If you were an Academy member, which film would get your vote?
I’m going with The Hobbit, mostly on the strength of Smaug, who looked friggin’ amazing. Though Gravity was pretty good, too.
And I’m amazed that Pacific Rim didn’t even get nominated.
Hey Mods, don’t know why it says the poll will close on 2-20. Certainly not what I intended. Can you change or remove? Thanks.
Going to start with the easy one, eh?
Not picking Gravity is kinda…well, wrong, isn’t it? 
Of these I’ve only seen Gravity and that was very good, so that’s my vote.
Gotcha covered.
Gravity should win, Gravity will win.
I saw all but Lone Ranger. As much as I think Gravity is overrated as a movie, it was a stunning visual achievement. This is definitely a category it deserves to win.
Gravity always wins. 
And I agree that *Gravity *should win in this case. The seamless, understated presentation of micro-g was the real star of the show, the element holding up the rest of the action and story. I know the portrayal was not perfect from a physics standpoint and there were other story shortcuts, but had the basic visual effect slipped at any point, our suspension of disbelief would have popped and it would have become cheesy sf-like cinema.
Hobbit? We’ve seen dragons and Middle Earth. Well done, but not prize-worthy. Pacific Rim and Iron Man? We’ve seen roboto-men do their thing. Lone Ranger? I think this is a sop to a very, very expensive movie, a consolation prize from the industry, and if it gets 5% of the vote it will be because it employed 5% of the industry. And we’ve seen Star Trek’s world many times in the last 30 years.
Gravity. I know the naysaying, but I think it’s a masterpiece and the seamless, believable visuals are a big part of what makes it so.
I don’t have as high an opinion of Gravity as many other folks do — to me it was entirely this one special effect, with nothing else really going for it — but yeah, they did that one special effect spectacularly well and it deserves the award for best visuals.
Best PICTURE? Hell no.
See, my feeling is that the effects in Gravity, while they accomplished very well what they were supposed to, weren’t all that difficult compared to The Hobbit. Those simpler effects were used very well, yes, but I see that as being more a matter of the cinematography (which I can’t imagine Gravity not winning in a landslide). The effects in The Hobbit were more of a technical tour de force.
bump
Gravity – they actually made Sandra Bullock look attractive.