Academy fails to bow down to ‘Godzilla,’ not even for ‘beast actor’

Perhaps people this year were more ready for more Marvel than they were for the return of the King of the Beasts, the 1950s incarnation of Japanese post-war fears over nuclear weapons turned worldwide pop culture icon.

But Gareth Edward’s “Godzilla” (2014) was such a good Godzilla.

He looked and sounded great on screen and paid homage to both his beginnings as a monster symbol and his cultural, cinematic legacy.

Further props should be given to Edwards for balancing out monster scenes with character narratives to remind us of Godzilla’s threat to the actual human race rather than to just to airports and skyscrapers.

Wherever Aaron Taylor-Johnson fell flat as another guy with a gun, Ken Watanabe and Bryan Cranston stood out, also offering up allusions to man’s brash abuse and disregard for nature.

Most important, rather than a CGI explosion, as the third acts of monster or superhero movies are these days, CGI and the monsters that could destroy all were teased out.

Monster sequences were doled out only as need be so as not to lessen any one time the beast rises from below or appears towering above.

Together, the visual effects and sound created as real as Godzilla experience as anyone would want.

Yet “Godzilla” was shut out by the Academy and the nominations for both sound editing and visual effects went to the superhero films of the year, including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

At the very least, “Godzilla” should have been nominated for beast actor.

— Hannah Thornby

Like Minorities, Lego people snubbed

Everything is not awesome with the Oscars this year. They left one major group out of their nominations: Legos.

“The Lego Movie” was nominated for only one Academy Award, Best Original Song for “Everything is Awesome.” This movie needed more than just one nomination.

Visually, the animation was stunning. The movie looked like it was made with actual Legos rather than with CGI.

Then, the actual story of “The Lego Movie” is great! What could have been one big commercial to sell Legos turned into a very heartfelt movie. Who knew that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of “21 Jump Street,” could make a movie that people of all ages would love?

Well, I guess we’ll just need to follow Unikitty’s advice from the movie about the Oscars’ very bad idea not to nominate “The Lego Movie:” “Any idea is a good idea except the non-happy ones. Those we push down deep inside where you’ll never, ever, ever, ever find them!”

— Jacob Sanchez

‘Fault in Our Stars’ snub as sad as the plot

The first movie I cried over was “King Kong” when Kong died.  The second was “X-Men: The Last Stand” when Prof. X died. The third was due to a movie that got jipped out of a much-deserved Oscar nomination. 

“The Fault In Our Stars” was beautiful. When I first watched it, I was expecting a teenage romantic dramedy.  Instead, I got a film that managed to seamlessly tackle big issues such as mortality and love while remaining original and endearing.

Shailene Woodley was sassy, authentic and hilarious. She was a strong female lead that I felt warmly towards and identified with.

I wanted to get a cup of coffee with her and tell her everything would work itself out. I’m wholeheartedly surprised and disappointed Woodley was not nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role.

I cried each time I watched “A Fault In Our Stars,” and I’m not ashamed. The coldhearted Oscar nominators are the ones who should be ashamed.

— Sara Katona