The 86th Academy Awards Ceremony did not feature a single surprise and it certainly didn’t help that Ellen DeGeneres was not at the top of her game. Everyone’s favorite daytime talk show host gave a memorable monologue, but it went downhill from there. In addition, producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan didn’t do her any favors, giving her little to do and making the show longer than necessary.
Ellen’s monologue had a few hits, but it was clear from the beginning that someone told her she had to be better than Seth MacFarlane. She was particularly funny with her take-down of Jennifer Lawrence - would Ellen have to present Lawrence an Oscar so she didn’t fall again? (Turns out she didn’t, since Lawrence lost.) There was also that genius end. “Possibility number 1: 12 Years A Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility number 2: You’re all racists.” Thankfully, 12 Years A Slave won.
After that, though, Ellen had next to nothing to do except walk the aisles. Seriously... she walked the aisles. For the rest of the night, she had two jokes - the pizza delivery and the selfie. She apparently ‘broke’ Twitter (although it worked for me all night). Her selfie tweet got 2.5 million retweets, making it the most retweeted photo. The best part is Kevin Spacey photobombing the picture.
Oh, she did get a costume change, so that’s three jokes.
Zadan and Meron put together a boring show that somehow managed to end at 11:58 p.m. The “heroes” montages were pointless and boring (Abraham Lincoln is an ‘everyday’ hero? Roger Rabbit is a hero?). The legendary Bette Midler got stuck singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” after the “In Memoriam” segment rather than during. That would have cut down on time.
Although the film geek in me would have loved to have more tributes to 1939, The Wizard of Oz tribute wasn’t actually that bad. Pink gave a surprisingly touching performance of “Over The Rainbow,” although it would have been nice to see Judy Garland’s kids (including Liza Minnelli) take the stage.
The performances of the Best Original Song nominees were fun as well. It was nice to see Pharrell Williams getting everyone dancing. Unfortunately, John Travolta botched Idina Menzel's name and Zac Efron also proved that he has trouble reading teleprompters.
It was nice to see that the best of 2013 was honored, but it would have been nice for the Academy to give us at least one shocking surprise. That would have at least taken some of the weight off of Ellen’s shoulders. Overall though, it was a boring night to honor a great year in film.
You can check out the full winners list here.
image courtesy of ABC