Transformers 0 for 3 At Oscars

Transformers struck out at the Oscars tonight, losing all three categories it was up for. Sound Mixing and Sound Editing went to The Bourne Ultimatum and Visual Effects was won by The Golden Compass.

I haven't bothered to watch the show since I saw 4 of the 5 Best Picture noms and was a bit horrified that they where the contenders. Juno is a silly movie with Ellen Page playing herself (wait till her next movie comes out to prove me right). Michael Clayton was incredibly full of itself and didn't really have much purpose and atrocious pacing. No Country for Old Men was just bizarre, where half the cast served no other purpose then to balloon the screen time and chew scenery. If you can remove half your cast and it has no effect on the picture then you have a poor picture. Oh and playing an un-emotional killer shouldn't be Oscar winning, that use to be called bad acting as anyone can do it (see Jason Voorhees). I tried to watch There Will Be Blood but its pacing problems and that horrendous atonal music was just a bit much for me.

As far as actors go, if you are a "Method" actor, to me you are no actor. It’s just a crutch. A true skilled professional should be able to switch in and out of their roles as simple as changing clothes. Just like a skilled engineer, cook, and so forth can just do what they do whenever the need arises. A writer doesn't have to "become" a character to write in their voice, they just have the skills to do it and call on it when needed. I think a true actor should be able to do the same. By being "Method" the person is essentially saying they don't have that critical skill set and they shouldn't be awarded for that.

My point is sadly the Academy that rewards these things tend to go for tried and true rather then genuine innovation in movies. I blame it for skewing 55+ in the average age for the voting members. They vote on the movies that remind them of the films they use to perform in and grew up on (those from '40s to '70s). It wouldn't surprise if most probably never saw Transformers because "It was too loud" but saw Golden Compass with their grandkids. Tech and sci-fi is still frowned upon because it reminds them of their horrible execution of way back when.

I think the safe, familiar voting of the Academy combined with the secrecy is a huge failure to the art it’s supposed to represent. If the academy wasn't its own secret society, where the votes where public (and therefore would have to explain), I think the results would be much more dynamic. It is also why the ratings go down each year because my generation and the next is a lot more skeptical of award shows then the previous and tend to notice the pattern of these strange and disagreeable choices more quickly. Maybe I will feel different if there was a movie to root for (other then Transformers) for the first time in years but there wasn't. In other words, it’s just another year of the same o same o. It saddens me because I use to like the awards and the more I see how it really works, the greater the disappointment. So ends the diatribe.

Congrats for the nominations and maybe better luck with Transformers 2.