Oscars Visual FX Finalists: Love of Teal & Orange Light Shows Continues Unabated

The Academy's visual effects branch has released its list of finalists for the eventual nominations. For the first year the category will be five-wide. It had always been limited to three nominees in previous years. Given how much of modern cinema is f/x driven, the expansion makes sense. But their finalist-list only serve to remind us that the category, which is technically called Achievement in Visual Effects really ought to be retitled Biggest Computer Generated Imagery. It's hard to find 5 worthy* nominees from this list, isn't it?

Commentary and the list after the jump.

• Alice in Wonderland
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Clash of the Titans
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
• Hereafter
• Inception
• Iron Man 2
• The Last Airbender
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Scott Pilgrim vs the World
• Shutter Island
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
• Tron: Legacy
• Unstoppable

*And by worthy, we mean 5 extraordinary efforts rather than 5 adequate CGI spectacles. No one was really pushing the boundaries this year, were they? Other than maybe the team on Inception (an easy call for the win.) Didn't at least a couple of these films even get dinged in reviews for sloppy effects moments? At the very least this list proves that cheap 3D conversions of 2D films doesn't bother the Academy. And when you're honoring "excellence", shouldn't you be concerned about that sort of thing. I am guessing that James Cameron would not approve.

Animated features are not ineligible for this prize yet an animated feature has never been nominated. I don't know much about visual effects so consider this me talking out of my ass... but my ass would like you to know that the visual effects in Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon impressed its sweet cheeks more than some of these films did.