We all know the awards are little more than a joke these days. Many nominated flicks being limited release, low advertised, little seen movies does not help. Who exactly picks these movies and do they actually watch regular movies? In addition, of course, the eternal question: Are they anti-sci-fi as unless it is something like Star Wars, forget it. No nomination.

The best movie of last year was hands down, Sky Captain. Why do you ask? Because of the movie itself. This movie did something never done before. There were no sets, and there were hardly any props. The whole movie was completely CG. The actors spent months in front of blue and green screens, everything added in postproduction.

You may think that it is easy to act when there is nothing around, but it is not. Try to pantomime making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while around the coffee pot at work. Not so easy, is it? These actors had to imagine EVERYTHING from buildings to planes to everything. They had to line up their eyes so they were looking at the same area; they had to show emotions for something they could not see. The actors were nothing short of stunning in this film.

This leads into the CG work. Talk about working overtime. This is not just taking a person and adding some metal arms, or have a caped person fly through the city or even have Yoda turned into a rubber ball for a fight scene. They had to create everything from the smallest detail to the largest. They had to make it appear real. In the end, you could not tell that it was all CG. The lack of set was not blatantly obvious at all.

The script blew me away. Talk about recreating a feeling, which we will get into next. The story was excellent with just the right amount of drama, romance, and action for a movie of this type. The stars pulled the lines off without a hitch. Never once did you think, “That was CHEESY,” and they kept everything very realistic. Even down to the news reporter’s obsession with her camera and lack of enough shots. This was supposed to be pre-digital cameras when you very much were tied to film. How do you know when to snap that picture? Is it worth using one of your precious frames? Very hard and they portrayed even that minute detail well.

Finally, probably the biggest reason why I cannot believe this movie was not up for anything. Let us get down what this movie actually was. It was homage to “days of yore”. It was an homage to the classic serials. Long before televisions were in every home, families would gather around the radio to hear these fantastic stories unfold. On Saturday’s they’d take the family to the local theatre, long before it was a major purchase you have to juggle the bills to afford a simple trip to the threatre. Families would go to the theatre where they would watch newsreels, the precursor to Headline News Network. They would also get to enjoy the serials, the original weekly programming.

Long before you could simply turn on your television Monday at 9 PM to see what happens in the next hour of 24; people went to the threatre to see the latest installment of Zorro, The Lone Ranger, and countless other serials. One of the favourites was Commando Cody. Sky Captain WAS Commando Cody and it tipped its hat to this serial and other serials with respect. Watching this made me think of the old serials I would watch on TV. Finally, I was getting to see one on the big screen, where it was meant to be.

I dare say that if you have not checked out Sky Captain then you are not a true moviephile. You are not a true fan of the movie industry to simply let one of the biggest part of threatre history go by the wayside. It would be like studying playwriting and leaving out Shakespeare.

I think we all know the reason why people did not go see this movie and why it was not up for the awards it so richly deserves. Once more, we see the blatant discrimination. It is wrong. This movie was not just science fiction. This movie was not just another Jude Law movie in the middle of seemingly a hundred. This movie was bigger than that. This movie was one great big hoorah to the industry of movies and to the history of moviegoers.

As a moviephile, I am insulted that Sky Captain did not receive even one nomination. Sky Captain did not even receive a nomination for Visual Effects. There were three, only THREE, movies nominated for Visual Effects. There were plenty of movies last year that easily deserved nomination for Visual Effects, Sky Captain being the most obvious of choices.

People ask why I do not watch award shows. Now you know. Aren’t you glad you asked?