Zack Snyder’s zombie movie Army of the Dead has won the Fan Favourite Award at the 2022 Oscars. Unfortunately means that Marvel Studios has once again walked away from the Oscars without any trophies to put on its mantlepiece – studio execs will be crying into their billions tonight.
To be fair Army of the Dead is quite a fun action movie and a worthy winner of the Fan Favourite award. The film sees Dave Bautista play Scott Ward a mercenary and his elite team as they try and rob e Las Vegas casino during a zombie apocalypse. Boasting an all-star cast – including Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Theo Rossi, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, among others – the film was a huge hit for streaming service Netflix.
Other contenders for the Fan Favourite award included Tick, Tick… Boom!, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Minamata, Cinderella. To be honest lots of movies were in contention but the fact Malignant didn’t break the top five is frankly a bit of a slap in the face.
On paper it may seem like the Fan Favourite Award may be a popular idea but if you thought that you’ve probably not been paying attention. The general criticism of the award is that it’s unnecessary and is an attempt to resurrect the proposed ‘Popular Film’ category.
The same criticisms that applied to that aborted award apply to this. It kind of suggests that the films nominated aren’t actually popular with general filmgoers and widens the divide between what’s considered good and what’s considered popular.
There are also concerns that bigger studios like Marvel may use their deeper pockets to finance a marketing campaign that allows them to effectively buy an Oscar.