Oscars in Black and White

The nominations:

• Achievement in Sound Editing: Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins
• Achievement in Sound Mixing: Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin
• Achievement in Visual Effects: Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

The Black-and-White:

Who woulda thunk it? Transformers with, count ’em, three Academy Award nominations!

I will admit that, before I saw the movie, I had some doubts. I am please to say, however, that my reservations were unfounded.

Here’s the synopsis from oscar.com:

When young Sam Witwicky buys his first car, he soon discovers that it is, in fact, an alien machine from the planet Cybertron capable of transforming itself into a powerful robot. Sam’s car and its Autobot allies are engaged in a battle with the evil Decepticons, and both groups have come to Earth to search for a cube known as the Allspark …a device that is linked to Sam through his great-great-grandfather, an Arctic explorer.

Given this plot description, and given that I am not a teenage boy, I think you can understand my preconceptions about the movie… But, somehow, the movie actually worked.

The story was sweet, and surprisingly for me at least, believable. The acting was solid, and it was good to actually see Shia LaBeouf, who was brilliant as the voice of Cody Maverick in Surf’s Up. Megan Fox was obvious eye-candy, and no doubt cast to appeal to the young male audience. However, her character had backbone, and though I won’t claim she is my first choice as role model for young women, she was a vast improvement over many female characters in “kids movies” these days (I am thinking specifically of Pixar, and Ratatouille in particular here). The synthesis of live action and special effects was terrific.

One quibble: the running time of the movie was 144 minutes. That’s waaaaaayyy to long for a movie of this genre.

As far as the nominations?

The sound mixing and editing were good. I think Transformers is a long shot in these categories, however.

Visual effects were fantastic. I suspect the Academy will give the nod to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, but my vote would go to the Transformers. Long live Optimus Prime.