While it is well known that the Oscars don’t think much about the sci-fi genre (after all, in the visual effects category ‘Life of Pi’, the only non-genre film of the group, beat out ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’, ‘Prometheus’, and ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ for the award), it was pleasant to see that the genre was a least represented during the telecast.
Viewers were treated with the dashing young men of ‘The Avengers’ – Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo (Scarlet Johansson was unable to join them as she was performing on Broadway in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’) – presenting the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects while Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana presented an overview of the winners from the Academy Tech Awards which they hosted a couple weeks ago. The latter two had stepped on stage to the music from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and while it was nice to see them both, I must admit, I was a little heartbroken when hearing the music that Sir Patrick Stewart was not the captain that set foot to present.
But the biggest nod to the genre came at the beginning of the show when William Shatner, dressed in full Star Fleet uniform, appeared on a large screen as Captain Kirk to prevent Seth MacFarlane from turning the evening into something disastrous. And it all started with these words:
“Enterprise to Dolby Theater–come in Dolby Theater. This is Captain James T. Kirk.”
Kirk proceeded to tell MacFarlane that he has traveled back from the future to stop him from “destroying the Academy Awards” and went on to show a newspaper containing the headline “Seth MacFarlane Worst Oscar Host Ever.”
The next 11 minutes of the opening thus had Kirk guide MacFarlane into changing the headlines (which after watching the entire show am not entirely convinced he succeeded). The opening did include G.I. Joe’s Duke Hauser (Channing Tatum) do a little ballroom dancing with ‘Prometheus’ Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and Harry Potter (Daniel Ratcliff) do a little soft shoe with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt). The two also joined MacFarlane in the big “showstopper.”
Anyway, see how Captain Kirk helps thwart disaster as he “counsels” host MacFarlane in this year’s Oscar ceremonies:
Source: Trek News
