March 1, 2004
7:41 AM
7:41 AM
Last night was geek night.
So last night The Lord of the Rings won all 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, tying the record held by Titanic and Ben-Hur. What a night for the genre, and what further proof for my theory that really great work in the fantasy/sci-fi vein can equal or surpass works from other genres. It's all about the story and the humanity of the characters – even when those characters aren't exactly human.
I definitely see your point – the humanity of the characters is very key to this movie – but I find it fascinating that the film swept everything except the best acting awards.
I can't quite figure out how that happened, except maybe that the acting was not as appreciated because it was clothed in all of the special effects, etc. I was bummed that Sean Astin didn't get a nod, specifically.
Would it kill the Academy to acknowledge comedians once in a while? Bill Murray got shafted last night (I know "Lost in Translation" isn't really a comedy but I always root for the funny people) and, as good a brooding actor as Sean Penn is, he doesn't have near the skills to carry off the number of brilliant funny roles Murray has, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" notwithstanding. Granted, awarding comedy would take all of the pretension out of the Oscars, but at least consider giving credit to a genre that's a hell of a lot harder to pull off than your weepy dramas.
Maybe the academy was afraid of the incipient nerd riots. (see PvP)
We had an Oscar Party last night. Elric won the pool. (It's not gambling!) I didn't watch much, as I had to edit until 1:30 am.
"It's all about the story." really sums up the problem with a lot of the genre. So much of the genre can be "aren't I clever" schlock that uses the plot as an overly verbose delivery mechanism for half-baked science.
(For fantasy, change "half-baked science" to "poor imitations of Tolkien". :)
There are some real gems out there, for sure, but there's a lot of noise.