Meh... "The Academy" has always strayed from the unusual, funky or overly imaginative.
Lord Of The Rings is the only fantasy/sci-fi they ever gave a best picture to (Star Wars lost to Annie Hall - an honorable but nonetheless predictable move).
As good as The Hurt Locker was, it nonetheless stayed within the acceptable classical Hollywood realism bracket, and strayed from politics entirely in favor of the "maverick" character narrative that for me kinda made the last part of the movie completely unbelievable - but still a good story heheh.
