Film Review & Discussion

[Puzzles101]

The Oscars that I am happy with are~
Fantastic Beasts: Costume Design
Zootopia: Animated Feature
Piper: Animated Short

I was surprised about Suicide Squad winning the Makeup Oscar, which was odd considering that I was really expecting Star Trek Beyond to win that one.
Also, despite not seeing La La Land, that movie won a good deal of awards.
But let's not forget how many awards Mad Max Fury Road won last year or some time ago.....

Edit: As for the Best Film screw up, I thought it was on purpose for some reason, but I do not know the true intentions of the act. Hopefully it wasn't impactful in a bad way.

[holmes221B]

Okay, I'm going to say my opinion:

I think Star Trek deserved the Makeup award. I mean, comparing both movies, Star Trek's makeup was way more complex than Suicide Squad's. When they showed small clips of the movies, I could easily tell that Star Trek would win it, but that didn't happen.

Anyways, I'm really glad that Fantastic Beasts got an award, even though it was for Costume Design. I loved that movie, even though it was kind of a related to Harry Potter. I was practically silently screaming.

I get that The Jungle Book won the Visual Effects award, and I applaud them for that, however, (of course, in my opinion) I think Doctor Strange had better effects. I mean, of course creating the animals must have been hard, but I thought that the effects from Doctor Strange were more complex. I haven't seen the whole movie, but from the small snippets that I caught, I could tell that those effects weren't easy to create.

I haven't seen Piper yet (the animated short film), but I liked that it won since it looked adorable (from the small clips they showed). I would like to see it sometime!

I may be biased about this, but I'm glad that Zootopia won the Animated Feature. However, I haven't seen Moana yet, so I may be biased.

[Leopardnight]

I agree with all of you in saying that it seemed really unfair that Suicide Squad beat Star Trek Beyond for makeup. To be fair, I haven't seen Suicide Squad yet, but I remember while watching Beyond in the theatre just being so impressed by the hair and makeup. Suicide Squad's, in my opinion, pale in comparison.

I was also impressed with Kimmel as a host. I think his rivalry with Matt Damon was very entertaining. And the candy! That was wonderful. Ellen is still the number one host, though.

I haven't seen Moonlight, but from what I hear its incredible. I thought La La Land was okay, but nothing worth best picture. The Best Picture card fiasco was totally shocking to me when I saw it live. I remember having to call up all my friends who'd turned their TVs off after the Oscars and having to tell them what happened. None of them even believed me.

I was also a bit disappointed to see 'How Far I'll Go' lose to 'City of Stars.'

In the visual arts category, I was a bit disappointed also to see Doctor Strange lose. I haven't seen The Jungle Book yet, so I can't judge based on their effects. Like holmes2218 said, though, the effects from Doctor Strange were really different and visually appealing and also reminiscent of Inception. And I was hoping they'd land the Oscar this year.

For the most part, I think the awards were very entertaining this year. I wish I had more to input, but there's so many films that were nominated this year that I never got to see.

But they should have given Leonardo another Oscar for free just because he's epic

[polerberr]

I think it makes sense that Best Visual Effects was given to The Jungle Book, purely out of logic. The award is "Best" Visual Effects, so even though Doctor Strange was more visually stunning to look at, that was more to do with the nature of the film and not the quality of the CGI. The Jungle Book is about animals, so they didn't have room for the Inception-like effects that Doctor Strange got to have, a movie where the characters can bend reality.

Objectively speaking, The Jungle Book used CGI technology that is currently the best out there. It's the same type that was used in Gravity, which also won Best Visual Effects. There literally isn't technology out there yet that can top what was done in Gravity and The Jungle Book.

I don't think any other movie that used CGI as a visual effect could have won this year, for that simple fact.

I agree that Doctor Strange looks more impressive because of what the CGI was used for, just not that the CGI itself is better than the CGI in The Jungle Book

[Captain Peregrin]

To speak of something not Oscar-related, I was reminded recently that just five years ago The Hunger Games was considered a huge risk just because it was an action movie with a female lead. And just last year we had a Star Wars film with a female lead and nobody batted an eye. It's also really interesting to see how much has changed with the stories that Disney is telling - back in 2013 Frozen was considered revolutionary for focusing on the relationship between two sisters instead of the romance. This past year saw not one but THREE Disney/Pixar movies with female leads that didn't even have a romance plot (still haven't seen Moana, but I don't believe she has a love interest). It's great to see so many thoughtful female characters! Now if only Disney could do some more thoughtful romances, we'll be all set...

[polerberr]

To speak of something not Oscar-related, I was reminded recently that just five years ago The Hunger Games was considered a huge risk just because it was an action movie with a female lead. And just last year we had a Star Wars film with a female lead and nobody batted an eye. It's also really interesting to see how much has changed with the stories that Disney is telling - back in 2013 Frozen was considered revolutionary for focusing on the relationship between two sisters instead of the romance. This past year saw not one but THREE Disney/Pixar movies with female leads that didn't even have a romance plot (still haven't seen Moana, but I don't believe she has a love interest). It's great to see so many thoughtful female characters! Now if only Disney could do some more thoughtful romances, we'll be all set...

Moana didn't have a love interest, that's right. Yeah, I was impressed with Zootopia that they didn't have Nick and Judy shoehorned into a relationship by the end of the movie just because they're a guy and a girl working together. That trope needs to be retired. I also noticed that The Lego Batman Movie mocked that very idea.

I guess the third movie is Finding Dory?

I like that we can have movies now where the lead male and females can just be friends and stay that way.

[Spock and Kirk]

To speak of something not Oscar-related, I was reminded recently that just five years ago The Hunger Games was considered a huge risk just because it was an action movie with a female lead. And just last year we had a Star Wars film with a female lead and nobody batted an eye. It's also really interesting to see how much has changed with the stories that Disney is telling - back in 2013 Frozen was considered revolutionary for focusing on the relationship between two sisters instead of the romance. This past year saw not one but THREE Disney/Pixar movies with female leads that didn't even have a romance plot (still haven't seen Moana, but I don't believe she has a love interest). It's great to see so many thoughtful female characters! Now if only Disney could do some more thoughtful romances, we'll be all set...

Moana didn't have a love interest, that's right. Yeah, I was impressed with Zootopia that they didn't have Nick and Judy shoehorned into a relationship by the end of the movie just because they're a guy and a girl working together. That trope needs to be retired. I also noticed that The Lego Batman Movie mocked that very idea.

I guess the third movie is Finding Dory?

I like that we can have movies now where they lead male and females can just be friends and stay that way.

Also, I know that she is not exactly a Lead but just to put it out there: Jaylah was one of the best new characters in the entirety of Star Trek Beyond. She was independent and she didn't end up becoming a love interest for anyone. If anything after she sat down in the Captain's chair the respect that Kirk had for her went up a whole bunch. She managed to help the captured members escape, and faced her own fears going back to the place where her father was killed because she was promised protection by the larger group. When push came to shove, Kirk helped her escape when she lost her beacon.(Even though this really has nothing to do with her being an amazing character, but still) I cannot praise the addition of this character enough, she helped everyone and ended getting herself off altimad joining the family that the crew of the Enterprise made up. Also, according to the shows cannon (And comic books) All of the things that she has she made herself. She's also a wiz at engineering! How can we not love Jaylah!

[Captain Peregrin]

Yep, Finding Dory was the other one ^.^ That movie is is super cute, and it's great to think that kids will grow up with it and hopefully regard disabled people better because of it.

Of course, just because there are a lot more female-led movies nowadays doesn't necessarily mean there are more "good" female characters. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't particularly fond of the girl in Rogue One (can't be bothered to remember her name), although I did rather like Rey. Black Widow is the most prominent female character in the MCU, and my liking for her varies from movie to movie (she was totally screwed up in Age of Ultron). She's much more human in The Winter Soldier. Basically, I'm not a fan of the stereotypical Strong Female Character. I'd much rather have a Relatable Female Character, even if she's depicted as "weak". I could count the number of female characters I relate to in any medium on my fingers.

[Nitro Indigo]

I don't really like the "Strong Female Character" archetype either (unless it's funny like in Wreck-it Ralph), because it makes female characters too... similar? I don't know, I don't really want to go too deep into social issues because it'll get awkward. =/

[autumnal.]

Yeah, I agree. The way people define "strong female character" is by making them as masculine as possible and we see it far too often; there's nothing necessarily wrong with the trope, that's just all we've been getting out of female leads lately. I don't think writers have entirely grasped the idea that female characters can be strong in different ways rather than just beating people up, and that women are allowed to be feminine. They're getting a little better, but they always try to show off how empowered the female character is at a male character's expense and that gets on my nerves.