2012 Oscars: Post-Mortem

Not a lot to say here. I feel like I should feel a lot better about getting so many right (of the major categories. Not to insult Sound Mixing or anything, but I'm not even convinced the people who voted on it knew what the category was about). Sadly, the whole thing was mainly a reminder of how little surprise is left by the time it actually comes around.
I could comment on the ceremony itself, but that's been done to death. Billy Crystal righted the ship from last year's debacle which is all anyone expected. The Bridesmaids were the best presenters as expected. Gwyneth managed to neuter Robert Downey Jr, which was sad. Uh, the circus came to town which was...not all that topical, but better than the random testimonials before the commercials.

Oh shit! I almost forgot. I finally figured out why The Artist didn't deserve to win. So, it does a great job of being a meta commentary on the whole black and white movie thing. The acting, while I look at it as somewhat limited, was done extremely well within its confines. The score was great, the dancing well choreographed, and all the technical stuff was at the highest level.
The weakness of that movie was the story. When else has a movie with such a basic story won? And when I say basic, I mean it was exactly the story I would've guessed from a 30 second trailer. There was nothing in it that was surprising, nothing I haven't seen before, and nothing that made me look at it differently. It was the most familiar movie of the 9, and that includes War Horse which played like a [very effective] "greatest hits" for Spielberg. Without an ambitious narrative, all that movie is is a movie proving that we can still make them like they did in the 20s.
This is also before mentioning the whole "bite the hand that feeds you" moral of the story which laments the move into "talkies", which have rightfully defined film-making since when the movie was set.
There are ways to praise the movies of the past without damning those of the present for being different from them. For a great example of that, look no further than Hugo. That movie praises film for it's ability to enhance a story and go beyond the limitations of what came before. In that, Scorsese is telling people to cherish the movies of yesterday for how they led us to the films of today. Alternately, The Artist attacks the movies of today for changing from the movies before them.

Sorry. I guess this turned into more of a rebuttal to the argument for The Artist's greatness rather than saying anything about the Oscars themselves. Whatever. It was either that or I talk about my thoughts on dryer lint or something.