Wednesday 26 January 2011

Oscar Nominations

It's that time of year again; the Oscar nominations for 2011 have been announced, and accordingly, I feel I should make my opinion on them known, for the three of you who will actually read this.

For the most part, the Academy's decisions look pretty good, if predictable. Sadly, I have yet to see several of the films that have been nominated, largely because getting to the cinema is awkward and expensive. That said, there aren't really any surprises in the Best Picture category; everything that has been nominated was fairly predictably going to get nominated. It's nice to see Toy Story 3 get a nod, even if it almost certainly won't win. I haven't seen The King's Speech yet, but considering the number of nominations it has, and the general buzz about the film, I'm predicting it to take home the Best Picture award.


Now, as I said, I haven't seen The King's Speech, so what follows is not exactly fair. All the same, I think it's a damn shame that Inception isn't going to win Best Picture. The King's Speech is certainly more the Academy's kind of film, being small-scale and talky rather than the effects-based action blockbuster that Inception was, and it may indeed be the better film. For me, however, that's doesn't matter, because I will always champion quality science fiction, because frankly, somebody has to; the Academy doesn't care for it as a rule. I thought it had a very good shot at the award, and while it has a Best Picture nomination, it hasn't been nominated for Best Editing, and statistically speaking, you need at least a nomination in Best Editing to win Best Picture; the last time the Best Picture winner didn't have an Editing nod was in 1981. So, Inception probably won't win, which is a real pity.


Fortunately, it's up for a whole lot of other awards, with particularly deserving nominations in Best Original Screenplay and Best Visual Effects; if there's any justice it will win the latter, at least. Nolan's lack of a Best Director nomination is pretty inexplicable, however; we can probably put this down to the Academy's snobbishness regarding science fiction and summer blockbusters.


For me, the other extremely disappointing aspect of this year's awards selection is the total absence of nominations for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which is definitely up there with the year's best films. Apparently the Academy doesn't like niche, geeky, magically realistic films which no one went to see. Who knew? Still, it would have been nice to see it get a Visual Effects nomination, and it really deserves a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its absence isn't a surprise, because it really isn't the Academy's kind of film, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

I realise I only talked about a few films and a few categories, but I talked about what I'm most interested in. As I said, most of the nominations aren't surprising, and therefore there's not a great deal to say about them; I thought it would be more interesting to talk about things which didn't get nominated and should have been. We'll find out which film wins which award on February 27th; check back here for commentary on the awards themselves.

Thursday 20 January 2011

The Dark Knight Rises: Speculation

With news beginning to arrive on the sequel to The Dark Knight, it's natural that people are going to wonder what the plot will be. With the recent announcement that Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman and that Tom Hardy will be Bane, there's going to be a lot of internet speculation and I thought I'd get my opinions out there. TDKR is probably my most anticipated film at the moment, with the possible exception of The Hobbit.

Catwoman's involvement in the story is a pretty logical one. Following the events of the last movie, Bruce is even more emotionally damaged than before and is, apart from Alfred, completely alone. A new love interest  would be a natural addition to the story, and considering that Catwoman is a criminal, it would probably make Bruce question his loyalties and motivations, which would definitely be interesting to see.

For me, however, the more intriguing announcement is that Bane will be in the film. I assume he'll be the main villain, with Catwoman as the secondary one, like Scarecrow in Batman Begins or Two-Face in TDK. Now, the most notable Joker story is The Killing Joke, which was a big influence on TDK in terms of plot and themes. The most notable Bane story is Knightfall, which also happens to be one of Batman's greatest and most crushing defeats. I think it's safe to assume that Knightfall will influence TDKR in some way, which of course begs the question: will we see this happen?


It would certainly fit with the bleakness of the overall story so far, but I wonder if it'll be too much. The film is called The Dark Knight Rises, after all, not Broken Bat. If they introduce the possibility for a successor to Bruce it could make sense, but it'll still be incredibly depressing even by the standards already set.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

Monday 3 January 2011

Your Highness

As a long time fan of fantasy fiction, and simultaneously a critic of much the genre has to offer (see previous post), I often find myself in an awkward position. I claim to love something, and yet not only concede that most of it is terrible, but indeed make a point of criticising it myself. The troubles I have with the fantasy genre are many and varied, and a subject for another day; however, because of my situation, I tend to find myself latching onto and ferociously humping the leg of any example of the genre that looks promising. Accordingly, I present the trailer for Your Highness, a film I only heard about recently but which has become one of my most anticipated films of 2011.


It looks a bit like a stoner, more sweary version of The Princess Bride, the best fantasy movie not to star Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins. Sure, the humour is crude and silly, but there's a big difference between silly and stupid, and crude humour is fine by me so long as it's funny. And this looks very funny. It looks to be a smart, affectionate parody of typical fantasy tropes as well as a stoner buddy movie, and I think it looks a lot of fun. It won't be winning any awards, but sometimes all you want is a good time at the movies, and I suspect this will provide that.

For the red-band trailer, head over to Empire.