Oscars Show Movies are Still About Story-Telling

If there's one thing worth taking away from this year's Academy Awards, it's that despite all the fancy costumes, technical enhancements, and visual effects, true, unadulterated story-telling is still duty number-one for the movie industry.

While the Best Picture category was full of contenders (10, to be exact), most saw it as a two-horse race between sci-fi, 3D flick Avatar and the simple war movie The Hurt Locker. While both included eye-catching visual effects, Avatar took the cake in this department, costing millions upon millions to create (but equally reaping millions upon millions at the box office, with more still to come.) But once you strip the film of all its 3D, cinematic glory, the story was a tired, played out one that we've seen a million times before. There's only so much you can mask with blue people and 3D pictures.

On the flip side, many hadn't even heard of The Hurt Locker until it became nominated for the prestigious award. While I haven't yet seen it, most reports peg the film as the best representation of the war in Iraq of any movie created thus far. It features relatively unknown actors, and a relatively unknown Director Kathryn Bigelow (who was coincidentally married to James Cameron, the man behind Avatar, a decade ago.) It was the underdog in this race.

People rooting for the underdog isn't a new concept, though. Crash won a few years back, taking the industry by surprise. Then it was the low-budget film Slumdog Millionaire that had big-budget directors in tears (and not the happy kind.) The Hurt Locker now joins this group of nice-guys-finish-last-type films.

All three movies have one thing in common: great stories that are either original, or told in an original way. The visual effects are arguably just a few steps above what we might have seen five or 10 years ago. Movies like Avatar and Star Trek, on the other hand, wow us in different ways, with big-budget effects, futuristic imagery, and high-action scenes created with precision. The story-telling portion, however, arguably takes a back seat.

This isn't to say that cinematic beauty and creative visual artistry aren't important parts of the movie industry. They're sort of like high fashion: you gawk at the outrageous, yet beautiful outfits the pin-thin models strut down the runway wearing, but know that you would never wear such an impractical thing, nor would it ever be found in any retail store, except maybe those that sell Halloween costumes. But it's art. It's pushing the boundaries. It's showing what we can do, and taking us to a place we aren't. And there's an equally important place in the industry for this.

When the fantastic visual spectacles are combined with great story-telling, this is when we reach the Holy Grail of movie-making. For now, we will continue to appreciate that telling a great story in a compelling way remains the backbone of the movie industry. As for the pretty lights, cameras, and action? It's high fashion for the film experience.