The nearly four-hour telecast was anything but pedestrian this year, from dancers during the In Memoriam portion to seemingly no on-screen information regarding winners or the categories they won for once their names were called.
The Godfather 50th-anniversary segment was nice with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola, but Shaun White, Kelly Slater and Tony Hawk presenting the Bond 60th retrospective? Were Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig not in the budget?
And the audience's reaction (or non-reaction) to its new Fan Favorite Movies category said it all. As much as the Academy wants to appeal to the kids, this isn't the MTV Movie Awards.
But of course Best Actor nominee (and eventual winner) Will Smith's response to presenter Chris Rock's joke at the expense of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett was the real head-scratcher of the evening. Was this staged or really a physical assault on live television? I fear the only ones that will ever know for sure are Smith and Rock.
Just hard to believe a celebrity of Smith's stature, the front-runner for Best Actor that evening, would actually strike someone before a worldwide television audience just minutes before their category is announced and then be allowed to return to their seat as if nothing happened. Anything's possible in this day and age, but the whole thing seemed just a little too "theatrical" if you ask me.
Drama aside, congratulations to all the winners. Each were well deserved, especially CODA's three wins, including Best Picture. Just a remarkable little movie that reminds us what life and being human is all about. Seek it out if you haven't seen it.
Can't wait to see next year's show.
