2. Transformers: Age Of Extinction Being Submitted For Best Picture Is Not Surprising
On the topic of Paramount Pictures and their strange approach to the Oscars, how about this doozy that broke at the end of the year - Transformers: Age Of Extinction, the highest grossing, but lowest quality, film of the year was submitted for consideration for the Best Picture Oscar. Now that is true, every disgraceful word of it. But what's a little less fact-based is the perception that this is, in any way, a shock. Oh yeah, that a studio thinks Transformers should even have its name even mentioned in the Dolby Theatre on February 22nd is criminally misguided. But it's common for most major movies to wind up with a small push come Oscar time. If it didn't happen, publicists wouldn't be doing their job - there's an outside chance a summer blockbuster can actually win (see Gladiator) after all. Nobody at Paramount actually thinks this is the best movie of the year (just look at Mark Wahlberg try and hide he's just doing it for the money in interviews), but they're more than happy to go along with it if other people think so. Previous movies in the series also had similar pushes, albeit with less glossy ads, making this just another head-banging event in a series of painful experiences that make you question humanity's worth. Like the movie itself.
