Yet Another Oscar Blog Entry

Just what the world needs, another blog entry about the Academy Awards!

I feel that the Academy Awards have become less of a show about the best in movies, and more of a showcase for the most recent developments in popular culture, and a way to award those developments. By popular culture I'm not referring to art that very few people have seen, but I'm referring to that which makes the most money. And, since Titanic, that's exactly what the Academy Awards seem to be about.

No real surprises last night. I called most of the big ones with quite a bit of accuracy - Charlize over Naomi (Naomi should have won), Sean over everyone (but Bill shouldn't have won), and so forth. I didn't expect Lord of the Rings to win everything (I thought Last Samurai would bag Costume Design), but I'm not surprised to see it happen. The geek in me rejoices, but the film buff winces. 2003 wasn't an exceptional year for movies anyway, unless you count the big-budget, big-effects types of films, but I'd still rather have seen the cards fall differently.