I always feel this way after the Academy Awards
I'm not surprised the Harry Potter didn't get any credit. Nor am I surprised that Narnia didn't (It got makeup, and deservedly so, but I was really rooting for Sound Editing/Mixing, where it wasn't even nominated; I don't often walk out a movie saying, "That was the best sound mixing I've ever heard!" and I did for that one). And that very fact
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But seriously. Have you seen any of the other movies put up for sound editing? The little clip of Munich they put up sometime during the evening about a pivotal moment when one of the Israeli terrorists calls up his mark's house to see if he's there so they can get on with it and hears a child and runs off to stop the bomb/whatever is one of the best moments of panic I've seen done in a movie for a while. And Kong? There's no way that you can have seen that movie and not come away thinking it deserved every bit of those technical awards it got, and maybe deserved a few more nominations, too.
So, basically, as luminous as GoF may have been, and as fun to watch and everything, all I think it deserved were some nominations - the real achievement, I think, was heralded by films that addressed more difficult subjects and ideas. Films that outright talked about difficult, real-life issues like prostitution, racism, ostracism and lack of tolerance. As much of GoF as I've seen in the ads and so on, I cannot see any real knockout theme running through the entire work. Harry Potter is a hero's story. He plays and reads like thousands of other heroes I've read of or heard about, and has a character practically fashioned along the lines of the traditional hero. The plot is the typical hero's journey. What is so illuminating about that? I find the story of a Japanese prostitute and her heavily taboo desire for an older man within the strict confines of her traditional life as a geisha far, far more illuminating than Harry's issues with Ron's jealousy or the graveyard scene with noseless old Voldemort.
Face it - when you put up Harry next to heroes like Odysseus, Hercules, Perseus and others who fought fantastic animals for, dare I say, more important reasons than Harry (it was for a damn competition, no matter how heroic his dragon stunt may have been. A competition does not compare to fighting for your life against a hydra or blinding a Cyclops so that you and your men won't be eaten in the morning), he just pales. I agree that the HP series are a great achievement in literature, but mostly because it got kids reading again and revitalised the children's book industry somewhat. It presented a fresh view on an old subject, regardless of how well, and I laud it for that. But I'd never be able to justify thinking that it should rightfully be up amongst giants like Narnia, Memoirs, Pride and Prejudice, Kong, Crash, Syriana, Constant Gardener, Capote and the rest. I'm not saying those films are perfect or are perfectly entertaining, or whatever. I'm just saying they're on another level, compared to our Harry. *shrugs*
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