No, I didn't watch all the 2010 best picture nominees before the 82nd annual Academy Awards aired Sunday.

I tried. I did. OK, maybe I didn't try as hard as I could have, but, hey, a girl's got to live sometime.

I saw "Avatar," and as I stated earlier, I'm glad it didn't win. I managed to sit through "District 9" and am ecstatic that it failed. The two movies sit at complete opposite ends of the alien spectrum.

"Avatar" presents us with an enchanting new world of exotic creatures. It implores peace and appreciation of an alien culture. It sends the message that we shouldn't invade and destroy an alien planet (read: any planet) but rather live with and learn from them.

The first third of "Avatar" focuses on getting the audience to fall in love with their surroundings on Pandora. The first third of "District 9" almost made me puke.

That film takes more of a "Those aliens came to us and are inadvertently destroying our planet and lowering our quality of life. We can't get anything from them, so dump them." It presents aliens as this disgusting life form with no motivation and seemingly inconsistent levels of intelligence.

As different as they are -- in presentation, plot events and emotional ploys -- the message was the same: Corporate greed will destroy us.

In "Avatar" it's the RDA searching for ore. In "District 9" it's MNU looking for a way to use the powerful alien weapons.

War. Death. Killing our own people to get to what corporate wants.

With all the sci-fi destruction, it turned out to be a film about a real, human conflict that the Academy chose to highlight. Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker" won the top honor that fateful night. Considering it won six of the nine categories for which it was nominated, the film might deserve its award.

I haven't seen it. I will. I suggest you do, too.