Welcome to Gaia! ::

I was working during the ceremony and didn't get to see it. I had cynically given up on any result other than Avatar taking best picture based on the pattern of events that was taking shape to save the ratings of the telecast until minutes after the announcement and our first customer in two hours came in and said to me "The Hurt Locker took best picture and director." I honestly thought he was joking and he had to insist it happened before I took him seriously. Then a friend called complaining that it beat Avatar. I literally stood there with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. Then I broke out in a big stupid grin that still hasn't left my mouth and put it on in the store.

It had no Oscar aspirations, was thrown together on a joke of a budget with no established names attached and an anemic theatrical run. The trailer hooked me from the very first second and I cheerleaded it mercilessly with ridiculous hyperbole from that moment on.

It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was best of the year. I honestly think that Quentin Tarantino out directed Bigelow though. The true hero behind the lens of The Hurt Locker is it's Director of Photography Barry Osborne who was robbed blind by not taking the Oscar for best cinematography. Bigelow would agree with both statements, and if you guys haven't seen the movie watch the feature on him on the DVD which also explains why the movie so richly deserved it's best editing trophy.

However. Tarantino has been lavished with a great deal of praise and things over the years. Yes, Inglorious Basterds is his ten year in the making magnum opus but he knows that, I know that, and everyone who needs to know that does. Bigelow has been waiting in the wings, on the fringes of the mainstream for years. The Hurt Locker is also by far her best picture to date. She put the blood, sweat, and tears into it to deserve the naked man with the sword. It's also the perfect crowning moment on a watershed year for women behind the camera in film. She made history as the first woman to win best director, and she got that landmark for a goddamn good movie unlike that shameful minstrel show they put on when Denzel Washington won his first Oscar for a film that was no where near his best nor the best of the year and Halle ******** Berry won for Monster's Ball. It was so manufactured that they had seated a bunch of prominent old black actors together to swing the camera over to. You've got to give the landmark awards to the right people at the right time. This time they did.

I really do think that Tarantino deserved the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards. He deserved them 15 years ago for Pulp Fiction, but he didn't put nearly as much of himself into that movie as he did with Basterds, and it really showed. I mean, I absolutely adored The Hurt Locker, but there was no way that was a better screenplay than Basterds, and Bigelow, great as she is, is no Tarantino. That said, yes, I am happy to finally see a woman take home the award, and she would certainly be my second choice. Then again, I probably would've given it to Sophia Coppola in 2003 over Peter Jackson.

The telecast itself was kind of dull, though. Steve Martin just isn't that funny anymore and Alec Baldwin wasn't on his game. (Or maybe he's just not that funny either without Tina Fey feeding him lines.) I was really enjoying their salute to horror movies - it hit all the right notes, from Evil Dead 2 to Scream to The Shining to From Dusk Till Dawn - right up until they put a clip from Twilight, at which point I had to question whether or not the Academy understands what "Horror" is. (One Hour Photo and Silence of the Lambs probably shouldn't have been there either.) Loved seeing Jeff Bridges finally take home a win, even if a small part of me was hoping for Jeremy Renner. Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor was great, but he was a lock. Disappointed at the lack of love for Up In The Air, though. I was really hoping it'd get Adapted Screenplay, because boy, did it have a great one.

My brain may have just exploded due to awesomeness.

But...does that mean there is no movie where the Xerox of an a** is a plot point?

I'm rather excited about Iron Man 2, as I'm sure most would assume.

At the same time I'm apprehensive because I'm immature. How so? There are a handful of people I know who are going to pee themselves over Black Widow (regardless of how she is portrayed) and it is going to annoy me. Why? "I saw her first". Srsly, that is it. I am going to be annoyed because these people have never read a comic book in their life and are going to be fawning over my second favorite character of all time.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Yeah, if one day the Magdalena movie goes beyond having Jenna Dewan signing posters here and there, I might join you both in the strangely jealous wave XD.

At least your movies have the right Earth. Rose is from a different Earth in the cartoon movie she's in and she's totally not anything like herself.

But Yeah, I totally get it. People going, "That totally sucked, it's nothing like the comics." "What wait.. You read comics?" "Well no.." "Then don't join in on that complaint."

I'll have to think more on that.

The only thing I can come up with is 'Not Megan Fox!"

I find her really attractive and all but I'm getting kind of tired of seeing her hogging the comic movie spot light.