No fuzzy, talking animals can possibly and unexpectedly tip this year’s Visual Effects contest like they recently did for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe and The Golden Compass, but at least we do have a grizzly in the form of Brad Pitt’s computer-enhanced young codger. There are, of course, a lot more qualities stacked in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button team’s favor: It’s actually a fully-stocked buffet of CGI, process shots, trick photography, and computerized Botox. (Pitt wasn’t the only one who spent large chunks of screen time looking like his younger self, and we already know just how much the Academy loves their Cate Blanchett.) If nothing else, think of all the voters who chuckled every goddamned time that drooling raisin flashed back to one of the seven times he’d been hit by lightning. The breadth of VFX content in the film (even if some effects soar while otherslike Pitt circa 1991just creep us out) should easily trump its competition, unless voters choose to fixate on a single, spectacularly-executed effect, in which case Harvey Dent’s ruined face may give The Dark Knight a leg up on Pitt’s slowly fixed one.
Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
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