Why do most action movie / block buster type films ever get Oscar consideration.

[Quinnsanity]

Movie. Film. I happened to love TDKR and The Avengers, but good films they are not. TDKR suffers from some TERRIBLE pacing and some TERRIBLE dialogue. And that's coming from one of the biggest Christopher Nolan fans there is. I love his directing style, but I literally mute the dialogue between Batman and Bane in their final fight. "Did you come here to watch Gotham burn?" "No, I came here to stop you." That's awful. That's cringe-worthy. And there are several large plot holes in TDKR. Yes, it was made well. There are many GREAT aspects of TDKR, but it is not a complete film. As far as The Avengers? You know that when you sacrifice any sense of traditional cinematography just to show off elaborate set pieces, you're not trying to take yourself seriously in legitimate film award ceremonies. The acting was great, and it was a fun ride, but it did nothing extremely artistic and nothing noteworthy or imaginative in the arena of film.

I completely agree with this. I loved TDKR the first time around, now I can't watch it without noticing the incredible flaws. However, those same flaws don't exist with The Dark Knight. I'm curious to hear your take on it from an Oscar standpoint. It had a legendary performance (Heath Ledger's Joker), a fantastic overall cast (Bale/Eckhart/Freeman/Oldman were all fantastic, Gyllenhall was the only weak link), a really creative story and fantastic visuals. Honestly what puts it over the top for me is that I don't even really think of it as a super hero movie, I think of it as a glimpse into the mind of the criminally insane and a satire on terrorism in modern society. You could build an entire movie around the Joker without even mentioning the Batman, if the Joker were an original character you could easily have built a story around Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon trying to save the city from him. I think it suffered during Oscar season simply because of the fact that it was a blockbuster and voters don't want to vote for them.

[Tragedy]

Oscars don't mean too much ever since Goodfellas got screwed.

[GOON MUSIC]

Avatar sucked ***, the fact that you think that movie deserved a best picture Oscar makes me not wanna bother debating

[Tongue-Splitter]

I completely agree with this. I loved TDKR the first time around, now I can't watch it without noticing the incredible flaws. However, those same flaws don't exist with The Dark Knight. I'm curious to hear your take on it from an Oscar standpoint.

I also loved TDK, but it had several flaws (in my opinion) that made it okay for me to not see it win best picture. Maggie was awful. She's a great actress, but she wasn't in this, and she isn't attractive. Also, the ferry scenes. My goodness, those ferry scenes were awful. It sucks because if it wasn't for those ferry scenes, it would probably still be my favorite movie. They were so contrived and unnecessary it kills me. First, why in God's name would you load a ferry full of criminals? There is no rationale behind that. Second, the scenes were awful. It could have worked. If it would have just been two ferries without any prisoner angle, and if they wouldn't have shown the passengers bickering it would have been fine. But I cannot get over those scenes, especially, "I'm gonna do what you should have did ten minutes ago." It's painful to watch now, therefore I think the Oscar for best picture was not earned.

Still, Nolan got robbed of best director. Didn't even get nominated.

[gcoll]

If you think that along with the Batman movies and the Avengers are "terrible" movies than Im curious what movies you think aren't.

Plenty. . . I mean, I liked both American Psycho and Fight Club (two movies you listed).

I'm excited for the Hobbit and Django Unchained.

[infernoscurse]

I honestly think the academy has a bias against movies that were incredibly successful financially. They're a bunch of hipsters, they don't want to acknowledge what we all saw, they want to let us know that are opinions aren't good enough and if something is popular that means it's overrated. Here's how I look at the Oscars using 2011 as an example. From that year in movies we will remember the Social Network first, Inception second and The King's Speech third. I've seen the King's Speech and it is a fine movie, but it is not as good or as important to society as The Social Network was. The Social Network should have won that Oscar. That's how I think Oscars should be handled. What will we remember from that year in cinema? If there is a truly great smaller movie than I'm happy to give it the Oscar. But look at 2008. Slumdog was obviously a great movie, but the Dark Knight was just as good and when we think of 2008 in terms of cinema we'll think of the Dark Knight first. Nobody still talks about Slumdog, plenty of people still think of the Dark Knight. It meant more to us.

the social network? really?

[valade16]

I also loved TDK, but it had several flaws (in my opinion) that made it okay for me to not see it win best picture. Maggie was awful. She's a great actress, but she wasn't in this, and she isn't attractive. Also, the ferry scenes. My goodness, those ferry scenes were awful. It sucks because if it wasn't for those ferry scenes, it would probably still be my favorite movie. They were so contrived and unnecessary it kills me. First, why in God's name would you load a ferry full of criminals? There is no rationale behind that. Second, the scenes were awful. It could have worked. If it would have just been two ferries without any prisoner angle, and if they wouldn't have shown the passengers bickering it would have been fine. But I cannot get over those scenes, especially, "I'm gonna do what you should have did ten minutes ago." It's painful to watch now, therefore I think the Oscar for best picture was not earned.

Still, Nolan got robbed of best director. Didn't even get nominated.

I think you're unfairly picking on The Dark Knight in this instance as every movie has contrived parts. Heck, The Hurt Locker, which won best picture, had the 2 bomb diffusers enter and clear a building by themselves. Think about that for a second and you will realize how incredibly "Rambo" like that is.

[tnewkirk]

because most of them dont deserve awards.just because something is popular doesnt mean its good/better

also i dont see what your saying,plenty of blockbusters get nominated and win awards.just look up the the nomminated and winners through oscar histoy

this, i dont know how avengers has an 8.4 on imdb.

[tnewkirk]

I completely agree with this. I loved TDKR the first time around, now I can't watch it without noticing the incredible flaws. However, those same flaws don't exist with The Dark Knight. I'm curious to hear your take on it from an Oscar standpoint. It had a legendary performance (Heath Ledger's Joker), a fantastic overall cast (Bale/Eckhart/Freeman/Oldman were all fantastic, Gyllenhall was the only weak link), a really creative story and fantastic visuals. Honestly what puts it over the top for me is that I don't even really think of it as a super hero movie, I think of it as a glimpse into the mind of the criminally insane and a satire on terrorism in modern society. You could build an entire movie around the Joker without even mentioning the Batman, if the Joker were an original character you could easily have built a story around Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon trying to save the city from him. I think it suffered during Oscar season simply because of the fact that it was a blockbuster and voters don't want to vote for them.

agree, i noticed a lot the first time but even more the second. good but not good as tdk.

[Tongue-Splitter]

I think you're unfairly picking on The Dark Knight in this instance as every movie has contrived parts. Heck, The Hurt Locker, which won best picture, had the 2 bomb diffusers enter and clear a building by themselves. Think about that for a second and you will realize how incredibly "Rambo" like that is.

I know, but that scene in TDK really bothers me because I loved the movie otherwise, and the acting was just so terrible. The reason I hate on it so much is because I wanted it to be better than that. Like I said, if not for those couple scenes, TDK would be my favorite movie ever. As it stands, The Thing is my favorite.

[OptiMized]

I also loved TDK, but it had several flaws (in my opinion) that made it okay for me to not see it win best picture. Maggie was awful. She's a great actress, but she wasn't in this, and she isn't attractive. Also, the ferry scenes. My goodness, those ferry scenes were awful. It sucks because if it wasn't for those ferry scenes, it would probably still be my favorite movie. They were so contrived and unnecessary it kills me. First, why in God's name would you load a ferry full of criminals? There is no rationale behind that. Second, the scenes were awful. It could have worked. If it would have just been two ferries without any prisoner angle, and if they wouldn't have shown the passengers bickering it would have been fine. But I cannot get over those scenes, especially, "I'm gonna do what you should have did ten minutes ago." It's painful to watch now, therefore I think the Oscar for best picture was not earned.

Still, Nolan got robbed of best director. Didn't even get nominated.

I love reading your stuff about movies, lol i think i said this in TDKR thread too.

The bolded: Gordon said that he was worried that those criminals were going to be part of the jokers plan (funny enough that actually happened in TDKR with Banes plan) and wanted them out of the equation. Maybe you knew that already but it didn't bother me THAT much when i remembered Gordon's sit-down with the Mayor.

I'm with you about the actual ferry scenes though wish they didn't have them in it.

PS. those scenes where batman is fighting the SWAT and jokers men at once was soooo well done. I always re-watch that part.

[valade16]

I know, but that scene in TDK really bothers me because I loved the movie otherwise, and the acting was just so terrible. The reason I hate on it so much is because I wanted it to be better than that. Like I said, if not for those couple scenes, TDK would be my favorite movie ever. As it stands, The Thing is my favorite.

Can't fault you for that, amazing movie.

I showed it to my GF and she didn't like it... had to do some soul searching that day.

[Cub_StuckinSTL]

Cowherd went on a rant a few weeks ago on why The English Patient won the award for best picture over Jerry McGuire

[Rosh]

Avatar was a pretty bleh movie aside from the visuals.

[Rosh]

the social network? really?

The Social Network had a lot of the buzz and appeared to be on the inside track for BP until King's Speech came out. TSN was a well-made movie. I would have had no issue with it winning BP.