The Fall of the MTV Awards

MTV had it's annual movie awards on June 1st, 2008. I eagerly watched it as I hoped that it would be as rewarding to watch as it has been in the past and after the lackluster MTV Music Awards in the last part of 2007 (shame shame Britney for being out danced by two 7 year old boys) I was hoping that it would be an enjoyable viewing experience. Sadly however it was a tame, somewhat boring imitation of what MTV's award shows use to be.

First is the fact that they don't give out as many awards as they use to. This would be acceptable if they had awesome musical performances to offset this. They had two; Coldplay and the Pussycat Dolls who performed yet unreleased tracks. While hearing music before it hits stations is nice it doesn't make up for the fact that the entire show was pretty much parodies instead of what it should be; awards. Ten years ago they use to give awards for everything they could think of but now in this day and age awkward awards such as "Best Summer Movie...So Far" have replaced such classics as "Best On-Screen Duo", "Best Action Sequence", and "Best Dance Sequence". And while MTV use to thrive on controversy and walking the edge of what they could show (remember Diana Ross feeling up Lil' Kim) now thanks to a certain performance at a certain football game now they are like meek little kittens who don't want anything that could get them in trouble with the mean old FCC. What could have been a truly comedic performance between Seth Rogan and James Franco and whether or not they were really sparking a fat one up on stage was ruined because they choose to shoot that from a camera angle that was two miles away (although I am in no way condoning or condemning marijuana use). However this could have been the most hilarious moment of the night but sadly the viewer couldn't see anything; instead we saw the reactions of the audience most of whom looked shocked (which probably help contributes to the way MTV is so censored now).

A majority of the show were parodies and while that has been apart of the Movie Awards it should never be the majority of the show. They gave out seven awards and I always remembered them giving out more in past years. Seven awards in the span of two hours; seven awards for the many movies that have been released in the last year, many of which had been directed directly towards the MTV crowd (Juno, anyone?) Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't a movie awards show be mainly about movie awards? What a concept that instead of the show being a spring board for stars to promote their new movies that they give out accolades to the movies of the last year. Hopefully next year they will try to get back to their roots and instead of trying to have a big name comedian parody everything imaginable actually give out awards that mean something. I mean honestly not to insult Iron Man but "Best Summer Movie...So Far"? Really? Is that the best you've got?

Oh one highlight of the show was the reunion of Myers with Dana Carvey in a Wayne's World episode. That was classic and that was worth it but probably the only funny parody that Myers actually participated in. Everything else however was sadly lacking. As stated MTV seems to be losing it's panache; first the Music Awards last year where the audience was made up entirely of celebrities (there will be no nobodies in this crowd) to this? MTV I suggest you look back at the past award shows and try to repeat that formula because what you're using now just isn't working.