Hollywood’s biggest night reviewed

Over the weekend, the 91^st Academy Awards took place. It is no secret that this year’s Oscars were rife with controversy and problems, but they made it through and delivered us a show. But was it any good?

Leading up to the 91^st Oscars, things were not looking good for the award ceremony. For one, they were going without a host, a thing that has not happened since 1989, which was apparently a train wreck.

The lack of host was due to the fact that old remarks made by Kevin Hart were brought to light, leading him to pull out of the show. The Academy had a hard time finding a replacement, as others felt it may put a target on their back, so the show decided to go without a host.

On top of that, the Academy announced they were adding a new category. This new category, the “Popular Film” category, would honor the most popular film of that year. This category got hit with so much backlash that the Academy chose to backtrack on the idea.

The final bit of controversy involved them trying to attempt to shorten the runtime of the show. They announced that four of the categories were not going to be aired to the public live and instead edited and aired later. The industry fought back against this idea, so the Oscars backtracked once again.

With all this, the show was not looking too good this year. Thankfully, however, they delivered a successful show that was not hurt too much by these problems.

Queen

The show kicked off in high gear right away with a stellar performance by Adam Lambert and Queen. Together they performed a medley of “We Will Rock You” and “We are The Champions.” It helped to get the show rolling, and it did not stop.

Stage antics

There were some really funny moments with the presenters. One such moment was when Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry came out in extravagant outfits to present the award for Best Costume Design. McCarthy wore a long white dress covered in stuffed animals, and Henry wore an early 18th century dress.

Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reunited on stage and reprised their roles of Wayne and Garth to present “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was an interesting and funny segment accompanied by a clip from “Wayne’s World.”

At one point, Keegan-Michael Key even came down from the ceiling holding an umbrella like Mary Poppins to present Bette Midler’s performance of the Best Original Song nominee “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Performances

Speaking of performances, they were stellar. Four of the Best Original Song nominees were sung, and they were wonderful.

Jennifer Hudson belted out an amazing “I’ll Fight” from the documentary “RBG.” Accompanied by graphics in the background, it was a great performance.

Midler’s performance blew everyone away with her vocals. It would have only been better if some of the cast could have joined her on stage.

There was also a performance of “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” that was a fun, albeit different, kind of song than the other two.

Despite all of this, no one was prepared for the showstopping performance of “Shallow” from “A Star is Born.” Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper took to the stage to perform their duet, and it was truly magical. Their chemistry was off the charts, and the song was truly spectacular. It makes sense why it won Best Original Song.

Awards

There also were no huge upsets this year. It seems many of the films that deserved an award got one.

The best animated film in recent history, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” took home an award for Best Animated Feature Film. Rami Malek was named Best Actor for his role as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Even “Black Panther” took home three awards.

There were also many firsts, including the first film from Mexico to win the Best Foreign Film category with “Roma.”

The aforementioned “Black Panther” also became the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to win an Oscar.

Spike Lee won his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman.”

There was even the first film about menstruation to win an Oscar, “Period. End of a Sentence.”

Gone and forgotten

However, there was also a missed opportunity.

As many people know, Stan Lee, creator of many famous heroes and the man who helped make Marvel what it is today, died last year. The Oscars always do an in memoriam for the people in the industry that have died in the past year.

Lee was of course included, but the clip they chose of him was a strange one. It was of his cameo in “X-Men: The Last Stand,” where he sort of just looks at his hose and does not say anything. Out of all the cameos to pick, it’s strange they picked one of his boring ones.

On top of that, most of the awards were presented by at least one actor that appeared in a Marvel movie. With all of those actors they could have done a large-scale tribute to him. Granted, it may have made some people upset because not everyone gets a large tribute, but a man like Stan Lee deserves one.

The past 10 years in the film industry have seen large-scale action flicks, interconnected universes and superheroes. This was all kicked off with the multi-billion dollar franchise that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so to not honor him in a larger way when they had the capability to do so was just a big wasted opportunity.

Other than that, the show was fine. It stumbled a bit without a host to break things up, but it also went a little faster than previous years. Hopefully, they do not continue going without a host because the host does add some direction and entertainment, but this year proves that it can work.

With the 91st Academy Awards now over, the film industry will be rushing to make and promote films for the 92nd. Maybe another Marvel movie will get nominated now that “Black Panther” broke the barrier. We will have to wait and see.