Should The Last of Us Be Nominated For An Academy Award?

Should The Last of Us Be Nominated For An Academy Award?

Should The Last of Us be nominated for an Academy Award?

As the video game industry continues to mature in terms of storytelling and character development and as the lines continue to blur between video games and movies. It seems as though it’s only a matter of time until video games are universally respected in the same vein as movies are. One of the finer examples of this is Naughty Dog’s ‘The Last of Us’. The highest honor for any movie is to be nominated for an Academy Award. Now, the question I pose is should video games get the same treatment? In this case, should The Last of Us be nominated for an Academy Award?

The only reason why I pose this as a question and not a statement is because I’m not much of a movie goer. I only watch a handful of movies a year and the last movie I watched in the theaters was Star Trek back in 2009. So, basically, I don’t watch new movies in a calendar year and I don’t keep track of them so I don’t know if 2013 has been a good or a bad year for movies. But, I do have a pretty good idea. Given just how masterful The Last of Us was and given all the commercials for movies I’ve seen I have to say there’s only one answer to the question: Should The Last of Us be nominated for an Academy Award? I would have to say it’s a resounding yes.

journey-soundtrack-cd-pre-orderLast year the video game industry saw Thatgamecompany’s Journey get nominated for a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Perhaps this year the Academy Awards will take notice of The Last of Us and at least give it a nomination for something. There’s a number of awards The Last of Us could get nominated for. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson could be considered for best actor and best actress in a leading role, respectively. The Last of Us is a game that relied on mo-cap, meaning everybody involved weren’t sitting in a booth saying their lines. They were actually acting out their scenes. Just like something you would see in a movie set.

How about an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)? Again, I’m pretty ignorant of what’s happening in the movie world, but nothing seems original anymore. Everything done in Hollywood seems to be a movie based on a real life event, a real person, or a superhero movie. Or how about Neil Druckmann for Best Director? Best Writing and Best Director are sort of tied in with each other. I think a nomination for either or would be right.

Last, but not least, The Last of Us should get some consideration for Best Picture. The Academy Awards have nominated about 8-10 pictures for the past few years now. Given just how many movies they do nominate, I think The Last of Us should, again, at the very least be considered. Now, I may be ignorant to the happenings of the movie world. But I can safely say you’re not going find many movies that are better than The Last of Us. And I seriously doubt you’re going to find 8-10 films that are better than The Last of Us for this year. It’s just not going to happen.

 

The last of usThe Last of Us is such an engrossing masterpiece that one can experience it the way it’s supposed to be – by actually playing the game – Or you can watch someone else play and still be fully immersed in The Last of Us. The Last of Us is such a special game that I don’t think being Game of the Year would do it justice. The Last of Us is much more than just a game – it’s an experience. It’s going to be awhile before we get a game with so much detail at every turn. From the little things of each room, to how characters react and interact with the environment, how they react with each other, how a character may look down at an item, and the list really goes on and on. The Last of Us is one of a kind.

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