Hugh Jackman's performance as host of yesterday's Oscars has polarised US film critics and bloggers with reviews ranging from gushing to scathing.
Charged with revitalising a jaded Oscar's format and reversing dwindling TV ratings, Jackman's task was an onerous one.
But, according to influential celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Jackman star passed the test with flying colours.
"How great was Hugh Jackman at the Oscars????" Hilton said in a post on his website.
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"He did a wonderful, wonderful job. And, of course, the musical numbers were the highlight of the very long show!"
The New York Times was more measured in its praise, calling Jackman a "shrewd, even thrifty choice for a recession-era Oscar night — the hosting equivalent of a value meal".
"Mr Jackman was high-spirited, not mean-spirited. He spoke with sass, but unlike more satirical predecessors like Chris Rock and Jon Stewart, there were no smirks; he came to the task with Broadway sizzle, not a stand-up routine," the newspaper wrote.
But a scathing review in the Los Angeles Times — subtitled “Note to Hugh Jackman: What was that all about?” — was quick to lambast Jackman's performance as ridiculous.
"A huge weight has been lifted from David Letterman's shoulders. As Sunday night's Academy Awards began, Hugh Jackman's opening number (pardon me, but did he sing the words "pubic hair"? At the Oscars?) has surely obliterated all memory of the Uma-Oprah thing," the newspaper's critic Mary McNamara wrote.
"Not to mention taking years off the lives of the poor folks preparing to launch publicity for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."
Like many critics, the New York Daily News's David Hinckley felt Jackman had done a respectable job but that the task of reversing the Academy Awards' fortunes has been an impossible one.
"Jackman did his best. His mission just wasn’t accomplishable," Hinckley said.
"Hollywood goes into the Oscars with the movies it has, not with the movies it might want, and it would have required powers beyond those of Wolverine to make Sunday night’s show greater than the sum of its cinematic parts."
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