2013 Oscar Noms: Reactions of a Fangirl

Time for some caps lock, guys, and you know they're coming. Here is the full nominee list I am using. Let's do this:

CATEGORIES PEOPLE KIND OF CARE ABOUT:

• LES MIS is a Best Pic nom! Excited and surprised that's become my favorite for this season, I think. 
• DJANGO for Best Pic as well, surprised kind of but also happy. Will this get Leo in a seat at the Oscars??? I don't think so and that makes me want to die. 
• 9 BP NOMS and I have only seen 4, ugh. (LET'S JUST SIDENOTE THAT I LOVE LINCOLN AND ARGO ALSO THERE'S THAT.) I guess I can see Silver Linings easily enough but I am not interested in any of the others really fml. 
• HUGH JACKMAN LANDS HIS FIRST OSCAR NOM FOR LES MIS AND DEF SHOULD HAVE BC HE WRECKED ME GUISE, JUST WRECKED ME, TEARS AND SNOT EVERY WHERE ajsdlkfjaskdfv afdgh
• But DDL will win instead so wahhhhhh (even though I love him, too ... win/win I guess...?) 
• Also, just read an article about JOAQUIN PHOENIX yesterday and how he hates the Oscars so CONGRATS DUDE ON YOUR NOMINATION.
• Oh Denzel surprise didn't see you thar!
• Seen NONE of the movies where are lovely main lady noms come from but my girlfriend JESSICA CHASTAIN is in there so WOO HOO I guess. 
• OH LOOK BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR THIS SHOULD BE WEHRE LEO- wait wut?
• WHAT?
• WUT IS THIS ..? SHOCKING NO LEO DICAPRIO IN THAT CATAGORY OHGOD WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?
• this girl. this girl would have thought. 
• I am so far beyond being ragey about this by now that I just feel a piece of my soul die each year Leo isn't nominated when he should have been so... basically yeah. 
• Each time Leo doesn't get nominated for a great role, it means the Academy has created another horcrux. 
• OH BUT CHRISTOPH WALTZ FROM DJANGO IN THAT CATEGORY? Even though he was arguably the star of the movie? OKAY THAT MAKES SENSE NO BIG DEAL Kasj gkadfhjknsghunfairrrrrrr
• FML bc Leo ain't gonna be at the Oscars look fly in a suit. 
• LOOKING SO FLY UGH
• ANNE HATHAWAY got a nom, OF COURSE, for my fave, Les Mis!!! Hopefully she'll win bc I am so over Amy Adams. I love her but I don't get why people think she's this great actress ..(.I've NEVER been very impressed with her. Just in Junebug and in Catch Me If You Can. The. End.)
• Wow 5 animated noms... snore. 
• Now for the Directing SNUBS, er... I mean Noms. LOOK, NO BEN AFFLECK. AND NO QT? Ok, fine QT, this was not his best work (though it may be one of my personal faves), but BEN... I just think he deserved a nom for Argo over some of the others lifeofpi or beasts, I loved it. Seriously. srsly. ALSO NO HOOPER FOR LES MIS. Just realized...w ut?

AND NOW CATEGORIES NO ONE CARES ABOUT BUT ME! 

• ANNA KARENINA IS IN CINEMATOGRAPHY AND COSTUME OH GOD EXACTLY WHAT IT DESERVES. It was such a beautiful movieeeeeeeee
• (Remember when I had hope for Keira to have an Oscar nom this year? PAHAHA, welp. At least I am not disappointed bc I didn't expect. And won't expect one for a while since she's decided to do that Adam Levine movie with the worst title in history, "Can a Song Save Your Life?" the answer is NO)
• Ugh and I just love Les Mis in costumes, and Lincoln... and I know I was the only one who loved LAWLESS.. but I WISH it were in that category as well bc those costumes were great. Hardy in a cardy 5ever.
• Hey look, documentaries happened this year...
• Argo for film editing... Lincoln too, even though that movie was super long. It didn't feel that long... no Django bc let's be honest, Django WAS too long. but i still loved and enjoyed it calm down sheesh
• ANNA KARENINA FOR SCORE ALSO OH GOD MY HEART.  My love affair with Dario Marianelli knows no bounds. 
• And of course, the only reason they added a song to Les Mis is so they could be nominated for an Oscar and it has paid off. HUGH PLEASE PERFORM IT AT THE CEREMONY OKAY? OKAY.
• AVENGERS GOT A NOM bahahahah forgot that was a thing, guys, I totally did. Yay tech awards, I guess. 
• At least QT got a writing nom. And so did Moonrise, which I am rooting for for my fran who loves that movie. 

THE END. 

Tolkien Snob: Thoughts on The Hobbit

I went into this movie with very low expectations because of all the soap boxes I got onto during the development of this movie (especially the announcement that it was going to all of a sudden become a trilogy). For the most part, my biggest problem with what I KNEW Peter Jackson was going to do was make The Hobbit NOT about the hobbit, Bilbo, thus making a movie that's more about how bright and shiny Middle-earth is than it is about my favorite character. How could Bilbo actually be overshadowed in his own story when he's the title character?! It was an infuriating idea, but was something I knew would happen and I prepared myself for it.

Spoilers below I guess. 

In the end, here are my thoughts on the film:

The Hobbit should be The Hobbit, but since I knew it wasn't going to be about that going in, I lowered my expectations and so it was ok. I liked it. I loved parts. I disliked parts. It's more about the Rise of the Shadow in Middle-earth than The Hobbit storyline, but again. I already knew that was going to happen. Also, anything that gives Andy Serkis more "screen time" can never be a bad decision. When Gollum happened I had too much of a fangirl reaction to be normal. I love Andy Serkis and I am not ashamed.

Had I not been a Tolkien fan, this movie would have dragged on and on. I loved the beginning because there was Frodo and old Bilbo, but then the introduction of all the dwarves took forever. I did end up liking them all much more than I expected, save for Thorin who I didn't like at all, though I wish I had. Regular movie-goers (opposed to book nerds) probably felt like dozing the entire beginning. They wanted a journey, but we were still in Bag End an hour after the film started.

The last fight scene was so over-the-top slow-motion dramatic I am sure you could hear my eyes rolling. The pale orc was way overdone as well. I hated all that extra stuff that basically just added fake tension and minutes to the film. Hated it. It didn't add anything for me because it felt regurgitated and contrived. If PJ had been able to present that extra stuff in a better way, maybe a more original way than cookie cutter bullcrap from LotR, maybe I could have dealt with it. And if they had added something to Thorin's character other than just making him seem petulant and bitchy, sure that would have been good, too. But it did not work. Not for me, and many others at least. I know it was trying to beef up their story, but it didn't add what it should have. 

Also, it was unnecessary because as cool as the dwarves are, they aren't supposed to be the stars, so beefing them up to overshadow Bilbo was never going to work for me. But I had at least hoped what they did would be better than what it actually turned out to be. Azog, the pale orc, just needs to GET OUT. 

That's not to say I wasn't surprised by how much I loved some of the dwarves. I really enjoyed them. Especially Bofur and Bilbo's exchange near the end. I felt that and it was so sweet. It's really just all the extra stuff they added and tweaked for Thorin that pissed me off. Like... do we really need a history lesson at the campsite with a flashback of Thorin's life while he broodingly pouts across the way? We've seen that before PJ! Find a new trick. Ugh, PJ is such a sap and overly self indulgent and he reminded me of that at ever turn.

However, I enjoy it for the most part, and especially these:

• Gollum was the best part of this movie. 
• Gandalf was absolutely badass. 
• Bilbo was precious, but as I suspected, there was not enough of him.   
• There was Frodo at the beginning and he checked the mail and I died. 

Why Fear a Batman Reboot?

It's inevitable that WB will be rebooting Batman, probably sooner rather than later. Batman is their biggest DC cash-cow, and after the success of The Dark Knight Rises, they will want to move on without Nolan and Bale (not because they choose to, but because they have to). This leaves many fans of the Nolan Bat-verse shaking in our boots. However, many others have come out of the wood work claiming that people who don't want a new Batman reboot aren't Batman fans but are instead just Nolan fans. 

Why would people who love Batman fear a reboot? Wouldn't we all want MORE Batman, regardless? My response goes as so:

It has a lot to do with trust. I’ve grown up a Batman fan, I’ve lived through many versions of Batman (I watched the silly ’60s reruns as a toddler, BTAS as a child, Burton’s series, etc…) and what I think a lot of fans of BATMAN are worried about is that rushing into a new “reboot” will bring about the issues we had with Batman Forever/Batman and Robin. 

There is a reason we love Nolan’s Batman so much, and I think it has a lot do with (at least for me) giving Batman the presentation he deserves by a writer/director/team of actors that actually understand it better than any other group has. I think Christian Bale said it nicely after Batman Begins: Nolan gave Batman his dignity back. What fans are worried about is that a new director with a less honest understanding of Batman may come along and strip him of that again.

There can be TOO much of something. There can likewise be a good place to stop and realize more could ruin it. 

I’m TERRIFIED to see what the reboot does to this character I have loved for so long, especially after being presented with something like Nolan’s Bat-series. I am a fan of Nolan as a director, but what he did for Batman is something on a completely other level for me. It’s not because it’s Nolan that I love his Batman movies. It’s because I can see through almost every aspect of his Batman movies that he loves Batman as much as the fans of Batman do, and he’s trying to him justice for that reason. That’s a rare trait to find in directors. Even if they think they get it, not many do. Nolan DOES. 

It’s trust. It will take a lot of convincing for me to trust anyone else with Batman. It just will. I've been burned before, I hope I can love again like I loved Nolan, but I can't make that promise.