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Good for the geeks! I’m told that movie sites dedicated to comic book heroes, Star Trek sequels, and everything else sci-fi, action-oriented, and gory are promising to boycott all promotion of this year’s Academy Awards because The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. Why, they’re even refusing to display the new 1-sheet Oscar poster. Now stop laughing. You know that males under/over age 25 who hero-worship Batman and Spock and Jigsaw can’t wait to watch Hugh Jackman step out of his Wolverine makeup and start singin’ and dancin’ to open the Oscar telecast. In other words, Dark Knight’s hardcore fans make up the Academy Awards audience only for Lord Of The Ring or the technical awards. But I definitely agree with them — as I complained when the Oscar nods were announced – that Chris Nolan (who wasn’t nominated for Best Director) and his pic were both robbed.
(Photo of DK fans by Jim Stevenson)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Never? What about the year LOTR swept?
Huge oversight. Here’s to the oscar voters taking a step or two away from the prepackaged, marketed safe choices and voting for true art.
Not only was Batman unworthy of a nod, but it was one of the dullest, stiffest, most pretetious movies of last year.
these people need to find more important things to care about.
Maybe the Directors Guild will give their honor to Nolan and send a big, slobbery F-U to the Oscars for the fraud they perpetrated on the American moviegoing public. SDM will win Best Picture, but they didn’t beat The Dark Knight to do it. Therefore, this:
*
An asterisk.
I think the Dark Knight should have been nominated for best picture. At least Chris Nolan deserves a Best Director nod. But it is stupid to boycott the Oscars just because they don’t agree. If you want to boycott something, boycott the Weinstein Company. That snake Harvey Weinstein probably had to bribe half of the academy to get his nazi-porno “The Reader” nominated.
I don’t agree with the Academy’s decision to snum Dark Knight in the two biggest categories. But that is no reason to boycott, plus don’t forget that it still has 8 other nominations under its belt. That is way more than any other blockbuster can even ever hope for.
However, if Heath Ledger doesn’t win, then we will have some major problems.
Oh, you crazy nerds.
Although, they should be commended for their ill-informed “Fox is trying to keep us from seeing an awesome movie” WATCHMEN hissy fit into this self-righteous foot-stomping.
Nikki,
We can only wish those guys were under the age of 25. More like pushing 35 for geekdom. I went to Comic Con and a majority of those attending were actually older than 25.
Would a nod have been good for public relations and ratings? ABSOLUTELY. Was “The Dark Knight” a good film? Well, yeah, maybe an 8, 9 out of 10. But the Best Picture category should be reserved for films that are, arguably, 11′s out of 10′s. The cream of the crop. (And that’s crap nowdays, as films are poorly nominated, nominated as favors, or done so out of general not caring.)
Quite frankly, “The Dark Knight” arguably is the second best-grossing motion picture of current cinema history (not adjusting for inflation, of course.) Why do “geeks” need an Oscar nod for validation? The entire world saw it, three times over.
The Oscars, in a pure form, should be about nominating good movies, regardless of popularity. If they didn’t, then, the fantastic “Frost/Nixon” would have never gotten a nod.
For awards that more align what the public spends money on, “geeks,” please see the People’s Choice Awards.
DK is overrated and overlong, but Heath Ledger…overdue. He’ll win the statue, and even though it’s a bit sappy, he deserves it. DK has pushed the comic film into the realm of real artistry, and its snub will make voters more aware of them as real cinema long into the future. But really, what best picture would you replace with DK? Slumdog? No. Milk? Hell no. Button? No, because it had a straight narrative and felt half as long despite being the same length. Frost/Nixon? Come on. The Reader? Nope, because it was a story that will hopefully push humanity toward reconciliation.
jb, shouldn’t you find more important posts to comment on? Or maybe you can give us a list of jb-approved important issues we are allowed to care about, so our lives can be fulfilled and meaningful and free of troublesome fun, lightheartedness, or entertainment.
At last Trekkies have someone to look down on.
Please tell me, what exactly is it about this film that constitutes an Oscar nomination? Other than Heath Ledger’s performance (which was better than average but not necessarily “out of the park”) which aspects of this film rate more excellent than most?
The story was common and full of plot holes, and the acting was for the most part uninspired.
Was it a terrible movie? No. But just because it was a better “comic book” movie than most, doesn’t mean it was a better “movie” than most. (and I would put Iron Man in a much better position as a “movie”, for better writing and acting…I’ll take Downey Jr. and Bridges over Bale and Eckhart, in this movie anyway)
So, if it’s possible, without the vitriol and anger…those who feel “The Dark Knight” deserves to win for “Best Picture of the Year”, please put forth your argument.
-RTA
The Oscar crowd obviously are takin’ a little heat over their crappy choices. Benjamin Button was a TOTAL bore. Milk was a bad made-for-TV movie, Slumdog Millionaire was a fine choice, The Reader was marginal at best, and Frost/Nixon was also good movie that no one saw. The Dark Knight certainly deserves to be up for Best Movie and Christopher Nolan should be up for Best Director.
Slumdog Millionaire will win, hands down, but TDK deserves the recognition. Nearly a billion dollar BO says a lot, so I guess you can chalk up this Academy Awards snit on jealousy.
The posts about the quality of The Dark Knight and that the academy should vote for “True art” over “popularity” need to get their heads out of their asses. It’s not about whether The Reader is better than The Dark Knight (btw, it’s not), it’s about the academy awards going the way of the Grammy’s and being completely culturally irrelevant. Here we have a movie that’s one of the top rated films of the year AND being the second biggest grossing films of all time and yet the academy nominates the usual self-indulgent shallow “art.” Nikki gets one thing wrong in this article: the geeks DO watch the Oscar’s…there’s a reason they televise some of the technical awards. Plus there’s usually some good summer movie ads.
This is the same reasoning that got titanic nominated. “if it’s a hit, then it has to be on the oscars telecast.” if that’s what you’re looking for, bring back the Blockbuster awards and have a good time. Let’s give john grisham a Pulitzer too. And if you want to give oscars to dead people, how about Humphrey bogart? He’d appreciate it as much as Heath.
You have to love the idiot posters who express their opinions as though they are fact. Dark Knight isn’t overlong or overrated, *you think* Dark Knight is overlong and overrated. Stop stating your opinions as fact. Just because you believe something does not make it so; it just makes it your opinion. Everything is subjective. Accept that fact your opinions mean shit to everyone except yourself and move on with your life. You’re not that important — deal with it.
There’s nothing like confirming one’s own irrelevance by boycotting something and achieving NO … IMPACT … WHATSOEVER.
If geeky fanboys had any real influence or dollar power, Grindhouse, Snakes on a Plane, etc. would be movies consisting of multiples of $100 million in gross. Instead, those movies confirm that the fringe is simply that – the outlier that NO ONE can take seriously.
Their next soon-to-be-confirmed failure? “Watchmen.” DC Comics was quick to announce that it was printing one million of the rarely read “tome.” Notice it hasn’t mentioned how many its sold. Without question, “Watchmen” is the bestselling graphic novel, but that’s like saying the Ford Pinto is the bestselling used car that explodes on impact. Even when “Watchmen” sales are good, they’re meaningless.
Although “The Dark Knight” is firmly within the mainstream, operating and/or visiting a web site “dedicated to comic book heroes, Star Trek sequels, and everything else sci-fi, action-oriented, and gory” is not.
If you think the Academy has to nominate high grossing films to stay culturally relevant, then I guess we may be looking forward to a Mall Cop best pic nod next year.
.
To “One Time Sitcom Writer”:
That is a silly comparison and you know it. The argument for The Dark Knight makes sense, but you are trying to marginalize the viewpoint in favor of The Dark Knight by putting the movie in the same league with Mall Cop.
You know The Dark Knight is NOT Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Frankly, it makes your post look stupid and petty.
a message to TDK fanboys:
shut the hell up and get a life.
Oh you’re right, the audience for popular entertainment, cinema and “guy” films isn’t the Oscar’s crowd, the Oscars are for gay men and also women who care who wore what. Not for people who care about cinema. Iron Man and Dark Knight are punished by pretentious foo-foo’s who think it’s cool to be out of touch with the people who paid them.
TDK could EASILY replace Milk, Frost/Nixon and The Reader in Best Picture and Director. Just because a movie makes $$$ doesn’t and shouldn’t disqualify it from Oscar consideration. Yeah, 8 nominations, but all but Ledger’s are in the gilded ghetto of the technical categories. Not good enough this year.
And Titanic deserved every one of its Oscars, including the one that Winslet was jobbed out of because the voters wanted the only American in the field that year, Helen Hunt, to win.
For the last time:
There is no “best” movie. This is all about commerce and film’s inherent appeal to our artistic nature.
Movies are one of the few mediums which has popular, commercial and artistic appeal.
The “Academy” just splits these elements:
POPULARITY: People’s Choice/MTV/Kids Choice
COMMERCIAL: Boxffice, ’nuff said.
ARTISTIC: Oscars, Globes SAG and the like.
In the end, it is all used to make money by pushing you to buy something because it’s popular or it’s “The Best.”
So these conversation are all bullshit. “Paul Blart” is probably the best movie to a lot of people who only care about laughing and enjoying a film.
“The Reader” and “Milk” are for people who believe that art is more important than commerce.
The reason “The Dark Knight” is so controversial is that it has all three elements in abundance. Unfortunately, unlike “Titanic” and “LOTR” it’s artistic pedigree is founded in a medium which gets no artistic respect from older Academy voters who think comic books are fluff.
This will change when they all die.
To Mark:
I don’t feel the need to qualify my posts since everyone’s opinion is by nature subjective. I stand by my truth re: DK, which by the way I enjoyed. But to illustrate a point, I walked out of Titanic years ago and was the only one in my group who saw it for the overlong, overrated sentimental drivel-fest it was. I bit my tongue. It won the Oscar. And now, years later, those friends agree with me. I value my opinions, and for me they are fact as your opinions are to you. Frankly, you seem very defense, or perhaps felt the need to lash out. Why not jump in the discussion instead of attacking semantics?