Movie Matters: 2010 Oscars: And the Nominees are Leaving Something to be Desired

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As a loyal EM reader you know that this blog has a general respect for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Their annual awards, commonly known as the Oscars, give the movies the requisite heft to be considered high art. But the announcement of the 2010 nominees irritated me.

First problem, ten best picture nominees. Of course this is not a new phenomenon, but its desperate. Back in the 30's nominating this many films was standard, but back then the Oscars where a more blatant attempt to sell movie tickets. As the awards evolved over the decades it appeared that they were more concerned with honoring a worthy few and were content to let extremely talented artists languish Oscar-free for an entire career (See, Peter O'Toole). They didn't seem to care if they honored movies that no one saw or will ever see (The English Patient). Raising the number of best picture nominees is a shameless attempt to raise Oscar night ratings at the expense of diminishing the prestige of the award. Also, with such a large field the picture that wins theoretically only needs 11% of the vote. Should a picture with that little support be etched in the pages of history forever?

Second problem, Avatar. With nine nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, the Academy is making a bold statement that 2009 was the year of Avatar. I concede that the film grossed over $2 billion, which is good for the industry, and the visual effects rose to level of OMG, but those facts don't make up for the stale plot and stilted dialog. The beauty of film is that it's a collaborative art form but the draw back of that is if there is one weak link the entire production suffers. A best picture nominee should shine from every aspect of the movie making process and Avatar falls short in too many places. Just because people went to see the movie, doesn't mean it's great (See, Spider-Man 3).


Third problem, Star Trek. Science fiction is usually woefully snubbed at the Oscars, but this year the Academy had two science fiction blockbusters that it could honor, and as the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said they, "choose poorly." Save for visual affects (and that's debatable) Star Trek outshines Avatar in every metric. The story is more compelling, the characters are more fully developed, the stakes of the story are much higher and the movie is just plain fun. If the Academy insists on nominating ten pictures they can't miss the one movie that brought nerds and jocks together in 2009.


Final problem, repeat nominees. I get it. Meryl Streep is the greatest ever and the Coen Brothers are clever. But do we need to be reminded of these facts every year? I look to the Oscar nominations as a chance to see what great performances I might have missed over the last year because there were too many ads for Night at the Museum 2. Of course I'm going to go see Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and George Clooney. Academy, please, tell me something I don't know.


This is the first of many posts about the 2010 Oscars. Stay tuned. And don't forget to follow @EnterMatter on Twitter for the latest updates.

Movie Matters: Star Trek Review Round Up

The reviews for Star Trek are in and echo what readers of this blog already know. The movie rules. Here are some highlights from people who get paid to write about movies.

Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post

Lord of "Star Trek" and its many spinoffs, we thank thee for a movie that, against all odds, has miraculously resurrected a wheezing but beloved and still-relevant franchise

...Lord, please look kindly upon screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who have eschewed the dour pseudo-depth, snarky irony and sadistic violence of so many recent action movies. Keep them steadfast in their devotion to resuscitating not only the "Star Trek" brand, but also a long-abandoned principle in American cinema: pure pop pleasure.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone

I couldn't be more surprised. After six TV series and 10 movies (1982's The Wrath of Khan being the only standout), the franchise has been milked so hard, it's a wonder the udders haven't dried up and disintegrated. So how does this newbie break the jinx? By plugging in livewire J.J. Abrams, a director of style and substance (M:i:III, Lost), who fuels this origin story with killer action, bracing wit and a sense of true discovery.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly

Sci-fi origin stories, at least those launched decades after the stories themselves, tend to be disappointing. They're usually more work than play. The acquiring of superpowers, and/or Defining Personality Traits, has a certain built-in roteness, whether the subject is Luke Skywalker, Batman, or Wolverine; we know where we're going, and the getting there can be an elaborate 
filling in of blanks. But in Star Trek, the clever and infectious reboot of the amazingly enduring sci-fi classic, director 
 J.J. Abrams crafts an origin myth that avoids any hint of the origin doldrums. That's because he rewires us back into the original Star Trek's primal appeal.

Check out Rotten Tomatoes for more reviews.

Movie Matters: Star Trek Sneak Peek

A while back Ross Douthat wrote :

"If Star Trek is going to boldly go into the twenty-first century, it needs to consider becoming something a little bit more like the Superman and Batman stories - that is, a pop culture mythology that can be reinterpreted and refashioned every generation or so."

While navigating the mine field of rabid Trekkies who are beholden to the holy canon of the existing Star Trek universe J.J. Abrams has devised a way to create an entertaining, original, yet "in-universe" Star Trek that will be the biggest movie of the year. The crew remains diverse, brilliant, attractive, and lucky. The Enterprise is fast, sleek and graceful under fire. The Romulans are scary and everything is at stake.

In a decade that has brought us a seemingly unending flood or poorly conceived and poorly executed prequels and sequels that sink the franchises we love into the muck of shameless commercialism, Star Trek stems these flood waters of suck. Go see Star Trek and be thankful that the iconic characters we have grown to love will continue to grow with us and continue to make us wish we could make out with a green alien too.