Thoughts on the 2012 Oscars

And it was written on this night as with similar nights in this time of our year, that the awards season which takes into account films from our year before has come and gone, more and more this is the case and quicker they come upon us and leave with similar meanings of haste.

And with that I'm referring to the Oscar ceremony of 2012, so overall how was it?

Surprisingly, I thought it was okay, mainly due to the return of long time host Billy Crystal, Crystal as an actor has been hit and miss for me over the years but here I thought he did well, he was assured, relaxing, delivered some good jokes here and there but he was pretty much the safe pair of hands the Academy would've wanted to get the ceremony back on track after the departure of original host Eddie Murphy and original ceremony producer Brett Ratner, as for some of the presenters well it depends on your overall opinion of the actor in question, I liked seeing Michael Douglas and Colin Firth the most, both presented well and spoke clearly without sounding too pretentious though watching Natalie Portman's presentation bordered on cringing.

As for the winners, well it was no surprise at all that the Artist would take home the top prize, it had the momentum behind it ever since the Golden Globes where it won best Musical or Comedy and the Descendants won Best Drama, after those wins I thought "either of those films could win Best Picture" but I also became slightly convinced that the Scorsese film Hugo could also win in case of a tie vote, alas that didn't happen.

As for some of the other wins, I'm happy to see Hugo get Best Cinematograpgy, Art Direction, Sound Editing and Mixing as well as Best Visual Effects, all well deserved wins but also wins that prevented it from getting the majors, also of no surprise was Streep's win for the Iron Lady based on the UK PM Margaret Thatcher, her first since Sophie's Choice in 1983 and now a new generation of film goers can see Streep be awarded for her work at long last.

But lastly, I have to talk about the fashions on the red carpet, ever more a part of these awards ceremonies for better or worse and best dressed for me was Jessica Chastain, she looked wonderful in her dress, simple, understated and the dress itself looked quite nice, standing out from an ever more average crowd, runner up would be Michelle Williams for similar reasons.

Worst dressed had to be Rooney Mara (nominated for the English version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as she looked terrible, had a look of gloom on her face the entire time as if she just didn't want to be there at all and she's so skinny, I thought she looked good at the Golden Globes, the dress she wore suited her well, here not at all and I do like Mara as an actress and hope to see if she does Lisbeth well.

All in all, the awards may have come and the glory of victory may be bestowed for now but such spoils do not last forever and all of the films involved will now begin their long march to stores across the world, forever to live out the rest of their days and their golden awards just space on the front cover and the statues to live out a similar eternity on the shelves of their winners, oh well at least the year will now shift into high gear with John Carter next week to kick off the upcoming blockbuster season, which promises to be big with both the Avengers and the Dark Knight Rises being the biggest of all.

But as they say, one shall stand and one shall fall but either way, audiences will spend big bucks taking the time to find out...