If I Picked the Winners: Best Actor 2004

     As time goes on, I don't look at the early 2000's kindly in terms of cinematic output. Not to say there wasn't some great films from the era (and there have definitely been time periods with more dismal films than the early 2000's), but on average, movies from this time just didn't pack a punch. It is hard to say why exactly, but I think the industry might have been in a transitional period in terms of artistic leadership. The directors from the previous generation seemed to be running out of creative steam, while some of the younger talent (the Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, and Darren Aronofskys' of the world) were still finding their feet and hadn't broken through enough to demand the respect of the studios. Since actors are at least somewhat dependent on good roles, no matter how talented they are as thespians, this means acting as a craft was not at a high point either at the time. The 2004 Best Actor race is a perfect example of this fact, because while the category is filled with star-studded names of capable actors, with the exception of a few, most of the performances are not the actor's best work (even if they are decent performances).

     How about performances that missed being nominated though? Well there was one great performance that has since gained pop culture status through parodies on Youtube: Bruno Ganz as Adolph Hitler in the German film "Downfall". Playing THE villain of the 20th century, Ganz finally brings a level of humanity to the Nazi leader who had previously only been portrayed as a cartoony super-villain. While Ganz would walk away with the Oscar, no contest, in a meritocracy, unfortunately, with the Academy's inane rules about foreign actors' eligibility, I'm not sure if the performance was ever eligible for any awards. Other than this stand-out performance, while I might have substituted this for that here and there (Tom Hanks in "The Ladykillers", Bill Murray in "The Life Aquatic", Jim Caviezel in "The Passion of the Christ", and if considered lead, David Carradine in "Kill Bill Part 2" would all be possible replacements), nothing jumps out as an awful blunder on the Academy's part. As fun of a pastime as Academy-bashing is then, aside from their xenophobia, I can't really criticize them in this category, which means it is time to get to the ranking.

News: Batman Forever!

     This week Jeff Robinov became president of Warner Brothers, and along with his hatred of director David Fincher, who he had worked with on "Zodiac" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (but will apparently never work with again, which is a bad sign for the studio's future releases), we also learned he has passion for DC comic books. Or at least the profits that come from turning them into movies. The blueprint for the future of Warner Bros. looks to be a carbon copy of the long-term plan that Marvel has been working out for some time now: make a movie of every comic book character in the catalogue that is even mildly popular, and then have a super-duper, extra-special, once-in-a-lifetime crossover film that will blow everyone's socks off. This crossover film is going to be "The Justice League", film that has been gestating in Hollywood for some years now (originally Wolfgang Peterson was attached to direct). The Justice League universe will be totally separate though from Christopher Nolan's "Batman" universe, as well as Zack Snyder's upcoming "Superman" universe, with different actors playing the roles in each series (i.e. no Christian Bale as Batman in "The Justice League").

     While I'm sure this news has some fanboys salivating at the mouth (as well as some other things I won't get into), I'm not particularly interested by the news. What caught my attention more, was Robinov's announcement that after "The Dark Knight Rises" concludes Christopher Nolan's superb Batman trilogy, the studio plans to reboot the series almost immediately. From the report, Christopher Nolan and his wife Emma Thompson will still produce the next series, but some other director (with an actor other than Christian Bale playing the Caped Crusader) will be taking the iconic super-hero in a new direction.

     Now I love Batman as much as the next person, as the character has to be one of the best character creations of the 20th century, but enough is enough. Given the wretched taste that was left in the mouths of Bruce Wayne fans around the globe with Joel Schumacher's two Batman films in the late 1990's, I supported the first reboot, but Christopher Nolan has taken the character to his furthest reaches. Who ever takes the job of rebooting the series now will have a monumental task ahead of them, as there will almost certainly be nowhere to go but down (and I thought I felt bad for Christopher Nolan trying to follow up "The Dark Knight"). With Batman's massive popularity, and the huge profits the studio took in from "The Dark Knight", I can't say I am too surprised the the studio i would yet again reboot the series, but given the amazing artistic achievement that Nolan's version of Batman has been, I naively hoped that the studio would stop the Batman series at least for a decade out of respect. In retrospect this was a pretty stupid expectation, but at some point it has to end, right? Or does the studio plan to keep making Batman films ad infinitum, into the horizon of space and time itself? I don't know, but something tells me they can't continually hold the audiences attention forever by making the same stories again and again. In the meantime, let me know how you feel about the second Batman reboot in the poll above.