Oscar Predictions 2010

The Hurt Locker

I came up with the totally original idea of listing my choices/predictions for this year’s Academy Awards. I am sure you will not find this topic on a million other blogs!

What I have done here is give my best guesses for the nominations major categories in which I feel qualified to give an opinion. I did not see any documentary shorts, so categories like that are out. Also, the hard-core technical categories like Sound Effects Editing are a crapshoot, so what’s the point? But as far as my actual opinions go…well, these are gold. Feel free to cross-reference with my post about movies I loved and hated in 2009.

Best Picture
Nominees: Avatar; The Blind Side; District 9; An Education; The Hurt Locker; Inglourious Basterds; Precious; A Serious Man; Up; Up in the Air
Will Win: The Hurt Locker
What Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Why: There are two big reasons why Avatar will not win: 1. Self-proclaimed “King of the World” James Cameron has already won a boatload of Oscars for Titanic to go with his technical hardware. 2. Actors still fear losing their jobs to computer-generated characters, and Cameron’s great leap forward could be seen as a reminder of that threat. Also, The Hurt Locker is a fantastic movie that sticks with the viewer on a much more visceral, personal level than the “How did he do that?” head-shaking that lingers following Avatar.

Oscar Unseals the (Nomination) Envelopes

Jeff Bridges

So, it will be Avatar, The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds duking it out to climb to the top of the Oscar heap, eh? Should be quite a tussle.

I am going to weigh in today with a few quick thoughts about the nominations; just my initial gut reactions. I will return to the topic with a more in-depth look at some of the categories. Those of you looking forward to a treatise on sound mixing will, alas, be disappointed. (For an overall look at my take on 2009 at the cinema, read this.)

I figure former spouses James Cameron (Avatar) and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) will tangle with Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) for the best director crown. My money is on Bigelow, even though I enjoyed Avatar. (The devil in me would love to see the imaginatively titled Basterds get plenty of ink, so people will continue to wonder if the title is a typo.)

Soap Opera Weekly: 11/4/09

The new version of V is designed to be a reboot, but tacking on the conventions of our current TV landscape calls attention to the familiarity of the concept. Of course a little of this is part-and-parcel of being a remake, and thus unavoidable, however, everything that is being ladled on top is also all too familiar. V feels like we’ve seen it all before because we have seen it all before. Literally.

This time around, the idea is, when 21st-century aliens invade, they will not come as warriors, but rather as marketing agents. They will invade via advertising, with pamphlets, white teeth, long legs and tight butts. And a subtle message of inclusiveness and the common good. Heck, the Visitors were even offering “universal health care” — red meat for TV talking head Chad Decker (Scott Wolf), if only he hadn’t compromised his morals in exchange for ratings. Blast!

It was clever to cast Morena Baccarin (ex-Inara, FIREFLY/Serenity) as Anna, the beautiful public face of the Visitors; Baccarin also played Adria, the beautiful public face of the invading Ori cult on STARGATE SG-1. And well, the Visitors are practically setting themselves up as a cult, to the point of recruiting confused young people. Getting Laura Vandervoort, whose big break came playing the alien Supergirl…er, Kara on SMALLVILLE, for Lisa was another sly casting move, as was bringing aboard Joel Gretsch (as Father Jack), who knows a thing or two about alien abduction after starring on THE 4400. Oh, Alan Tudyk used to play Wash alongside Baccarin on FIREFLY. Gee, one begins to understand why everything feels familiar, even without seeing ALIEN NATION before or District 9 this summer.

Of course, that could be due to the clichés in the plotline: Morris Chestnut played a man with a mysterious past that comes back to haunt him just as he’s about to propose. And the FBI office investigating the case has a mole tipping off the bad guys, so our heroine — played by Elizabeth Mitchell, who has loads of science-fiction cred herself, thanks to her much-admired run as LOST’s Juliet — has to act as a lone wolf. That is, when she isn’t playing heroic single mom to surly teen Tyler, who has the requisite doofus best friend and a thing for comely newcomer Lisa. Zzzz…

Chad was told, “Compromising one’s principles for the greater good is not a shameful act. It is a noble one.” So if you want to watch V as currently constituted, then that’s fine. It’s diverting enough. But don’t delude yourself into thinking it’s for the greater good; it’s actually more of a lowest common denominator.

Contrast all this with STARGATE UNIVERSE, which takes some familiar ideas (It’s basically STARGATE crossed with STAR TREK: VOYAGER and a dash of LOST IN SPACE) and mashes them up into something greater than the sum of its parts. All SGU did was add a bunch of interesting character conflict, and really think about its premise; what’s really powerful and interesting about it? Then the-powers-that-be wrote good stories around those characters and ideas. Simple, right?

Simple as A-B-C. But can ABC pull it off with V?

Originally published on SoapOperaWeekly.com

Movies I Loved (and Hated) in 2009

The Hurt Locker

From Adventureland to Zombieland, there was quite a lot to like about movies in 2009 – and the good stuff was spread out over the course of the year. Both The Hurt Locker and Watchmen were released way back in March, and Avatar came out in mid-December. And while it’s not on this particular list, I quite enjoyed Sherlock Holmes (see my review), which was unwrapped on Christmas Day. I know, I know, it’s Jan. 2 – what took me so long to post this end-of-year list? Well, I’m still watching stuff, okay? I haven’t managed to catch Up yet, so reserve a potential 12th slot for that one.

And I want to emphasize that these are movies that I loved – not necessarily the best-made or deepest films of the year. I leave that to experts who have actually seen everything. (People still read Roger Ebert, right? Or is it all about Rotten Tomatoes now?) I know Watchmen has flaws, and The Hangover is rather silly, but hey, I enjoyed ‘em. So there! Now, on with the list…

Avatar: Like Life, Only Better

Neytiri and Jake as a Na'vi

Writer/director James Cameron’s first film since the blockbuster Titanic is another big-budget widescreen epic — but Avatar is like nothing you have ever seen before. It is a space opera, but on a much grander scale than ever before attempted.

Set on the physics-defying jungle world of Pandora, the movie stars Sam Worthington (Marcus, Terminator: Salvation) as Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine recruited for a science project that projects human minds into cloned bodies that mix human DNA with genetic material from the Na’vi, a race of 10-foot-tall blue, cat-like people who inhabit Pandora. A sociology team is studying Na’vi, while a military-industrial conglomeration is mining the world for a valuable mineral (an obvious McGuffin with the unlikely name Unobtianium). Jake is also recruited by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) to gather intel on the Na’vi in case the military ever needs to take action. Jake does his job — for Dr. Augustine’s science team and Quaritch – but perhaps a little too well. More than merely learning from the Na’vi, he goes native. And falls in love with Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, who played Uhura in this summer’s Star Trek).

Cameron is a master at world-building. Part of the reason the running time is so long is because he is willing to devote time to exploring Na’vi culture. Jake’s assimilation is not covered in a quick montage; he spends months there, and we explore the planet right alongside him as he becomes immersed in Na’vi spiritual culture. Cameron understands that it is important to like the Na’vi if we are going to root for them. And you will cheer for them.

V Redux: It Came From Madison Avenue

The new version of V is designed to be a reboot, but tacking on the conventions of our current TV landscape calls attention to the familiarity of the concept. Of course a little of this is part-and-parcel of being a remake, and thus unavoidable, however, everything that is being ladled on top is also all too familiar. V feels like we’ve seen it all before because we have seen it all before. Literally.

 

This time around, the idea is, when 21st-century aliens invade, they will not come as warriors, but rather as marketing agents. They will invade via advertising, with pamphlets, white teeth, long legs and tight butts. And a subtle message of inclusiveness and the common good. Heck, the Visitors were even offering “universal health care” — red meat for TV talking head Chad Decker (Scott Wolf), if only he hadn’t compromised his morals in exchange for ratings. Blast!

 

It was clever to cast Morena Baccarin (ex-Inara, FIREFLY/Serenity) as Anna, the beautiful public face of the Visitors; Baccarin also played Adria, the beautiful public face of the invading Ori cult on STARGATE SG-1. And, well, the Visitors are practically setting themselves up as a cult, to the point of recruiting confused young people. Getting Laura Vandervoort, whose big break came playing the alien Supergirl…er, Kara on SMALLVILLE, for Lisa was another sly casting move, as was bringing aboard Joel Gretsch (as Father Jack), who knows a thing or two about alien abduction after starring on THE 4400. Oh, Alan Tudyk used to play Wash alongside Baccarin on FIREFLY. Gee, one begins to understand why everything feels familiar, even without seeing ALIEN NATION before or District 9 this summer.