Though “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” are the front runners in this year’s race, I don’t think either of them should win Best Picture.
“Avatar” is a visually compelling movie. Cameron’s dedication to the film is inspiring, and he has been rewarded for his effort by the sheer magnitude of the U.S. and worldwide box office numbers. Cameron deserves every visual and sound award he receives for the film because it is not only visually impressive, it has changed the way viewers look at the movies.
However, the plot seems to have been lifted from the animated movies of “Pocahontas” and “FernGully” &mdash except with a happy ending and lack of developed love story. Maybe it was because I could see the ending coming before the epic battle, but I was simply unimpressed.
The characters, the most essential part of any movie, had underdeveloped arcs &mdash analyzed closely even Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) motivation seems vapid of any true driving force. The acting isn’t completely terrible, but the script and stilted dialogue hinders the actors.
“Avatar” isn’t a terrible movie by any means, but the best movie of the year needs to have a stellar plot and characters, not just be visually stimulating.
“The Hurt Locker” was a small, low-budget film that didn’t even come to most theaters. However, director Katherine Bigelow used her budget well to produce a gripping thriller with a well thought-out plot and realistic characters.
Throughout the entire movie, I was constantly worried about the characters because the stakes were high. The last 30 minutes were exceptionally powerful, and I never saw the end of the film coming.
Though most of the stars in the film were not big names, they were talented and played their roles well. At times, I felt as if the film were really a documentary because of the tone Bigelow was able to create.
But even though “The Hurt Locker” had a gripping narrative and fascinating characters, I still cannot say it is the best movie nominated.
Other movies that don’t have much chance at winning like “Up in the Air” and “Inglourious Basterds” were far more compelling than either of the two frontrunners. However, there is one movie that should clearly win but has less chance than any of the other nine nominees.
Pixar created a masterpiece called “Up” and took more creative risks than even James Cameron did when he was creating “Avatar” &mdash there have been successful movies about strange planets before. An animated film about an old man and a young boy going on adventure doesn’t exactly scream box office success. But Pixar created a film both worthy of its box office success and the title of Best Picture.
The story speaks to children, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged adults and senior citizens &mdash I don’t know another film from the 10 nominees that is able to do that. Its plot obviously has a thread but the viewer doesn’t always know where the movie is going.
Carl Fredricksen (Edward Asner) and Russell (Jordan Nagai) are protagonists the audience can cheer for.
Even though part of the prologue lacks dialogue the animators were able to show the ranges of emotion properly on their characters.
Out of any of the Best Picture films, this connected with me the most &mdash I felt like this was the one that best captured its characters and made full use of its possibilities. The story was original, creatively told and touching.
But because “Up” is animated, the Academy is going to snub it, like it has snubbed animated movies for years.
But then again, when has the Academy ever gotten anything right?
However, despite most speculators believing either “Avatar” or “The Hurt Locker” will win on Sunday, the variety of choices and new voting system &mdash where films are ranked by voters on a scale of one through 10 &mdash could lead to a surprise win.
Maybe for the first time since 2003 when “Return of the King” won Best Picture, I might be able to get behind the Oscars for rewarding the best film instead of the most “popular” or most “artsy.”
Hannah Rogers is the entertainment editor for The Reflector. She can be contacted at [email protected].