JUAN ANTONIO SISON
BIZ/TECH EDITOR

As a child I naively watched the Oscars hoping fantasy blockbusters films like Jurassic Park would win best picture of the year.  Now that I’ve grown cynical, I realize plot and character development are superior to green screen actors.  This brings a pertinent question.  How is Avatar within arms reach of a best picture award?
Avatar is a film that you’ve seen before, even if you haven’t watched it yet.  One FilmFreakCentral.com critic described the film as a “politically childish amalgam of Pocahontas and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest.” While i09.com described the film as “a classic scenario you’ve seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member.” The article also states “Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy.”
How is it a film that’s panned as recycled nominated for best picture?  Ratings.
In 2008, the film No Country for Old Men took home best picture of the year.  The film was praised by critics yet the ratings for the broadcast suffered.
Only 31 million viewers watched the Coen brothers take home the top award despite the ceremony having its 80th anniversary. The film was produced independently and had a dark tone throughout the film.  There were almost eight million fewer viewers when No Country won than 2007 when the star-studded film The Departed won.  In 2009, the audience jumped up five million when Slumdog Millionaire took home top honours.  In 1997, when Titanic dominated the Oscars, the awards show also tallied its highest audience count with a staggering 57 million viewers.
Now director James Cameron trumped his own movies highest box office total with Avatar and that number could translate into viewers.
The Academy is slowly alienating the avid film watching community by awarding movies with mass appeal or films with saccharine messages.  The changes already began with the Academy nominating 10 films this year instead of the usual five.  The Academy is notorious for ignoring genre films yet two films managed to snag a nod this year with the science fiction film District 9 and 3D animated film Up.  The Golden Globe awards are already following suit, awarding The Hangover with its best film and musical comedy award.
This is what one of the most prominent award shows has come down to.  Slowly awarding films that are neither challenging nor innovative?  The Academy is so concerned about dollars that it is willing to award a pretty looking clichéd movie over a gritty realistic war movie with The Hurt Locker.  The two movies are in a tight race for the best picture award but the Iraqi war flick’s odds are bruised.
Recently The Hurt Locker producer, Nicolas Chartier, sent out an email to Academy voters to vote for his film instead of a “$500-million film.”  The Academy has stringent rules banning negative campaigning and Chartier promptly wrote a formal apology.  The Academy has banned Chartier from attending the ceremony, and this could be the excuse they use to crown the residents of Pandora with best picture honours.
I will personally help Gargamel’s genocidal project against Smurfs if Avatar wins.