Hello Oscar, I’m Avatar, Nice to Meet You

Neytiri and Jake2Oscar Nominations are in, and Avatar has picked up 9 of them, including Best Picture and Best Director. Not to put a downer on anything but Titanic had 14 nominations. Too early for sibling rivalry? Ok, I’ll leave that alone. I’ve got other things on my mind.

So downer number 2. Seriously what is with the decision to have 10 Best Picture nominations? Some people say that maybe it was because there were so many good films to choose from, but I disagree. I think that maybe they wanted to send a message about Avatar – like, listen you CGI’d, non-artsy, tons-of-dough 3D blockbuster, there are a lot of other films that are far better contenders than you are so you better watch your blue behind! But maybe I’m just cynical or emotional, orNeytiri3 both.

Downer number 3. So Zoe Saldana didn’t get nominated for Best Supporting Actress which she probably could have easily. BlackBook’s article “Was Avatar’s Zoe Saldana snubbed by the Oscars” where the author, Robin Guha wrote “Sure most of us would agree that if honors were being handed out for Avatar‘s acting, then obviously Michelle Rodriguez’s five-line cameo deserves to be the front-runner,” made me see red. I 100% disagree with this statement. Obviously Ms. Guha  and most of her friends did not appreciate that there was a real live actress behind Neytiri, with real emotions along with a real gritty delivery of those emotions. That is not rocket science technology, it’s acting. People connected with that film because of the actors and their voices and their interaction and their movement. Not because the actors are playing an “animated” character!

Further to that, this is not pure animation like say Disney-Pixar’s Up where there’s no real live actor behind the character. There is a difference, a very big difference between the two. I’ve talked about Zoe Saldana’s acting Neytiribefore in other posts – in my view, for an actress to be able to convey such raw emotion through a CGI’d visual projection of her character, then that demonstrates far better ‘acting prowess’ than anyone. James Cameron himself stated to the Hollywood Reporter, “People confuse what we have done with animation. It’s nothing like animation. The creator here is the actor, not the unseen hand of an animator.” If people don’t recognize that, then they have a very narrow view of what constitutes acting. Maybe we need a new category? Um, Best Actor in an Animation-Like but Non-Animation Film? Or maybe just a new vision. We are moving into a technology-advanced world, shouldn’t our awards and recognition of such art media broaden to follow?

Anyway, enough of that. You all know if you’ve followed my blog on my love for Avatar where I stand. If you don’t, what are you waiting for? Type “Avatar” in the little search bar at the top and get going! I’ll see you guys for more Avatar-drama after the Oscars which airs on March 7, 2010.

2 Comments on Hello Oscar, I’m Avatar, Nice to Meet You

  1. Joshua Taylor
    September 12, 2010 at 11:52 am (14 years ago)

    michelle rodriguez is a bad ass woman, i like her tough woman personality:`-

    Reply
  2. Matthew Clark
    July 3, 2010 at 12:10 am (14 years ago)

    i love Michelle Rodriguez because this girl is fiesty;:`

    Reply

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