Morbius was a genuine phenomenon. A misfire of a movie so memorable that Sony was bamboozled into re-releasing the film so it could flop a second time. While there should be a place to honor such an achievement, the Golden Raspberry Awards, known as the "Razzies," needs to end. In fact, there's nothing anyone at that awards show can say that the Internet didn't say first and funnier.
Taking into account Sony's universe-building expectations, Morbius was a massive failure. And the Razzies nomination cinches it. Whether the film is actually "bad" or not is mileage that varies from audience member to audience member. Tommy Wiseau could tell Jared Leto all about how a "bad" movie can find a second life as a genuine cult classic. Still, after Morbillion dollars' worth of memes, it feels like the award show is chasing relevance. The modern Razzies don't celebrate bad movies -- it trashes films it doesn't even have to watch. It's not celebrating earnest low-quality filmmaking to ignore the film and trash it for laughs over drinks and overpriced catered tapas. This "cinema counter-culture institution" is just Rotten Tomatoes review-bombing with a healthy veneer of privilege and pretension. There may have been a time when the Razzies offered some worthwhile cultural commentary. Over 40 years later, it's become lazy, mean and unoriginal. In the age of the Internet, the world doesn't need more of that.
The Razzies Started With People's Hearts in the Right Place - But It Didn't Stay That Way
John J.B. Wilson was a publicist who cut movie trailers, and in 1981, he hosted the inaugural Golden Raspberry Awards in his living room on Oscar night from a lectern made of cardboard. Ever the marketer, Wilson eventually began hosting the event the night before the Oscars, when an exhausted entertainment press was desperate for something to talk about before the big show. A kind of awards-culture satire, some artists have actually braved the scorn and accepted their awards in person. Looking through the list of winners, a number of them are films, songs and performances that have aged quite well.
Yet, the Razzies directly contributed to early internet toxic fan culture, and in recent days, it just seems to copy its homework. The judges have nominated children and actors who've later spoken publicly about how backlash to their work almost killed them. Ahmed Best revealed the difficulties he dealt with because of the hate he personally received for Jar Jar Binks. Best "won" the Worst Supporting Actor Award at the 20th Razzies in 1999. In 2021, they created a special category to trash Bruce Willis for his series of "geezer teasers." Just months later, his family revealed that, due to aphasia, he would be unable to continue his career much longer.
In truth, even the Academy Awards seem a vestige of an older time in Hollywood. The only good reason to even have a ceremony is so Queen Ramonda herself, Angela Basset, and John Williams can get their statues. While more than a few films have been nominated for Razzies and Oscars, the former stopped being a critique of Hollywood awards culture (if it ever was at all). Wilson began the Razzies because he wanted bad movies to get their due. Thanks to memes and social media, they are immortalized in ways older films were not.
There Are Better Ways to Send Up Cinema Than the Golden Raspberry Awards
The judges of the Razzies are like the review-bombers on Rotten Tomatoes and don't have to watch the movies they so publicly trash. Everything from the nominated films to category names represents the worst of modern discourse about entertainment. "Special" categories like "Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie" and "Worst Written Movie that Grossed Over $100 Million" sound less like keen satire and more like replies to a tweet.
The presentation doesn't offer critical takedowns from technically proficient film professionals. The Razzies are just performative casual meanness with a formal wear dress code -- something there is an abundance of online and can be found scrolling through one's phone in pajamas. The Golden Raspberry Awards' time has passed. Halle Berry showed up and was an excellent sport winning her Razzie for Catwoman. Sandra Bullock made an appearance in 2011 to accept her award for All About Steve. She pointed out that the then-700 members apparently hadn't seen the film. But Bullock also defended her performance, implicitly passing the blame on to the screenwriters. A day later, she won an Oscar for her performance in The Blind Side.
Even though it's played as "all in good fun," it's not really. There's nothing good nor fun in what the Razzies do. When artists (or their social media managers) get hundreds of unsolicited messages of dismissive cruelty from strangers, making that sort of thing a big swanky party seems in even worse taste. Hollywood could do with fewer awards shows, and the Razzies is the perfect one to let go of first.