The 2012 MTV Movie Awards was hyped as the online voting showdown between "The Hunger Games" and "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2," but that battle ended up with both sides seemingly satisfied. "Games" won four awards (two of which for categories Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson took themselves out of contention for) and "Breaking Dawn" won two including the "prestigious" (at least according to Jodie Foster) best movie honor. Did that help create a better show than last year's boring "Eclipse" coronation? Not necessarily, but there were some memorable moments.
BEST
Best: Emma Stone Tribute
Emma Stone is probably a good 10 years from receiving a legitimate Trailblazer Award, but it was kind of MTV to honor the up and comer with "The Amazing Spider-Man" less than a month away from opening. The incredibly intelligent, composed and witty actress gave a wonderful acceptance speech tying her words into encouragement for anyone who is trailblazing in their own way. Beforehand, there was a wonderfully done tribute video featuring co-stars Steve Carell, Jason Sudekis, Octavia Spencer, Jim Carrey and Anna Faris (who stole the piece with lines like "I can't believe she's still doing it at 47. She's 23? Omigod, she looks awful!"). It was arguably the best moment of the night.
Best: Johnny Depp performs with The Black Keys
In an aside from just the generally good musical performances, watching Johnny Depp just hanging back and being cool as he's honored by the organizers at MTV was nice, easy TV. He seemed grateful for the
award, but even more comfortable with the Black Keys, with all parties involved playing confidently, competently and for a large-scale audience. The intro from the California Raisins, er, Aerosmith felt a bit stilted, but then things actually moved.
Best: Kristen Stewart accepts the award for Best Kiss
This is hardly Kristen Stewart's first time at the MTV Movie Awards podium. In previous visits, she and "Twilight Saga" co-star and rumored (cough) boyfriend Robert Pattinson teased their fans with increasingly more intimate kisses on stage. This year, Pattinson wasn't in the house, but a confident Stewart tried to find someone, anyone to join her in a smooch. ""Rob's not here guys. I'm not sure what to do. Huntsman? Where's my Huntsman? Chris? Charlize, will you help me out? No, OK. Taylor, help an old friend? It's OK, I do pretty well by myself I think." Stewart then pretends to kiss herself. It might not have totally worked, but at least she realized the show needed some excitement.
Best: Musical Performances
One of the best parts of this year's show were the musical acts who brought their A-game (something that hasn't always occurred in. The show kicked off with an appropriately upbeat "We Are Young" by .Fun and Janelle Monae. It later segued to Johnny Depp joining The Black Keys for a rousing "Gold On The Ceiling" and then heading out to commercial on "Lonely Boy." Wiz Khalifa also brought some much needed energy to the proceedings with "Work Hard, Play Hard." To be honest, and if there had been time, the show could have benefited from a closing act.
Best: Elizabeth Banks on stage with the cast of Magic Mike
With a premise of a movie where good-looking men take their clothes off, there's simultaneously very little and very much at stake when said stars are to present at a teen-dominated MTV show. Channing Tatum, though, continues to bask and charm, high-fiving the audience, playing an illiterate dummy with the teleprompter and riffing well with McConaughey and Big Dick Richie, aka "True Blood's" Joe Manganiello. Banks, who picked up a trophy for the mystifying Best Transformation category, played along with the group of goobers, dry-humping her golden popcorn, the fireman axe... basically all three dudes at once.
Best: Shailene Woodley winning a peer-voted category
Most of the MTV Movie Awards winners are either based on fan voting or MTV and the show production company choices. This year, the show updated the breakthrough award so that the winner was determined by "an academy of outstanding directors." Considering that Woodley lost both the 2011 Gotham Award and the 2012 Golden Globe for her turn in "The Descdndants," placing this on the mantle next to her 2012 Independent Spirit Award is a nice consolation.
Best: Archery skit with Joel Mchale, Jennifer Lawrence, and J.J. Abrams
In one of the rare comedic moments that actually really worked, this pre-taped bit had Joel McHale playing the world's worst archery teacher, with "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence and J.J. Abrams chiming in with their horror stories of working with him. McHale obviously has great timing from his years spent on "Community" and "The Soup," but what surprised was how funny Lawrence and Abrams were at playing their respective "straight man" parts. "Klingon archery subplot" excised from the "Star Trek" sequel? Now that's cute. More like this next year, please.
Best: Dark Knight Rises Presentation
Overall, it was fun and informative having Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight Rises" principals all in one place. Nolan even crashed the party, to outline the project from the new footage we just saw. Christian Bale choking on Heath Ledger's name was oddly moving, particularly for a show which favors tongue-in rather than tears-on cheeks.
WORST
Worst: Where were the stars?
No Rupert Grint or Daniel Radcliffe? Not a single "Bridesmaid?" Chris, but no Liam? Was Robert Pattinson at home making-out with the crook of his arm as Team Jacob repped? At least Jennifer Lawrence showed up in a scripted bit as well as taped an acceptance speech even though she didn't make it onsite. Since the stars of "Twilight" excused themselves from a few major categories, it's sort of like when the popular kids decide not to go to prom: fewer people are excited, making it extra awkward when Kristen Stewart and Emma Watson go stag. It's almost like they had to make up an award for Emma Stone to show up to claim it.
Worst: Presenter Bits
Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg basically said what we were thinking: "I'm sorry" and "I didn't write that, either." Many combos and lines were writers' experiments in falling on one's face, only requiring very famous people do it for you. For every "Magic Mike" moment where the presenters made up for clumsy cues, there were vacant-eyed Aerosmiths and clunky Martha MacIssac. Even sophisticates Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender couldn't successfully execute their poorly timed bits.
Worst: Russell Brand's Hosting Performance
"[Kanye's] drunken stage invasion at the last MTV awards show I hosted took a lot of pressure off me," said Brand in his opening monologue, referencing the rapper's Taylor Swift-directed microphone swiping at the 2009 VMAs. Too bad the temperamental hip-hop star wasn't here to save him this time. Less than two minutes into Brand's shrill, painfully unfunny hosting performance, it was all I could do not to plug my ears (not to mention cover my eyes to avoid having to stare at his insufferably douchey outfit one second longer) and hope that someone in the auditorium would take it upon themselves to wrestle the damn microphone away from him. If he weren't so annoying, I might have actually felt bad for the guy...but nah.
Worst: Charlie Sheen
Can we please stop shining the spotlight on this ridiculous turd? There to present the "instant cult classic" award to...erm, "Project X," Charlie Sheen played up his "Unrepentant Hollywood Party Boy" reputation to the hilt by proclaiming from the stage, "Everybody likes watching party movies like 'The Hangover,' 'Superbad' and 'Old School,' but let's face it, my life has been a party movie...When I saw this year's Instant Cult Classic 'Project X,' I said, 'Damn, finally a movie that captures what's going on in my head 24 hours a day.'" The saddest part of that quote is that by all available evidence it actually seems to be true, and yet somehow Sheen continues to be celebrated and given a platform for his pathetic grandstanding. Forgive me for dragging gender politics into a discussion about the MTV Movie Awards, but if he was a woman, you can bet this ass-hat would've been kicked to the curb long ago.
Worst: An award show with lack of suspense means..
The MTV Movie Awards has two big problems. The first is the fact public voting the show into a "tween" movie awards show for years. The second is the lack of suspense in announcing the winners. Anyone can tell who the winners are by just watching who walks the red carpet. The show has become such a joke to the nominees - unlike say the VMA's - that no one wants to show up unless they win. This creates a show that has to live on its musical performances (a good 15 minutes at best), taped bits (hard when they've cut the show to 2 hours) or an incredibly funny host (um, it's been a long time…). If MTV wants this show to continue to draw big ratings after "Hunger Games" is long gone, they really need to do something about this now. Or, they'll find themselves with a worthless shell of a show that nobody wants to watch.
Worst: Lame Audience
We get that it's not the Oscars, but this year's show sounded more like a high-school pep rally than an awards show with actual full-grown adults in the audience. Did MTV just recruit a horde of 14-year-old "Twilight" fans and call it a day or what?
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