script is not one of Cameron's strong points and I imagine that he knows that. He does amazing films from a technical perspective and with strong attention to detail with the world building. Titanic is another example of his work - it won Best Picture but was not even nominated for in the screenplay categories. (Just for interest, the only picture before Titanic to have one Best Picture and not be nominated for the screenplay was the Sound of Music)

I think the Academy did well this year.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Nicely said. I've quoted the last two lines as I thought they bore repeating.

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

Agree with you totally on Avatar - it was an enjoyable enough movie to sit through once, but didn't scream "Best Picture" to me by any stretch. Of course, having not seen most of the other nominees it is also difficult to compare.
As for Kathryn Bieglow, check out my recent post if you haven't seen it. I see the fact of her being a woman as happenstance and am a bit uncomfortable that a big deal is being made of it at all.

[drew-bowie.livejournal.com]

I love Avatar. It deserved best effects, cinematography and art direction without question.

It didn't deserve best director, it was well crafted but the direction was not as good as other films.

It didn't deserve best screenplay, the story was not original.

It didn't deserve best editing. It was sloppy and references to subplots that had been edited out remained in the dialogue.

And for those reasons above, it didn't deserve best picture, because on the whole, it was not an all round achiever in all aspects.

[(Anonymous)]

[GregT] I woke up on Oscars night with - literally - a nightmare that Avatar had won Best Picture. I was so angry. My subconscious had already formulated Hurt Locker's Best Picture epitaph - "The Academy has learned the lessons of E.T. not wisely but too well." Not sure why I was so riled up over a less and less meaningful award but there you have it.

Saying Avatar should have got Best Picture is making a profound personal bias. It's saying, "I saw this film, and I enjoyed it, and lots of other people enjoyed it, and they all agree it was pretty awesome, so therefore it is better than these other films." The same logic would have handed Best Film to the Moon Landing, several Olympics opening ceremonies, and certain episodes of Big Brother. Popularity, enjoyability, and the ability to be inoffensive are not, and should not be, considerations in giving the highest commendations for art.

Avatar is a profound technical achievement, and it's a pretty damn good work of showmanship, but the same can be said for the pyrotechnics rigs on a Wrestlemania entrance ramp. (Have you seen those things?) They don't win Best Picture, and neither should Avatar, because at the end of the day, as a work of cinema, it rises no higher than technical competency. It doesn't aspire to the heights, let alone scale them.

[hespa.livejournal.com]

Hear hear.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

She won in spite of being a woman. If you can't accept that little fact, you're part of the problem.

Hear, hear!