ego much?

Today, James Cameron announced plans to write an Avatar novel. I just have to wonder what happens when he gets to the end of his VHS of Fern Gully 2. What happens after Pocahontas dies of small pox? Does James Cameron have the answer? Lets hope so.

Oscar Noms

So this morning I rose in my typical annual excitement for the release of the 2010 Oscar nominations. Somewhat disheartened by the Academy's announcement to expand the Best Picture category and the incredibly lack-luster award season thus far, I was looking for something to really throw me for a loop. But in their ultimately more conservative fashion, they failed to provide not one shock or surprise. I will not say that I had guessed the nominees verbatum, but the 2010 list is full of the expected, shaped by the last few weeks of the award season and the box office returns of one single, undeserving film (which I will leave unnamed for the very purpose of limiting its already over-saturated exposure).

Best Picture:
I think just about everyone had guessed their core five films: The Hurt Locker, An Education, Up in the Air, Precious, and Avatar. But the other five remaining spots opened the category up for some mediocre contenders. So now we have what I would like to think of as the most over-hyped film of the year, Inglorious Basterds, and the inevitable addition of the most critically acclaimed picture of the year, Up. These were not surprising choices for me based on the repetitive tone of the season, but I was enthused by a single film that made it into the bunch: Niel Blomkamp's District 9.

Blomcamp Boom:
I am undoubtably biased in this subject, but the aknowledgement of Blomkamp's brilliant directorial debut is my glimmer of hope this season. With nominations in Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Editing, and Visual Effects, this low budget cinematic wonder is a true representation of award recognition at its finest. Now, I anticipate that it will likely be aligned with Avatar and continually compared within the scifi genre. Everyone will say that Avatarreigns superior within the list of generic conventions. However, I would like to argue in opposition to this gross assumption. District 9 poses a break from the genre in support of a greater message at hand. Though the film ultimately emphasizes a weaponry and space craft world of aliens and invasion, the metaphorical allegory for the state of South Africa is one that takes it beyond the space-spectacle. Now, Avatar on the other hand vomits genre convention and spits Disney plots in our face (I will not continue to rant in order to spare everyone the grief.) But Blomkamp's vision of a neo-contemporary world is one that promises his genius in years to come.

Bye-Bye Boys Club
My hat does go off to this years' set of nominees for ignoring the ever-present influence of the Hollywood "Boys Club." The small set of acclaimed directors tends to dominate the Best Picture and Director categories year after year. Names like Scorsese, Howard, Spielberg, and Eastwood, have repeatedly made it onto the nominations list out pure "tradition" with little question to the merit of the work. But this year, despite the typical inspirational drama by Eastwood, Invictus is missing from the Best Picture category and Clint from Best Director. And frankly, though I believe the film to be painfully formulaic, it certainly had more merit than some of the other nominees at hand (which shall remain unspoken). But recognizing cinematic merit in this case, over the name , shows progress. We have, for the first time in my lifetime, the real chance for a woman to take home the Best Director prize. Let's make it happen, rather than allow James Cameron's ego to get any larger.

Hopeful Surprises
Well as much as the nominations fail to impress me, I hope that as voting for these categories ensues, the Academy chooses to think beyond box office numbers and traditional award winners. Spice this thing up a bit, I need a little excitement, for without award season, all I have is terrible chick flicks and b wolf movies to entertain me...

The Golden (dollar) Globes

Thanks, Golden Globes, for reminding me which films made the most money this year.

Sometimes, just for a second, I forget that awards can mean money over merit. But thanks, Hollywood Foreign Press, for reminding me to have no faith in the American film industry. In a world where Avatar can take home the best picture for pure box office gross makes me sick. Just when I think that hope can be restored in Hollywood, we see award season begin with a disgusting nod to the most gratuitous and overly spectacular movies of the year. This was nothing but numbers dominating talent. I'm not sure I want to be a part of a community where true films like Bigelow's The Hurt Locker fall because it didn't make a billion dollars in a matter of weeks. Awards are for recognizing cinematic talent, not for how much James Cameron can whip out his dick and wave it around in 3D.

"I see you"

I'll admit it. I just saw Avatar. And I will be the first to call myself culturally illiterate. So I obviously didn't fall into the hype of the film, or even muster enough energy to make it to the theater in those first few weeks. But i did manage to make it there finally, by the fourth week of sold out shows. By this point, I was of course, itching in my skin to see this film that had become a source of cultural bonding. Everyone and their mother had seen and loved this movie and I had yet to see it. Soon, nearly all my viewing companions had run out and I began to panic. Avatar was quickly becoming the major reference point for contemporary pop culture.

So I did it, I bit the bullet, shelled out nearly twenty bucks to do it properly (IMAX 3D) and sat through the three hour run time and tedious and inevitable line forming outside theaters across the nation. Now, to preface my final thoughts on the film I'd like to point out the curious nature of this Blockbuster Blow Out. The thing about Avatar that baffled me before my initial viewing was the homogeneous response to the film; everyone enjoys it. Now, being a pessimistic film student, this response immediately made me put my guards up. It's just not that easy to please a crowd this diverse. I mean, all of America? Really, James Cameron? This not only peeved me but put me on the defensive; i was determined to find fault.

So about two hours into the mother-fucker, I realized that my list of faults was highlighted by the typical slew of eye rolls and cringes at horrible dialogue and that I could probably go on and on about the problems with this bombastic spectacle, masking itself as cinema. But then I thought to myself that the biggest problem was that I was sitting there, thinking and watching the film and ultimately coming to a conclusion of apathy. I just didn't really give a shit by the time the nearly three hour run time ran out. Sure, it was beautifully computer generated, created an animated piece ripping its script from the pages of Disney's Pocahontas. But who cares? I guess the thing is, I can't generate enough emotion for this film to actually try to argue with people about why it was bad. I mean, sitting there, with my 3D goggles irritating the bridge of my nose, Avatar managed to wow me with economically backed visual spectacle, bore me to pieces as the inevitable and slow-mo'ed war ensued, and make me gag as alien love with sync human sound played out the love of two entirely fabricated and simply unbelievable beings. I get that I was supposed to be sucked in, and I'm sure most were, but nothing about the movie made me want to escape, so much about it just pointed towards typical Hollywood.

Maybe I'm just mad at the film for not even really generating hatred. I happened, and that's about all I can say other than, fuck you, Cameron for making me sit through it and creating an impossible film to argue to the masses about. But at the same time, whatever, it was lavish, bombastic and incredibly self-indulgent. Continue to feed your ego, Cameron, as long as you stay away for another decade.