Why Avatar Didn't Deserve To Win Best Picture...

While Avatar was an overall good movie, with an ambitious undertaking and outstanding special effects, it was not enough to crown it best picture of the year.  For starters, Avatar was often very predictable.  It was pretty obvious from the beginning exactly what was going to happen: Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy saves girl, and in the end, boy stays with girl.  Viewers could easily predict the ending before it had even been seen, and I feel that a film worthy of the title of best picture should be a little harder to pin down and figure out.  Avatar was also not the most original plot (Pocahontas anyone?)  While it was still a decent story, one couldn’t help but think back to the animated version that Disney had done years ago.  Although the story was changed up by giving it a fresh new setting, aliens, and all that jazz, the truth still remained that it was simply a sci-fi rendition of Pocahontas.   Another reason it wasn’t worthy of a best picture Oscar was the acting; despite the fact that everyone in the film were very talented actors and actresses and gave great performances, they weren’t the performances of a lifetime and it showed.  For me, there was always something missing with the acting and I was almost expecting those performances of a lifetime from the actors, because after all, those are the types of performances you need to deliver if you’re going for that elusive title of best picture.  Finally, the last reason that Avatar shouldn’t have won best picture was because of the feeling it left you with- not a bad one, but not a great, inspired feeling that keeps you thinking about the movie for days on end because it had you so infatuated.  Maybe it was just me, but I didn’t leave with that feeling after watching Avatar, and my mind was easily pulled from it, and that, along with all of the other above reasons, is not what a movie worthy of the title of best picture is about.

Questions

Which Sit-com has been the most influential?  What made it influential?
To me, Seinfeld was the most influential becuase it jump started the whole 'group of friends' sit-com genre.  They helped to take sit-coms away from family centered shows and turned the genre into a more 'adult show', as they would often talk about more adult subjects (like sex) openly and casually throughout the show.  Seinfeld was also the first sit-com to have shows about nothing, where no moral lessons would be reached by the end of the episode, and the characters would never learn anything to make them better people.  Many shows today follow this idea of shows with no morals and lessons, and it was all because of Seinfeld.

Which sit-com displayed the weakest male character?
I think that Family Guy displayed the weakest male character, through Peter.  He is consistently a horrible father figure, and never does what is best for his family.  He is selfish and very dependant of others, especially his wife, and can never seem to accomplisgh anything productive on his own.  He is also a terrible role model, as he promotes violence and profane behaviour, even with and towards his own children, especially his daughter Meg.

Favourite Sitcom

For me, my favourite sit-com would have to be The Office.  I love how it is filmed (mockumentary style) and how there is no annoying laugh track.  I also love how the jokes are delivered as they never seem too forced or scripted.  The show also has great characters with unique personalities that make the show like no other sit-com around.  The humour is also unique from other sit-coms, and it always manages to make you laugh when other shows would fail.