No opening theme music?

John, in the past, the Oscar folks have given the effects awards to the films which they believe are quality over quanity. Such choices have been contreversial in the past. (example...'Gladiator' over 'Perfect Storm') However...

Sith did have the best in both quality and quanity. I cannot disagree with you. I would not bump Narnia, I'd bump Kong. As for Sith being "the best" ever done ever...I...would disagree. (Lord Of The Rings) but still, it is the best of 2005, period. No debate, no question. End of story. Which is why everyone should be rooting for EpIII when the best makeup is announced. I hope they give Nikki Gooley and Dave and Lou Elsey (the heads of makeup deparment on EpIII) three minutes instead of two- just to give a 'honorable mention' to the FX crew.

It is the respected 'branches' who vote for the varied nominees in tech and other 'non major' categories.

I agree that if Oscar shows want higher ratings, the films should be more accessible to the public. However, John, that said, the last two years poves your point----

---in the opposite direction. Two years back, everyone has seen 'Return Of The King'. Last time around? A lot of people had seen 'Ray' and rooted for Jamie Foxx. Both "The Aviator" and "Million Dollar Baby" opened up wide at Christmas and January if I recall. This was in part due to the Oscar telecast bumped up to Febuary instead of March. This year they went back to March.

Also, at this time, 'Brokeback' is still in the top ten, so there may be some people rooting for that film, although there were better films. Quite a number of people have seen 'Walk The Line'.

'Junebug' is out on DVD right now, so people can see Amy Adams...who didn't even get a mention in the podcast when you talked about Best Actress. Yes, Reese will get it. But, c'mon. If you are going to talk about all the nominees, talk about ALL of them.

Maybe Amy Adams should be the next Bond girl.
Okay, maybe not.
But, c'mon.

And 'Brokeback' got most nom's, but watch...Munich or Crash will pull an upset. In fact...keep a good eye on 'Crash'. A very good keen eye.

*Doug Nagy: I'm in shock! Not oce did you say..."Know what I mean". You guys must have a beer shortage.

-DJS, AKA da sealer

I cant believe it didnt make the list. Also when u shoot a kithen cabinet at a star freighter u most give it best special effects

You two were discussing how hard it was to catch some of the films nominated for best picture in theatres around here. Just thought I'd let you know that there's a great little indie moviehouse in Rochester NY where I caught Good Night and Good Luck and Capote. I'll fill Doug in on the details next time I see him.

Id have to honestly say that the EXECUTION of the visual effects in star wars was in my honest opinion, sub-par at best. Just because there WERE visual effects in nearly EVERY shot of the movie, doesnt mean that those visual effects were well executed.

In my honest opinion, the special effects for star wars which are not SUPPOSED to be cartoony, and generally are supposed to be photo-real, i found to be sub-par in quality a lot of the time. Chalk this up to art direction, but the visual effects of Revenge of the Sith actually brought me OUT of the movie more than a few times simply because they were unnecissary and excessive.

The award is for the best achievement for the year in visual effects.
From someone who has dabbled in digital graphics, and special effects and filmmaking, I found very little in Revenge of the Sith that was breakout for me. Let me state that im an AVID George Lucas fan, and I really liked revenge of the sith, despite its higher than needed level of camp, but it seems like george lucas' mantra for this film was cram as many things into the frame at one time as possible, with little regard for really making any STAND out special effects.

King Kong brought a new level of subtlety and thoughtfulness to a digital character. You could feel Kong's emotions, read complex expressions on his face, for all intents and purposes he was REAL. This is a breakout, standout piece of visual effects work, and is absolutely deserving of a nomination, and definately an oscar, considering the other nominees. The compositing work was shoddy in places, but considering the timeframe that was available I think they did a fantastic job since I really forgot that there were almost never actual SETS for a lot of the movie.

As far as War of the worlds, i have to say anything involving the tripods was one of the most frightening things on screen this year. Once again the effects work was INCREDIBLY realistic, and beautifully done. The aliens were okay, but i think the nomination is deserved for that beautifully done scene where the tripods first start vaporizing people and tom cruise is running through the dust of vaporized people around him. I never once thought of it as an effect, it just WAS.

The lion the witch and the wardrobe also had some great character work in the film, the beavers and a lot of the miniature and digital set work were gorgeous!

I think that Star Wars should have at least been NOMINATED for the oscar, though im not SURPRISED that it wasnt. Look at it this way, if you take a star wars battledroid, king kong, and a tripod, and put them on the same level to judge. Anyone has to admit that star wars comes out looking like a bad video game cutscene.

Call it a directorial/art department arguement and you might be right. But the other nominees, the effects work was able to elicit some actual EMOTION and a real reaction, where most of the effects work in star wars just fell flat. Though i think thats the fault of having simply TOO many visual effects shots in the film.

Star Wars was the visual effects equivalent of eating 12 bags of chocolate. Its awesome for a while but eventually you get sick of it and throw up.

Hey Justin, I love chocolates, more than 12 bags of them at a time, but I never get sick nor throw up.

Yep the VFX Oscar is not a strict technical award but an award for how the VFX in a movie support or enhance the story creating an emotional connection. Otherwise just send in demo reels. That's why Matrix beat TPM. ROTS should be on the ballot but its exclusion is no biggie. Narnia's VFX probably served the story better.

The anti-Lucas conspiracies are beyond boring. Probably surpassing all the theories surrounding the JFK assination by now.

"Look at it this way, if you take a star wars battledroid, king kong, and a tripod, and put them on the same level to judge"

Well it would take a genious to figure that out. And I'm not even going to mention Yoda cause most didn't like his VFX. But I will mention General Grievous. The VFX were so good for him and others, I belive the problem is that we FORGET that these aren't real, that's why they don't get mentioned. But some of the star wars characters people just BELIEVE it's real until, your like, wait a minute, that doesn't exist, it MUST be a VFX. That's when you know its good. And that in my opinion should put the film in the noms. Even where one star fighter scrapes off that little droid that was on obi wan's starfighter, again, you forget it's all VFX. That thing obi wan was riding, the wheeled thing G. Grievous was riding and the chase. All amazing!!! It's like ILM is so old hat and good at it, it's hard to nominate them since it isn't fair to the others, so instead they chose some who are only begining their own style. And the Achievement goes to those who have to figure it all out on their own, unlike the legend set by ILM.

Thanks Lou, i agree with ya!

let me reinterate my point. The VFX in Revenge of the Sith, to me, stuck out like a sore thumb in a LOT of shots. It was a lot like the clone wars sequence from Attack of the Clones towards the end of the movie, where for that entire period of time, i didn't buy into ONE thing that was happening on the screen. Sure there were 1,000s of soldiers and millions of blaster bolts flying about, but there was NO emotional connection to any of it. It was just there for the sole purpose of looking cool, and honestly it was one of THE most fake looking sequences in that movie. Unfortunately, Revenge of the Sith, continued that tradtion, and had absolutely THE least photorealistic, and THE least believable of ALL of the visual effects in the new trilogy. Most of the digital double work was GOD awful, especially Ian McDarmid's digital double. I mean i can name so many sequences of that film that looked absolutely fake.

- CG R2D2 and the battle-droids with oil sequence
- Count Dooku battle sequence
- Crash landing the ship
- Emperor vs Mace window shattering looked AWFUL
- Emperor face change
- Obi-Wan on that animal thing

need i go on?

Though i will say there were some visual effects that were very nicely done including the opera sequence, and a lot of the coruscant cityscapes.

But like i said before, most of it was there just to say "look we have a lot of effects shots" There was an absolute feeling that the quantity of shots had a definite negative effect on the QUALITY of shots. I mean the space battle / emperor lightning sequence in JEDI from 1982 was FAR more wicked than anything in Sith, and a lot of people have to admit that. And thats because you CARED about what was going on in the scene, and the SFX ENHANCED that. In sith i cared very little about what was going on most of the time, and the SFX just made that worse.

Just my opinion though.

You made a great point with the average persons interest in the Oscars. Personally, I care less and less every year. Even in looking at the nominees this year then i don't care AT ALL about who wins in any catagory. And i'm a guy that likes movies!

Its just sad because to many people the reason to watch now has more to do with the host than the awards themselves. I'll just catch the highlights the next day i guess.

Quantity <> Quality.

John, I just enjoy it when you ranted the way you did. Very brave for coming out, and reiterating that love Sith or not, its not about whether it's the best movie, but the fact it had the best visual effects. There, this is the last time I will complain about it, unless highly provoked. Doug, I hope youre feeling much better too.

And to Darth Xanther, excellent, excellent point! *winks*