Oscar's FX Finalists: From Bucky to Bilbo
Friday, December 5, 2014 at 8:17PM 
MURPH !!!!!!!
The Visual effects Oscar finalists have been announced after that branches bake-off ritual wherein they screen visual effects reels from various films. Ten films remains standing but only five can become Oscar nominees so it's superheroes vs. mutated monsters vs aliens vs. hobbits vs giant fucking robits vs. maimed fairies for that coveted honor.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Maleficent
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Other than Maleficent the female led fx hits all missed the cut from Lucy to Mockingjay Part 1 through longshots like Divergent. Critically panned mainstream movies like Into the Storm and Amazing Spider-Man 2 also didn't make it. Perhaps more surprisingly Oscar-hopefuls like Noah, Birdman and Into the Woods were also discarded. (Maybe the visual effects branch also didn't understand what was happening to the Witch in her final scene?) But the missing film we'll shed a tear for is TFE's endorsed visual effects contender Under the Skin. But then this branch never listens to us. Our suspicion is they don't view their own specialty as an art -- because they continually avoid emotionally expressive stylized vfx work - but view it as a technical craft with the two and only goals being first large-scale spectacle and second, computer generated versimilitude.
May the best effects become Oscar nominees on January 15th and by best we mean the Apes, the good Captain, Interstellar and Godzilla. Certainly three of those are likely to make it but my beloved Winter Soldier is a longshot with those infuratingly ubiquitous hobbits and transformers being renewed for so many seasons over the years.
What do you think the five nominees will be and who do you think deserves the win? It's a tough call with so many great looking films around.
Reader Comments (18)
With Interstellar having lost steam as a contender for a BP nomination, it looks like this will be a blockbuster contest without having the BP contest acting like a thumb on the scale, as when (for instance) Hugo beat Rise of the Planet of the Apes a few years ago. This year lacks a big prestige blockbuster, a la Gravity, Hugo or Life of Pi that would completely steamroll the technical categories.
All I cant think (give or take Interstellar) is that after 5 years we will have a cinematography field without the influence of a visual effects unstoppable mammoth.
And I'm very happy for that!
The full membership clearly cannot separate what constitute best cinematography and best visual effects.
My guess is that Apes 2, Godzilla and Guardians are safe. Beyond that, though? Well, two we can discount are Transformers: Age of Extinction (though Dark of the Moon somehow made the list in 2011, this year is too much stronger than 2011 for that to repeat) and Night at the Museum 3. Another easy discount is X-Men: Days of Future Past, considering they leapt at Real Steel over First Class. Of what's left? Hobbit 3 and Maleficent are possible, but both leave with some flavour of "one of these might pull the upset against Interstellar or Cap 2, but not both." Maleficent for the flawed narrative and plastic looking CG and Hobbit 3 for the dual truths that in such an unusually great year for VFX movies, it's bizarre to go for WETA 3 times and that we've seen this world five prior times already, so what's left?
The nominees in order of likelihood:
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Interstellar/Hobbit 3/Maleficent
Scarlett is hilarious.
Just as long as there's no nominations for fuckin' Transformers, I'm cool.
Noah and Exodus Gods and Kings didn't make the short list.
Hmmm
The wisdom in this category lately seems to be that if your predecessor was nominated, chances are you will be nominated. If your predecessor was not nominated here, then you probably won't be nominated. So, looking at this list, here's what it looks like:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - The First Avenger was a finalist, but wasn't nominated, so this one won't be (unless its high box-office count helps it, but another Marvel property is ahead of it, so I'm still leaning towards "no").
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Rise was nominated (and nearly won), so this one looks safe.
Godzilla - I don't know if a Godzilla film has ever been nominated here, so we might just put this in the "maybe" pile. It looks impressive.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Highest-grossing film of the year (so far), so they might want to get it a nomination somehwere. Of course, last year's Hunger Games came up empty here, but I'm guessing the Acadmy simply doesn't like that franchise. If The Avengers made it here, I think this one is in.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Sorry folks, this one is in. Every previous trip to Middle Earth has been nominated here, so I don't see why this one won't (unless a Revenge of the Sith-type situation happens, but I don't see it). I actually there are flashes of brilliance in this franchise myself (though they are few and far between).
Interstellar - This is the only film out of this lot with a chance at a Best Picture nomination (however slim it may be), so I think it's safely in, plus a Nolan film has won here before. That counts for something.
Maleficent - Well, these types of movies do okay here. Snow White and the Huntsman and Alice in Wonderland were nominated here, so it's a possibility (though some of the CGI was frankly very iffy).
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - Well, the first one was a finalist but unless there's some form of collective Robin Williams-fueled nostalgia guiding the voters, I don't see this one being nominated.
Transformers: Age of Extinction - Two out of the last three movies showed up here, so I see no reason why this one shouldn't at least be considered a very credible threat to be nominated (not that I want it to, but it could very well happen).
X-Men: Days of Future Past: No X-Men film has ever been nominated here, I don't see why they would start now (though I really liked this film). It's always been a finalist, never a nominee (I don't see that trend ending now).
So, I'm guessing the nominees in the end will be:
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Dawn
Godzilla
Guardians
Interstellar
Maleficent
I dunno. Who cares? This category is crazy boring this year.
What the hell is it with you and your disdain for the Hobbit trilogy? Have you even seen any of the movies? You were one of those who were always annoyingly drooling for the Lord of the Rings trilogy back then.
Gustavo - I apologize if I sound like I'm speaking for Nat but he's given a few reasons for his dislike - and avoidance - of The Hobbit Trilogy:
1-He's mostly - if not completely - against prequels.
2-He believes Peter Jackson no longer knows how to edit himself.
3-The fact that the original two films were split into three, furthering franchise culture's need to pad stories out.
Personally, I've seen the films and enjoyed them quite a bit (They have their problems and are far lesser in quality than LOTR but I think they're worthy additions to the middle earth cinematic story). I also don't like when he bags on the films without having seen any of them (especially when he claims they are underserving of awards). However, he has made it clear why he feels how he feels.
Anyway, I'd love to see DOFP get a VFX nom - X2 not getting one was a complete crock - but it won't happen, so it'll probably be Apes, Godzilla, GOTG (or CA: WS), Interstellar and The Hobbit 3. Honestly, I wouldn't lose any sleep if GOTG and/or Godzilla missed out but that won't happen either.
I LOVE that you referred to The Winter Soldier as your beloved! I'm saddened that many people go on about Apes, Xmen or Guardians, when Captain is the better action flick. But it does a lot more than serve action.
It's still in my top 5 films this year.
Interstellar's effects were anything but stellar.
Bird People was ROBBED
I have never fully understood Nathaniel's bizarre aversion to The Hobbit, considering he bad mouths it frequently but from the looks of things has never actually seen any of the films. This is the Visual Effects category, not Best Picture, and both of the previous two installments surely deserved their nominations.
My guesses for the nominations would be that Interstellar and Apes are locked in, and that thanks to the Box Office Guardians gets its sole nomination here. Common sense would dictate that Transformers and The Hobbit both make the final two slots (considering their popularity in the past), but I'm guessing Transformers just misses and Maleficent makes the cut.
Maybe it's just me rationalizing their picks, but this group seems to be the Fx-driven films where the line between effects and reality was least evident. Some of the biggest snubs-- Noah, Into the Woods, Birdman, for instance-- had a really obvious CGI quality if you ask me. So I'm pretty happy with this slate.
My nominees:
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past
> Why not The Hobbit? Simple. They have enough of that and Transformers. Even the last Star Wars episode failed to get a VE nomination. Although, to be realistic, I guess it's really likely The Hobbit will displace XMen.
Johnny & Gustavo -- i think i've been pretty clear about why i won't see The Hobbit films so I wouldn't label it as a "bizarre" aversion. To me they are the single most emblematic franchise signifying what's wrong with our franchise culture -- they're all repetitive and greed based and continually padded which destroys narrative tightness and thus potency putting storytelling behind dollars (where it should never be). The Lord of the Rings is three long books and made three long movies. The Hobbit is one short book and required three long movies? NO.
On accident I watched about half of The Hobbit on cable one day and it was deadly dull where it was clear that none of the action sequences were there for narrative reasons but merely to add up the setpieces just so you could get a 9 hour trilogy. It's all just noise and fx for no purpose. like watching a video game.
it's like all these new part 1s and part 2s where very little happens -- all for the sake of greed and the audience stupidly encourages more greed. which is really fucking with the health of cinema.
Peter Jackson should retire. He was once a great filmmaker but he is clearly out of ideas. He would literally never be able to pull off anything as magicla as Heavenly Creatures or The Fellowship of the Ring again because he cannot edit himself (see King Kong and the Hobbit trilogy), he values technology above story, and he can't even tell a simpler story without making it gawdy and too big for its own sake (The Lovely Bones) . I'm not even the only person who thinks so. Even Viggo Mortensen is "no" about these Hobbit movies.
Nat, did you by any chance get to the Riddles in the Dark scene in the first Hobbit film, that famous scene where Bilbo finds Gollum and wins the Ring from him. The film is, as you say, deadly dull, but that sequence is definitely worth watching (if someone releases it one day as a short film, shot just the way it is, I will be very happy). Also, in the second film, the scene where Bilbo finds Smaug (with the magnificent voice of Benedict Cumberbatch) is another highlight. Let's see what goodies we get in this final movie and then maybe someone can make a special edition The Hobbit that is a two-hour movie made out of the best stuff in all three.
I think the third movie will definitely be nominated. If every other Middle Earth has been nominated here, I see no reason why this one won't. Yes, there's Revenge of the Sith, but that was a year where there were only three spots in that category. Now with five, I don't see how it misses...
I was (foolishly) hoping that Edge of Tomorrow might be able to sneak into a few of the crafts races this season, but missing this bake-off makes those already slim chances seem even less likely. A shame, since it was one of the most fun movies I've seen in a while