Avengers stars Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Evans speak onstage during The 2015 MTV Movie Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A.
Credit: Courtesy of MTV
When rapper Fetty Wap joined Fall Out Boy on stage at the 2015 MTV Movie Awards, it felt forced and awkward. Unfortunately, the same was true for most of the two-hour show.
MTV’s 24rd annual presentation, which aired live Sunday night, was hosted by comedian Amy Schumer.
“Half of you don’t know who I am, and half of you think I’m Meghan Trainor,” Schumer joked in her opening monologue.
The rest of the night, Schumer attempted to inject humor with raunchy material. Despite garnering laughs from the crowd, at times it felt like she was trying too hard to bring edgy content to the stage.
Meanwhile much of the ceremony was used to promote future films with trailers for “Paper Towns,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Pitch Perfect 2” being debuted. There were also plugs for the upcoming “Magic Mike XXL” and MTV’s new TV series “Scream.”
As is the norm, the presenters partook in contrived banter as they announced the fan-voted awards.
With Shailene Woodley, Dylan O’Brien and Zac Efron dominating, the list of winners read like poll results from a teen magazine.
Woodley took home awards for Best Female Performance and Best Kiss for her role in “The Fault in Our Stars,” which also won Movie of the Year.
O’Brien won awards for Breakthrough Performance, Best Hero, and Best Fight, while Efron won Best Shirtless Performance and Best On-Screen Duo with “Neighbors” co-star Dave Franco.
Other winners included Bradley Cooper for Best Male Performance, Channing Tatum for Best Comedic Performance, and Jennifer Lopez for Best Scared as S— Performance.
The most genuine moments of the evening came during the presentations of the three Honorary Awards – the Comedic Genius Award, MTV Trailblazer Award and MTV Generation Award – which are not chosen by the public.
Kevin Hart took home the Comedic Genius Award. He brought his children on stage to give a touching speech about his family.
Woodley, who won big through the fan vote, was the recipient of the fourth ever Trailblazer Award. MTV presents this award to a young actor who is making a large impact in the industry.
During her reception speech, Woodley stressed the importance of a strong community.
“I realized that we can’t fully be ourselves without a community,” she said. “We can’t be ourselves without people to reflect back to us who we really are.”
Introduced in 2005, the MTV Generation Award is used to celebrate actors who have had great achievement in movies. This year the award was given to Robert Downey, Jr.
Downey reflected on his career during his speech and offered up advice to the audience.
“Dream big. Work hard. Keep your nose clean. Be of service. And in any way you can, define your generation,” he said.
The three Honorary Awards lent some credibility to an event that was otherwise a popularity contest that was trying a little bit too hard.
