Um.. WHAT!?

Anybody who's been keeping an eye on the Oscar pools here know that we've been expecting big things for The Dark Knight in the nominations today. But where was it?! Nearly NOWHERE!! The big categories it was considered a contender in - Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay - completely shut it out.

And none of us were just predicting this as crazed Batman fans. Take a quick look at just about any noted and respected Oscar pundit's website (The Envelope at the LA Times is a good example) and they were in agreement. Add to that the fact it was recognized as one of the year's top films by National Board of Review, American Film Institute, and the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guilds -- all of these are incredibly reliable bellwethers to what's going to end up among the nominees. I'd also like to think I built up a pretty good argument for it winning the whole thing here.

Other surprises at a glance:
-Michael Shannon got a supporting nod. That guy rocks. I love how everybody cheered at the nominations for him.
-The Boss neglected for his song from The Wrestler? Somewhat surprised Gran Torino's song was shut out of that, too.
-Just about every nomination The Reader had. Nothing against the film itself, but that built up some steam out of nowhere.
-

Alan Moore still hates everything

I was reading the newest issue of Wizard and it looks like they got comic book legend Alan Moore to come out of his cave to say some words about what he thought about some shows on television. Normally this is the kind of thing where an artist talks about different shows they like and why the like it, but apparently Moore just hates everything, except for The Wire and South Park.

I’d Really Like to See…’The Dark Knight’ Take the Gold

This originally appeared as part of Zoom In Online's weekly "I'd Really Like to See..." blog series.

In recent years, it seems that there’s a certain ‘type’ of movie that racks up the nominations in the Oscar race and some others that get shunned altogether. You could pick out most of these overlooked categories individually: aside from whatever is “this year’s Juno/Little Miss Sunshine,” comedies are ignored; fantasy films are ignored (with the recent exception of Return of the King getting an Oscar to award Peter Jackson for the cumulative achievement of his massive undertaking); and crime films will most likely be ignored despite The Departed trying to make up for all the times Scorsese has deserved his Oscar in the past. A lot of people are clamoring for WALL-E to get a nod, but it’s going to be secluded to the ‘animation ghetto’ of the Best Animated Picture category for a consolation prize. 

I’d like to categorize all of these diverse films under the umbrella of “the popcorn film.” Not to discredit all ‘popcorn’ films, but they are, on the surface, the type of film that’s accessible to the common moviegoer and do not require a lot of thought to ingest them. However, many may have their own layers of motifs, recurring themes, and character ticks that provide extra substance for the more analytical viewer.