Oscar

Let's go through this year's Oscar Nominees for Best Picture, shall we?

1.  Avatar (James Cameron)



I honestly was underwhelmed by this movie, which was disappointing because I was definitely looking forward to it.  I was very impressed by the trailers, and it looked to me like the movie was going to have a very interesting story.  Unfortunately, I don't think it delivered on that promise.  The story was instead overly simplistic and heavy-handed; I have very little patience for a story that has a big bad guy just for the sake of having a big bad guy.  The movie never offered me any option about whose side I should be on in the conflict.  Not that there always has to be two sides to every issue, but I felt like this story would have benefitted from introducing some complexity into the storyline.

But no, instead we get good guys who are obviously very good, and bad guys who are obviously irredeemably bad.  It was just so easy to see through the movie, to what its "message" was.  And the movie never bothers to offer us any middle ground.  The only characters who might represent some sort of middle ground (Sigorney Weaver and the other scientists) almost immediately get marginalized as ineffective and useless.  No, in this world you either are a tree-hugging (or hair-latching?) technology-shunning native, or an earth-raping ignorant capitalist.  It's a choice that I don't believe is very constructive for our modern times, and is also completely impractical.  Does Cameron really think the only solution for our troubles these days is to throw out all of our scientific progress and engineering, and to just go off and live in the woods in small communes, allowing all of the negative things that would come with that, like a high mortality rate?  I don't think even James Cameron believes that's the right course of action.  But it's the convenient answer to the dilemma he poses in the movie.

And don't get me started on the portrayal of the Na'Vi.  Sure, they are an alien culture, but it's pretty obvious to me that we are meant to draw parallels between them and our own native cultures here on Earth, whether they are American Natives, or African Natives or what have you.  The idea that somehow these native cultures are more in-tune with the environment, or live more "in balance" with the land, is a false one that is constantly being debunked.  Native cultures never treated their environment any differently than western ones (the only difference being that western cultures developed technologies that ended up having a far greater impact).  They fought wars with each other...they took all they could from the land without realizing potential consequences...in short they are just like any other group of humans on the planet.  We are all a lot more similar to each other than we give credit.

The evidence is clear that whenever the first humans migrated to new land areas that before had been free of humans, the migration coincided with the mass extinction of local animals.  This happened in Australia, and in the Americas, and it happened QUICKLY, usually taking just a few hundred years.  As well, there is convincing evidence that the Sahara Desert was created by the over-farming of cattle by African natives.  You can look at pretty much every culture of humanity and see examples of how that culture negatively affected its environment.  So the idea that a native culture lives an idyllic, peaceful existence in perfect harmony with its surroundings is a misrepresentation of the facts.  Once again this speaks to the oversimplification of Avatar's story.  The movie is afraid to introduce any complexity.

And speaking of the Na'Vi, if James Cameron really did want to portray an alien world in a very realistic and biologically correct manner, why not make the Na'Vi have more variation in their appearance?  Do they all have to be blue???  It would have been nice if when you showed the Na'Vi from the other parts of the world, you could see definite evolutionary differences in their traits, instead of just pigeonholing them all into a single homogenous entity.

Wouldn't it have been cool if maybe there was a section of the Na'Vi who were collaborating with the humans???

I'm just glad this one wasn't nominated for best screenplay.

But anyways...

2.  The Blind Side



I haven't seen this, and don't have much desire to.  It seems a bit too sentimental for my tastes.

3.  District 9



This was an incredible movie and one of my favourites from last year!  I think it was a far better sci-fi film than Avatar, and was far more revolutionary in terms of special effects.  I think the effects even looked better here than in Avatar.  Something about the handheld documentary style of the action gave the CG a greater credibility.  And it was nice to see a sci-fi action film that wasn't American centric.  The movie does get a bit confusing in terms of style (it plays fast and loose with its documentary form), and it does introduce a bad guy that is there just for the sake of being bad...but the movie is just so cool that those shortcomings are easily overlooked!

4.  An Education



Haven't seen it, and I know nothing about it.  It looks like a pretty standard sort of "Best Picture" movie. I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

5.  The Hurt Locker



Also haven't seen it.  I've heard very good things from people who have, which probably means if I did see it, I'd try to find reasons to hate it.

6.  Inglourious Basterds



What an amazing movie.  There's a lot of stuff going on in this one.  Quentin Tarantino is a director with a very focused sense of style, but I never find his style gets in the way of enjoying the movie, which is admirable.  It'll take me a while to figure out just what this movie was trying to accomplish, and I like that feeling.  There's a lot more I want to say about this movie, but it'll take me time to figure out how to word it properly.

7.  Precious



Please see what I wrote in regards to "The Blind Side"

8.  A Serious Man



I haven't seen this either, but I love the Coen Brothers, and I'll hopefully see this movie one day.  I just hope they end up making that adaptation of "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" that I heard about a few years ago.

9.  Up



One of the best animated films Pixar has ever made, and that says a lot.  But I am conflicted...this movie is also nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, and I have a feeling it will win that category instead of this one.  Why is that a problem?  Because "Coraline" is also nominated for Best Animated Feature, and it would just be amazing if "Coraline" got to win an Oscar.  Wouldn't it be cool if Neil Gaiman got to go on stage with Henry Selick to accept the award?  He probably wouldn't, though...he'd want Selick to get all the attention.

10.  Up in the Air



Haven't seen this one.  Not dying to see it.  Not sure why not.