On Trial: Oscars '09

Opening Statements: Last night were the 81st Academy Awards. As per usual, I set aside my evening to watch the entire ceremony. Also, as per usual, I had a giddy feeling throughout the whole thing. I love the Oscars.

This year I hadn't seen many Oscar nominees. I wanted to the AMC showcase of all 5 Best Picture nominees, but lack of sleep and feeling ill the morning of trumped that idea. Instead I watched The Visitor on DVD to have at least seen one of the Best Actor nominations (And Richard Jenkins is from DeKalb, IL, where I went to college).

Movies that had any nominations that I saw prior to the ceremony:
The Visitor (1 nomination)
The Dark Knight (7 nominations, 2 wins)
Tropic Thunder (1 nomination)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (1 nomination, 1 win)
WALL-E (6 nominations, 1 win)
Iron Man (2 nominations)
Kung Fu Panda (1 nomination)
Presto (1 nomination)
which adds up to 20 nominations and 4 wins. A small percentage of the total. So unlike most people I won't be analyzing who should of won, who got their due, who was robbed, etc. I simply don't have the knowledge to compare.

I can, however, take a look at the ceremony itself.

This year was different. The new art department decided to take it another way and they sure succeeded. Whether or not every new idea should remain is up for debate, though. Is it guilty of making the Oscars impossible to watch, or innocent and a great addition to the showcase.

Cross-Examination

Music
Having Michael Giacchino run the music was a great idea. First off, I love his music from Lost. As I am a musician myself, I loved the idea of getting them out of the pit and onto the stage with everybody else. Some of the re-orchestrations were downright inspired as well. The swing Lawrence of Arabia that was mentioned brought chills down my spine. Also, having the orchestra play a medly of the nominated scores was also nice.
Verdict: Innocent

Opening Act
As much as I was wary of not having a comic as host, I thorughoughly enjoyd Hugh Jackman. His line of being an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called Australia had me laughing for a while. The song and dance number was awesome. Not only did it give a good shout out to the snubbed The Dark Knight, it included a nod to Iron Man as well. The final line of him being Wolverine had me cheering on my couch. It was awesome!
Verdict: Innocent

Acting Categories
This is why they kept the presenters secret. As much as I enjoyed the idea of past winners speaking directly to the nominees, I miss the film clips. In past years if I hadn't seen a movie by then the movie clips during the acting categories would give me an idea of what they did to get the nomination. I don't see either being any shorter than the other, so I'd say go back to the orignal format.
Verdict: Guilty

Clumping Categories
To save time, categories were often clumped together with the same hosts. While it saved time, it should be limited. Having Will Smith present for four different categories became a bit monotonous. Perhaps break up the sound away from Visual Effects and Editing? The technical awards are interesting but a bit boring. Having them together and not split up adds to that.
Verdict: Guilty

The Musical Song & Dance Number
It was fun. I am not a Beyonce fan, but she did have a movie out last year so it makes a bit of sense to have her. But I do feel the singers from High School Musical 3 and Mama Mia should have had a bit more to do rather than one song blurb and mostly act as backups. It took me a while to realize that they were even in the ensamble.
Verdict: Innocent

The Judd Apatow Film
Hilarious. While Pineapple Express was not one of my favorite Apatow films, they characters worked perfectly here. I laughed at comparing The Love Guru to Slumdog Millionaire. One a Razzie winner, one an Oscar winner. James Franco's reaction to himself in Milk was priceless.
Verdict: Innocent

The 2008 Clip Shows
I did not enjoy the look backs to 2008 as much as clip shows that deal with a longer history. However, the idea of giving credit to the films of the year that were not nominated for big awards was a caring touch. They did run a bit long, though. Also I wish they had had some words for which movies I was seeing clips of. Most I could recognize, but not all.
Verdict: Innocent

The Departed Clip Show
The short film itself was great, from what I could see. The camerawork when showing it was horrid. Zooms, pans, trucks. These were not necessary AT ALL. It was distracting. There were times where I could not read the names of those departed due to the camera trucking far away from the screen. Just stick with a direct feed of the screen from now on.
Verdict: Guilty

Closing Remarks
5 Innocent aspects to 3 Guilty. I think the Oscars were an improvment over last year in many aspects but not all. I have no idea how long it went or how previous ones have gone, so the overall time length has no bearing on my verdict.
Final Verict: Innocent. The Oscars have come a long way and have done a great job looking back. A few of the changes should be reconsidered or at least tweaked. With that the 2010 Oscars could be one to remember!