Hugo Guide: Movies
Talking Squid has no hesitation in telling others how they should vote. In this spirit of generosity, we offer the following guide to the Hugo nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Avatar: Technical brilliance, dramatic but absurd action, cartoon characters, sub-cartoon plotting, and all the originality of a Hong Kong Rolex. Dances with Wolves was a more honest attempt to grapple with the disenfranchisement of natives, Princess Mononoke was a more coherent plea for environmentalism, The Herculoids had more imaginative aliens, and How to Train Your Dragon had better action sequences.
District 9: Extraordinary visuals for its budget and reversal of stereotypes (except for the stereotypical villainous industrialist who is cleverly revealed to be a stereotypical villainous industrialist). District 9 falls apart when its last reel descends into blood-and-’splosions action.
Moon: An outstanding performance by Sam Rockwell and superb production design are wasted on this empty pastiche of 2001, Blade Runner, and The Island. Particularly irking is the number of reviewers who called this “smart.” It is not smart. A lot of effort has been expended to make it look smart, but an idiot in a sharp suit is still an idiot. Moon is the Dan Quayle of recent science fiction films.
Star Trek: Reboots the Star Trek franchise and attempts to change tone from worthy but wooden humanism to cocky action heroics. It succeeds in the task but in its desperation not to think too hard, Star Trek forgets to think much at all.
Up: Superb but very odd movie with a killer of an opening vignette that packs more tragic weight than one expects in a kid’s film. Up is undeniably a fantasy film, but its best qualities have little to do with its fantasy elements. Conundrum: should the Hugo go to the best film with fantasy elements or best use of fantasy in film?
Voting advisory service: Up, then District 9, with the remainder to be ranked according to the quality of the choc top devoured at the cinema.
Tags: 2010, avatar, best dramatic presentation, district 9, hugo award, moon, movie, star trek, up
8 People have left comments on this post
Can I vote for *Moon* because it’s got a great soundtrack by ex-Poppie Clint Mansell?
I’ll try and get around to watching it in the next couple of weeks!
Otherwise, *District 9* & I’ll take your word for *Up* or try and watch that too.
By the way, I have my AussieCon membership and just have to arrange accom! My first Con, and it’s a WorldCon! So excitement!
Peter, Moon has a fantastic soundtrack. It looks great, too. I think Duncan Jones is a wonderful film-maker, but he should think seriously about involving another writer on his next project to help with the whole internal consistency thing. And the scientific plausibility.
See you at Aussiecon.
The music in MOON is indeed wonderful.
It’ll be great to see you at Worldcon, Peter!
I haven’t seen Up or Moon yet. Of the other three District 9 is easily the best – it gets you thinking about racism and boat people and all that sort of stuff. Avatar just had me thinking, gee this is pretty familar so get the fuck on with it – it was a bit of a drag, and the special effects looked too animated for my liking. Aliens and Terminator Two were far better science fiction efforts from Cameron.
I watched Knowing on austar the other night. I thought I was watching a religious apocalypse movie when it turned into an science fiction apocalypse movie. Not as bad as I thought it would be after recent efforts staring Nicholas Cage. Only watched because Alex Proyas was the director and I found Dark City a fascinating film.
Hi Graham: If not for Up, the top pick would certainly be District 9. Its last-reel schemozzle is more of a let-down than an utter repudiation and I think it will come to be seen as an important film in SF history — rather like Fantastic Planet, which is another great, deeply flawed film.
I think District 9′s biggest problem are the voodoo-obsessed Nigerian gangsters. The film goes to such lengths to be about apartheid, and winds up demonising an entire African nation.
Yes, actually, I should have added that. The treatment of Nigerians is rather, er, one-dimensional. I don’t understand why the role of the gangsters in the movie had to be so tightly associated with one particular nationality.
Nice if American could see foreign films from time to time.
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