For someone who loves film, I can honestly say that the 84th annual Academy Awards was one of the most boring and predictable shows I can remember.
This year the Academy Awards were hosted by Billy Crystal, who has hosted eight times before, which should say enough about the level of excitement of the evening.
Winners this year included The Artist, taking the Oscar for Best Picture among other prizes; Octavia Spencer for Best Supporting Actress; and Meryl Streep for Best Actress.
For the most part, winners in the top categories were fairly predictable, but even what some would consider Meryl Streep’s “upset” was predictable.
It’s important to say that hosting the Oscars is no easy task, and after last night it was evident that even someone who’s done it eight times before has difficulty keeping both the attentions of live and at home audiences.
The night was filled with what seemed like a chummy and self-satisfied act on Crystal’s behalf with constant laughter at his own jokes that, quite frankly, weren’t funny.
After last year’s disastrous hosting job by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, the Academy wanted to play it safe. Somehow they hoped that this year’s safe and poorly paced telecast would help erase last year’s show from memory. Also, compared to the ratings of the recent Grammy’s, there really wasn’t much of a comparison.
For the most part, there were few surprises for the winners in top categories. “The Artist,” whether you liked it or not, was a shoe-in for Best Director, Picture and Actor. Octavia Spencer winning Best Supporting Actress for “The Help” was no surprise either. She also won awards in that same category in other awards ceremonies in the past few weeks.
However, while many spectators expected Viola Davis to win Best Actress, Meryl Streep took the win for that category by surprise.
All over Twitter and Facebook walls people posted rants about how Meryl Streep won yet again or how another actress should be given the chance to shine.
But what many people don’t realize is that Meryl Streep hasn’t received an award for that category in almost three decades. Regardless of whether I thought the Iron Lady was a good film or not, Meryl Streep continues to be one of the best actresses out there.
But, like the rest of the show, even that was predictable. It almost seems as if some of the most exciting parts of the night weren’t even during the awards ceremony.
Just look at how many stories and pictures there are of Angelina Jolie’s leg. Maybe they should have put some of that into the telecast instead of Billy Crystal. I sure would have watched more, instead of fast-forwarding on my DVR along with the rest of America.
Rudy Mendoza is a junior communications major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.