Hathaway, Franco don't provide intended Oscar makeover

The Oscars have never delivered more mixed messages.

Co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco provided an awkward prelude to the ceremony, followed by mediocre interludes throughout it. It was nice to see young faces on the stage, but the duo proved it's a safer bet to recruit a real comedian to emcee the awards. (This was emphasized when former host Billy Crystal graced the stage to present an award with built-in poise and a certain Oscar finesse Hathaway and Fanco lacked. Were the show's producers perhaps trying to send a message regarding next year's selection?)

The hosts were part of the Academy Awards' campaign to make the three-hour ceremony — which ran 15 minutes overtime — seem more youthful. But the youngsters played it too safe. The ceremony took four giant steps backward from Ricky Gervais' questionable (but brilliant, if I do say so myself) Golden Globes humor that took stabs at what some consider a few too many indelible celebrity newsmakers. Instead, it replaced the risque satire with mostly aimless banter. Hathaway's solo song-and-dance number was cute but needless, and the segment featuring characters from nominated films autotuned Antoine Dodson-style was a stab at a pop-culture sendup that failed.

Yet, amid all the attempts at seeming young, the ceremony continuously inserted dedications to former Oscar-winning films, something that seems to pop up at the Academy Awards every few years. Audiences were reminded of categories' winners in previous years before this year's respective award was presented. It's always nice to revisit favorite films, and being reminded of the greatness of Gone with the Wind, The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars is never a bad thing, but ceremony wasn't consistent in when it chose to honor certain moves of lore, leaving the tributes — and the show — feeling incongruous.

To top it all off, the Academy had the chance to provide its ultimate youthful quality: that it could award a non-traditional Oscar-bait flick with the night's top honors. I can't say I'm particularly upset The Social Network didn't win — I was rooting for The King's Speech — but the once-favored Millenial manifesto could have been the icing on the pubescent cake. Instead, the Academy went with traditional fare, which is fine by me, but it doesn't bode well for a ceremony that's clearly working too hard to break away from its senile voting members.

Hathaway and Franco looked good — better than Crystal could have — but were too untrained for the Oscar stage, where they had to pretend to be comedians in a setting where no reshoots are allowed. We can all applaud the ceremony for striving to reinvent itself, however. Let's keep that up, but with a more fitting host (not hosts) next time.