I managed to watch the Oscars with a delay of 24 hours without being spoiled. Not many surprises, Slumdog really seems to have captured the imagination of the majority of people.
I was surprised that Penelope Cruz won, but that’s the only category where they can afford surprises. That and the foreign film I guess. I was really hoping Mickey Rourke would win, but I can’t be upset about Sean Penn’s win.
I really liked Hugh Jackman as the host, he wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but he had his good lines and most of all he was charming. I liked his opening dance, with the help of Anne Hathaway (can’t sing and dance!). I wasn’t too crazy about the medley dance number with Beyonce, I’ve never been crazy about musicals in general.
Tina Fey and Steve Martin were definitely the funniest. Ben Stiller was also funny, though I don’t know how many people caught his reference to Joaquin Phoenix.
The new layout of the theater put the main nominees in the first few rows, which were very close to the stage, thus giving a sense of the show being a party among friends. That said, the rest of the rows were never covered by the cameras.
A huge problem is the direction. Especially during the memorandum montage, it was hard to read the names of some of the people. The camera kept zooming in and out of the montage, but I really didn’t care for Queen Latifa. Same goes for other segments, where the camera was viewing the stage that had flat screen TVs, instead of just showing us the video itself.
This year they also grouped the categories into pre-production, principal photography and post-production, in the process telling us how a film is made. I thought that was a nice touch.
I am conflicted about how the actor nominees were presented. On one hand it’s nice for a previous winner to introduce the nominee. However, they need to have a real connection, otherwise it just sounds fake. Also, it was way too long. On the other hand, it’s also nice to see a small scene from their actual performance, to show everybody why they were nominated.
Overall I liked the show itself, even though there are some kinks that need to be worked out next year, if they keep the new layout of the theater.
In terms of awards, it was too predictable and I just didn’t care too much about the movies this year. Hoping for better movies in 2009.