The Oscars Are Tonight

I predict Avatar is going to get "Best Picture" and James Cameron is going to go up and pretend he made a good movie with a great story. Honestly, if the movie had come out in April 2009, the charm would have worn off and he wouldn't be a contender for anything except "Best Visual Effects" (which, for his innovations in motion capture, he deserves).

I mean, how can you get "Best Picture" without having "Best Actor/Actress" or "Best Writing"? Of course a good score (which it was undeservedly nominated for) helps. Of course all of these things enhance movies. Great sound editing, mixing, effects, and all that can enhance movies. But, really, when an editor has to splice together mediocre acting (which Avatar had in spades), a shitty script, and a shitty, stolen, unoriginal story, it's still makes the movie as a whole bad.

Let me put it this way, no matter if you had God itself editing Gigli, Plan 9 From Outer Space, or whatever Blue Collar Comedy fronted movie about being American they feel like putting out this week, you'd still come out with a gloriously edited shitty movie.

The movies that stand up as truly great are movies like Rear Window, Godfather, Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Dr. Strangelove, or It's A Wonderful Life. All of these movies had sparse visual effects and editing magic. In particular Pulp Fiction had a particularly bad editing moment that I can pull off the top of my head, but was a good film overall. Avatar will not hold that candle. "You should have seen it in 3D" will last until someone makes something prettier. We don't watch The Matrix for visual effects anymore. Ben Hur won for "Best Cinematography" and the most iconic scene in the film is largely based on that cinematography, but could that hold a candle to what movie makers are able to do now, with films like Saving Private Ryan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or The Dark Knight? No. Against those movies, Ben Hur would lose. But that's not why it stuck around.

Now, am I saying that cinematography, art direction, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects are useless in film and shouldn't be recognized? No. But all of those things alone will not make a great film. Certainly, they can break your film if executed poorly. They can also make your movie resonate with greater effect (like when Harvey Dent is holding Gordon's child at gunpoint in The Dark Knight, the music has always made the scene hit harder for me). But, for fuck's sake, that's not what makes a movie truly great. Without a story, acting, and directing, you have shit. And honestly, if you're actors aren't at the top of their game, I can't say that you have done your job as a director. I'd never seen Sam Worthington before, so that's all well and good, but I've seen Sigourney Weaver do better. And, so, as a director, I can't say James Cameron did something that he should be awarded for if he's not inspiring great things from a good actor like Mrs. Weaver.

To sum all this up, I'll just say this is my part 2 of a three part "fuck you" fest about Avatar. I hope that anything but Avatar and Blind Side win Best Picture.