Bright Star

BRIGHT STAR

Up For: Best Achievement in Costume Design


A viewer must be in a right mood to simply sit down and take in Bright Star. Though the costumes were gorgeous and century appropriate, the dialogue and storyline is like reading the poetry that is being presented.

The performances were great. The two leads were wonderful, though the on-screen chemistry was through dialogue instead of physically (which is era appropriate I am sure). Paul Schneider was the best performance to come out of the film, followed closely by Ben Whishaw. Schneider, though not a main character, was dead on with accent, demeanor, and style. When ever there were moments of no Schneider, I was anticipating his return.

Bright Star is a great time piece, but as a film, lacks in engaging you. The entire plot is an on-again, off-again relationship between a poor poet and a woman, who really does nothing but scream, cry, and cut herself.

Bright Star has been the hardest film to watch of all the Oscar movies thus far, but not for a lack of trying more so than just not being my cup of tea. Personal opinion aside, the film was nicely done. Still not sure it will take home Best Costume Design with Young Victoria and even Coco Before Chanel as the competition.

(20 FILMS TO GO)

Avatar

AVATAR

Up For:
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Best Achievement in Directing
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Editing
Best Achievement in Art Direction
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Best Achievement in Visual Effects

For a long time, I waited to say my piece about Avatar (if you are a friend of mine, you have probably heard me rant about Avatar at least once). Just the idea of Avatar and its recycled storyline and one trick pony was, to me, hardly one of the best films ever made, in idea and ultimately in viewing.

Yes, the graphics were great and will win those awards accordingly. Best Visual Effects & Art Direction for sure. The rest I am not too sure. Many times I have compared the film to a Led Zepplin Laser Show. When all the reviews I hear of the film are "it was gorgeous" and "the colors were pretty" I want to ask, but how was the story, the acting, the score. The reason it is so pretty is because that's all it is.

The story was beaten to death. Pocahontas ring any bells? I know most stories are reused these days and that is fine. But this film was tagged as 20 years in the making?? Did James Cameron watch Pocahontas and then start the writing of this story. And in hopes of not making the same story twice waited 20 years to release so viewers were less likely to recall the plot of Pocahontas. I have also heard the comparison to Fern Gully, which resembled this film very much. As for hooking up to machines to "become" the Avatars, the Matrix films cover that. And, in the end, there is nothing wrong with reusing ideas, but do not make it the best selling film of all time... Do not award it the Academy Award for Best Picture. IT MEANT NOTHING.

Personally, it is simply no wonder that this was NOT nominated for ANY acting or screenplay awards. Plain and simple, those areas were horrible. The dialogue in portions was atrocious. At times this felt like a paint-by-numbers film (both visually & story-wise). Give me a break, in no way would people continuous be explaining how everything worked in this world (which is everything because this was like LOTR, nothing was normal). There was no mystery in this film. Everything was laid out in front of you, being painted as you went. What is the fun in that? I want a surprise here and there, I want a twist, a moment of tension where I think one thing might happen and then another occurrence comes out of nowhere... I do not want to see, clearly, the end of the film 15 minutes into the credits (especially when it is a 2 hours plus movie).

Caring for anything in Avatar was dismal. With all the hissing and "Come Get Some's" that were being thrown around, I never really connected with any of the characters. Problems were solved without any real understanding as to why. I could never buy what was going on (not in regards to the futuristic aspect).

The best performance in the film: Giovanni Ribsi. He had the smallest part, but he was the only one I truly believed. The rest were disposable. You honestly could have put any actor as any one of those characters and it would not have mattered one way or the other.

What it all comes down to is that Avatar is the highest grossing film in the history of films, and that just goes to show you where our society is at right now. For all the crap Transformers gets for being worthless, Avatar is that and worse, yet no one feels that because James Cameron, the creator of Titanic, created it. I have nothing personal against James Cameron either. If Michael Bay made this film, I would have felt the same.

Ultimately, this film will win some awards but any more than some and I will be severely disappointed. Please Hollywood, produce a film worthy of highest grossing film and soon.

(21 FILMS TO GO)