Well, last night went pretty much as expected by most people.
Bridges and Bullock. Did they really deserve their awards? Maybe. Maybe not. You can't help but feel they both got them more as "lifetime achievement awards". Especially in Bullock's case. If Helen Mirrin wasn't so critically acclaimend, and if Meryl Streep wasn't so critically acclaimed, and if the other two weren't "who dat?"s, there's no way Bullock wins. (Side note: that girl from "Precious", holy crap, man.... that's one big woman. Mo'Nique sat behind her probably 'cause she said, "This is the only person in the room I look skinny when I sit behind."
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Bigelow. Another one where you can debate it. Her work before this was pretty uninspiring. Did she win because she's a woman? Did she win because no one wanted to see Cameron up there again?
"The Hurt Locker". Again, people seem split on this film. Some love it, a few think it whacks it, and even a lot that enjoyed it think it's not worthy of an Oscar. Did "Avatar" get a backlash because it made so much money? Or maybe it's a technological thing. "Tron" was blacklisted for an effects award 'cause the Academy said they "cheated" by using computer graphics, LOL. "Beauty and the Beast" might have been the best picture in its year but they weren't going to give an Oscar for Best Picture to a cartoon at that point in time. Maybe, 10 years from now, an "Avatar"-style picture might win. But IMO right now it's too new and unusual and unknown for people to vote for it. (Hell, half probably didn't vote for it out of some irrational fear that "computer-animated films will take all of our acting jobs away", which totally isn't true if you know anything about how they made the film.) But, as has been mentioned, "Avatar" already won when it was "Dances With Wolves", and while "Avatar" was a very enjoyable film, I don't think it was "robbed" the way "Saving Private Ryan" was. Cameron's got his "Titanic" Oscars and his mattress full of Benjamins to console him.
The dual-hosting thing was okay. Funny in spots, flat in spots. I still don't think anyone's done it better than Billy Crystal, but that's JMO.