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OSCARS 2020: What is the Speed Force? Academy inadvertently trolls itself

The Speed Force scene was a popular hero moment of Barry Allen's in the Snyder Cut, in which he ran so fast that he ended up reversing time

The 94th Academy Awards returned to Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27, with the red carpet teeming with Hollywood's best and finest. This year, Jane Campion’s 'The Power of the Dog' has as many as 12 nods under its belt, becoming the most nominated film. It is also the first film by a female director to have received nominations in so many categories and also Campion won her second Oscar, becoming the third female winner of the best director award. Moving onto other awaited categories, the Oscar for Live-Action Short was given to 'The Long Goodbye', while 'The Queen of Basketball' clinched the Oscar for Documentary Short and Animated Feature award was taken home by 'Encanto'.

This year, one new feature was introduced to enhance the audience's excitement is the top five most “cheer-worthy” moments in movie history, as voted by the public. The top spot turned out to be a scene from Zack Snyder’s 'Justice League', and has left social media users jeering. The other contenders in the #OscarsCheerMoment category included the Spider-Man Team Up moment from 'Spider-Man No Way Home'; Neo dodging bullets in 'The Matrix'; Jennifer Hudson singing “And I’m Telling You” in 'Dreamgirls'; and the Avengers Assemble moment in 'Avengers: Endgame'. 

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The Academy held a vote this year to allow fans to take to Twitter to choose their top "cheer moments". The Marvel Cinematic Universe films 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Avengers: Endgame' took second and third place, respectively. The fourth and fifth places were bagged by 'Dreamgirls' and 'The Matrix'.

What is the Speed Force?

Grace Randolph's Beyond the Trailer YouTube channel released an interview with Randolph and Snyder Cut VFX Supervisor John DJ Des Jardin about the Flash's Speed Force scene in 'Justice League'. Jardin opened up about the team's fight over the scene, claiming "they just didn't get it" when it was developed for 2017's Justice League. 

The Speed Force scene was a popular hero moment of Barry Allen's in the Snyder Cut, in which he ran so fast that he ended up reversing time and subsequently saving the rest of the Justice League. The scene reportedly did not go down well with the DCEW, which completely omitted it from the final battle of director Joss Whedon's final product.

"It’s funny, because that was always in the story. We shot that way back in 2016. It was something that, I don’t know what it was, the mood of the studio at the time, they just didn’t get it, to be honest. They were just like ‘I don’t understand this,’ and maybe it was the previous nature of it or the post-vis nature or whatever, but it was one of the first things they threw out after they pulled Zack off the movie, sadly. I’m really, really happy with the work that Bryan did on it because Bryan hadn’t had a chance to touch that scene before, so this was all brand-new to him. I had lived with it for years, and the spec for it never changed. And I had some early post-vis versions of it that I could show him. I really loved the breath and depth and scope that he gave those big ideas that are in that imagery," Des Jardin had said. 

'How much did Zack Snyder pay the academy off?'

The Speed Force scene winning the award has social media users saying it was simply 'embarrassing'. "the #Oscars honoring "The Flash Enters the Speed Force in Zack Snyder's Justice League" is the embarrassing sh** we're all here for," one user wrote. "Army of the dead as fan favorite film??? The stupid Flash scene as best cheer moment??? How much did Zack Snyder pay the academy off???????" commented one user.

One user wrote, "FU** ZACK SNYDER ARE YOU DUCKING KIDDING ME THERES NOTHING CHEER WORTHY ABOUT THE SNYDER CUT GO TO FU***** HELL". Another said, "The funniest thing about ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE winning the best “cheer” moment is it was viewed exclusively by people at home watching in HBO Max." "I mean, I love Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but The Flash Speed Force moment is not my number one cheer moment. The Three Spider-Man Team-Up is my number one," one user commented. One angry viewer wrote: Fucking Academy!!! The Flash's speed force run isn't the best cheer moment that's #AvengersEndgame or #SpiderManNowWayHome Spider-man team up #AcademyAwards what a joke of what you once were!!!" Another tweeted: "The silence in the Dolby theater for flash entering the speed force was deafening. What a surreal moment. Thank u academy."