January 10 marked an important day for the nation: the day that the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were announced. That day was also important to me because it marked the day that I gave up on the Oscars.
I eagerly looked at the nominees for best picture. Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi.
I felt like there were some movies missing from this list, so I checked Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Something was very wrong.
Where was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey? More importantly, where were all the superheroes? With Marvel’s The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man, I was sure that the three films would be sure to dominate the awards. Never have I been so wrong.
The Caped Crusader and the Rebooted Webslinger were not anywhere on the list of nominations. I did not see the first film in the rebooted Spiderman series, so I cannot make any claims about which categories in which it should have received a coveted “Oscar nod”.
I did see The Dark Knight Rises in theaters and again once it came out on DVD. I am completely surprised and totally appalled by the fact that this movie, often praised as the best Batman movie of the Christopher Nolan trilogy (and possibly any movie starring the brooding Bruce Wayne and his heroic alter ego), did not receive a single nomination.
The summer’s biggest blockbuster, Marvels’s The Avengers, received one nomination for Best Visual Effects. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will have to eliminate the competition in order to secure one win for people everywhere who wear skintight spandex suits and fight crime, capes fluttering in the breeze.
They have some tough foes to defeat to walk away with that little golden man, including Life of Pi, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus and in my opinion the biggest contender, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Why did this happen? Does the academy have something against defenders of justice and truth? Honestly, I think so.
The last nomination for a superhero movie was Iron Man 2 for Best Visual Effects in 2011. The last wins for a superhero movie were Best Sound Editing and Heath Ledger’s Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, which had six other nominations in 2008.
Within the past 10 years, there have been only five other nominations and one win for superhero movies.
These numbers do not make sense to me. The two highest grossing films this year were Marvel’s The Avengers ($1,511.8 mil) and The Dark Knight Rises ($1,081 mil). The Amazing Spider-Man ($752.2 mil) came in 7th. The highest grossing film that was nominated for Best Picture was Life of Pi ($451.7 mil), which came in 13th.
Now I can totally understand what everyone is thinking at this point. “Becki, what are you talking about? The academy does not concern itself with the box office gross. It cares about intricate storytelling, heart wrenching scenes, and the overall artistic effect. If you want what the people like, you should watch the People’s Choice Awards.”
Touché, random citizen. I would like to point out that just a few years ago, The Dark Knight had eight nominations. EIGHT. While it is not as many as Lincoln received, it is still pretty good considering most movies do not get any.
As far as the People’s Choice Awards go, I would much rather watch that. I know who the people are that voted for those are. They are people like me, my friends and my family, not elitist movie snobs who live out in Hollywood.
Also, the People’s Choice Awards have a category called Favorite Movie Superhero. However, Batman did not win this year, so I guess those are rigged, too, but that is a rant for another time.
Sources: oscar.com, oscars.org, boxofficemojo.com, mtv.com
Photos: webpronews, oscars.org, nightheaven.org
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