Was Wonder Woman Really The Biggest Oscars Snub Of 2018?
What about Logan?
It wouldn't be Oscar nomination season without some serious complaints about the snubs and unworthy nominations that seemingly blight every Academy ceremony. It's just part of the culture around the awards, and it definitely helps expand the conversation around them. Not that they'd ever overlook any worthy films in the interest of headline generation, of course...
This year, like every other before it, the conversation around the Best Film nominations was immediately hijacked by cynics complaining about the neglect of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman. It was the highest grossing summer 2017 movie, hoovered up positive critical reactions and had gained a PGA nomination for Best Film, but sadly, the Academy followed the lead of the Golden Globes and failed to hand out a single nomination for the film.
Even Suicide Squad got one, for Pete's sake.
The film's various snubs have now been ranked as the most egregious of this year's nominations, according to a poll by Fandango. Of the 1000 users asked, 39% picked Wonder Woman, ahead of James Franco's snub for Best Actor (which was a little less surprising given what's happening around him at the moment) and Tom Hanks for The Post.
Of those three, Wonder Woman's snub is certainly the most outrageous, given the context of Franco and the fact that The Post is an elevated TV movie (that's not always a terrible thing, but it's not the most theatrical of frames for any performance). Considering how well Wonder Woman did, it should have been up for at least something, even if a Best Picture nod for a comic book movie (or a Best Actress one) is still a little unlikely.
But Jenkins' movie was not the most unfairly overlooked movie this year: it wasn't even the most unfairly overlooked comic book movie.
LEGO Batman not getting a nod for Best Animated Feature when The Boss Baby is in there is a travesty. It would be a terrible snub even if The Boss Baby wasn't acknowledged, but that just adds bitter icing to the revelation. It was easily one of the funniest movies of the year and overlooking it (possibly because it came out so long ago) is just wilful ignorance.
Perhaps the Academy just really doesn't like LEGO?
And then there's Logan. If James Mangold's stunning post-superhero movie had been released as a true Western (which it was way more than a comic book movie) it might have been up for Best Picture, but both Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart would DEFINITELY have been up for acting gongs. Both were incredible and snubbing them simply because of the genre they acted in is idiotic.
Sure, Logan getting a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination is a step in the right direction, but the very fact that such a throw-away nod is being lauded so highly is indicative of the toxic perception of comic book movies generally. We shouldn't have to live on scraps.
So yes, Wonder Woman was wronged somewhat, but it's nothing like the crimes against Logan and LEGO Batman. Don't forget those two crimes in your haste to talk up another.