Thank you James Cameron...

[Darth Mandarb]

Misj' - you are most assuredly not a "hater" in the context I was referring to.  Thank you for your views on the Oscar noms!  I actually enjoyed reading them (even though I don't fully agree )  Well done.  I enjoyed the experience of Avatar better than District 9 but were I to pick which was the "better" movie I'd probably have to pick District 9.  I loved it.

Ryan Timothy - shut up you stupid fan-boy!!!  

To clarify; I think there's nothing wrong with being a fan-boy!  Just in blindly supporting something because you're a fan-boy.  I am a Cameron fan-boy and am not ashamed to admit it.  I love his movies and his direction style.  I wouldn't defend a movie of his that I didn't like because of this though.  I mean, I loved The Patriot and Stargate but Roland Emmerich has made some shite movies (10,000 BC was a colossal pile of doodoo and 2012 was only a rung or two above 10,000 BC on the doodoo ladder) and I loath the movies when he teams up with that hack Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Godzilla).

[veryweirdguy]

The Oscar nominations are interesting this year.

While I consider District 9 to be a better movie than Avatar (and while I did like Avatar, I also preferred Inglourious Basterds, Up and Up In The Air) I still think Avatar will take Best Picture. Everything I have seen seems to believe that if you're in Best Picture and not Best Director then you've basically no chance. Which is a shame.

I've not seen Hurt Locker but most reckon it's Avatar's main competition for the two main categories, although I'd love to see Tarantino swoop in for either.

RE: Zoe Saldana - should she deserve a best actress nomination? This is becoming more of a factor these days, since Gollum was such a believable character and in a few years these CG characters may be the norm. What people seem to forget is the performance on screen - which at the end of the day is how the category should be judged, regardless of how it was done - was not just produced by Saldana, but an army of animators, modellers, etc. If Saldana deserves an Oscar, do they not all deserve one too? See answer below.













Answer: I don't actually know the answer. I'm sorry.

[Chicky]

Up wasn't nominated for art direction?

[Digital Mosaic Games]

I saw Avatar 3d too and this movie is a masterpiece.
I was involved in an other world.  :oJames Cameron is like J.R.R. Tolkien. He has invented his own world with his own cultures and organisms. Simply amazing!
It is unbelievable how many artists worked together so many years to get the
end-product. And this was it worth. It is one of the best movies I´ve ever seen....
NO...wait...it IS the best movie I´ve ever seen! 8)

Has it already an oscar?

[Jim Reed]

I watched it the other day. It had plot holes so large you could sink a cow in them. Aye, nice CGI, but graphics are not enough to keep the movie afloat.
As for the oscars... They're rigged.

[Spire]

I would maintain that imaginative images can indeed make a great film, at least from my standpoint.  Case in point:  The Fall, a film which has a simple, familiar story at best: essentially in the form of a bedtime story told to a child.  Because of this, half of the film critics hated it, because they go to watch a movie for the story above all else, preferably one that is original and/or literate.  Nothing wrong with that.

However, the other half of the film critics loved it, because the film was bursting with tons of creativity, imagination, and sheer scope.  In their minds, the images were so compelling and beautiful that they became absorbed in the movie as much as if there were an incredibly original story.  But on top of that, they felt that although the film might not contain the strongest story, it was still very well told.  As someone once said, to paraphrase: "it's not what story you tell that matters, but how you tell it."

Of course, neither one of these ways is the "right" way to evaluate a film.  I often find myself on both sides of the above spectrum!  It all depends on what you want from a film, whether it be emotional or intellectual stimulation, or both combined.  Someone is not automatically smart because they liked 2001: A Space Odyssey, or stupid because they hated it.  In a similar vein, the inverse is true of a film like Transformers 2.  Although try telling that to the people on the IMDb forums... 

Anyway, with regard to Oscar noms, I have seen 6 of the 10 Best Picture nominees: Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Up, and Up in the Air.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, so bring on the Oscars!