Spoilers Black Panther grade and discussion thread

If Suicide Squad didn't need to invent a category to win an Oscar...

 

Ugh. Don't remind me.

 

There was a commentator on CBC that made the observation that since Disney owns ABC, which hosts the Oscars, they are just trying to buy themselves an Oscar for Black Panther.

 

Well if you're going to run a Best Picture Oscar campaign for BP, this is the way to do do it. Focus on the movie's telling of a huge story revolving around Wakanda's centuries old isolationist stance as opposed to the more altruistic role the nation could play, interwoven the Killmonger story which involved age old racial issues and sibling rivalry, all told in a "small" way within the context of a huge MCU superhero movie. Pretty extraordinary.

The chances of BP being nominated for Best Picture are not good, it's still got the "superhero" albatross around it's neck, but of all of the Marvel movies that have come and gone, BP has the best chance of breaking through.

Well, the academy has left itself an out here as they've named the new category, Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film (I think that's it). Presumably, the Academy will look at the "best" of the most popular (who knows what the baseline is for "popular") films, and nominate those which they consider the most outstanding or of "highest achievement".

So, the Oscar won't automatically go to the biggest money maker or even the truly "most popular" movie of the year.

 

It didn't. I didn't realize that an Oscar for makeup would bother you so much. If your favorite movie in this category had been beaten by another nominee, instead of"SUICIDE SQUAD", would you have made the above comment?

This is incredibly stupid to me.

 

Why would you think I'm bothered by it?

 

Being a superhero movie isn't the albatross, it is the formulaic execution. Unfortunately, Black Panther does nothing to step outside of that formula. It is a complete mystery to me that anyone would think that this film, no matter how entertaining, is somehow deserving of being recognized as the best picture of the year.

 

Just nominated, So one of the 10 best pictures of the year ;-)

 

I laughed out loud at this establishing shot, because you knew immediately what the general context of what would happen next was:

 

The question is will this preclude popular films from getting nominated/winning Best Picture, the same way the Best Animated Films Category keeps Animated films out, (though UP and Toy Story 3 were nominated for both). What happens to the next Titanic, or Braveheart, or Forrest Gump?

 

The reason that the Academy invented the new category is the reason they do anything: for the benefit of studios promoting their product.

The Oscars mean nothing other than serving to goose up the take on theatrically-released films. To suggest that the quality of a film has anything to do with it winning, or not winning, a Best Picture award is to ignore all evidence and the entire history of the awards themselves.

There is no "deserving the award" involved.

 

I think the whole Best Picture thing for BP has more to do with what the movie is in the wider picture of the current cultural environment, and Hollywood than with it telling the specific story it was telling.

 

So we're ignoring the movie itself when judging it.

 

Thankfully, the Oscars are postponing the "Popular Film" category, at least beyond the next ceremony, which means Black Panther won't be effected by such rubbish.

“There has been a wide range of reactions to the introduction of a new award, and we recognize the need for further discussion with our members,” Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said Thursday. “We have made changes to the Oscars over the years — including this year — and we will continue to evolve while also respecting the incredible legacy of the last 90 years.”​

 

Not it all, it is a great movie, it's just that there's a lot more going on with it than it just being a great movie.

 

Why was there a Wakanda mission in Lagos, during the beginning of "Civil War"?

 

Weren't team captain america chasing a couple of bad guys from "the Winter soldier"?

 

Well, the Academy generally does.

In any event, it's a brilliant movie. The poll at the top of this thread suggests that it's one of the two or three best-received movies ever, here on TrekBBS. Better than the ST and SW movies, anyway.

 

Is there a reason there shouldn't be?

 

Hopefully Klaw comes back the in some form. I still find it odd they killed his main villain so quickly and replaced him with a chap who wasn’t as interesting