Sucker Punch

Michael Traven said:
Also, as a side-note, pretty much everyone who hated it seems to have either hated Snyder beforehand, or had some moral objection to "girls in skimpy clothing."
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I certainly don't object outright to either. I only really liked 300 of Snyder's films. Watchmen was a fascinating mess, which I disliked alot more on 2nd viewing. Dawn of the Dead didn't do anything for me, but I didn't hate it. I think he has enough talent to still be given the benefit of the doubt but these days, I need to have a really compelling reason to go to the cinema as my home setup is more satisfying than most theaters. Too many reviews have set off warning bells for me.
 
Oh, I was talking about people who had seen it and then ranted about how horrible it was. Most of the reviews I've read either make some comment about the girls' clothing (as if it's some shocking new thing that girls might be dressed skimpily, particularly those working at what is presumably a whorehouse) or make comments about how bad of a filmmaker Snyder is.

I think I just take these things too personally. It shouldn't upset me that other people hate a movie I loved. Or really that they even compare the film to a wet dream they had. That's art. You remake Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai and Ferngully and you get critic and audience adoration, not to mention billions of dollars. You make something original and you either get a pat on the head and a "That'll do pig," or you get shoved in the s..t.

I guess I'm rabbit-trailing here, though. <grin>
 
It's okay to be passionate about why you like or dislike something. It's when somebody starts attacking the character and motives of another person that the line is crossed.
 
I will not go as far as to say that I was a Zack Snyder fan prior to Sucker Punch but I did enjoy his previous efforts. Dawn of the Dead was a fun zombie flick that did not pull any punches. 300 was vacuous but it was visually stunning and the action was good. Watchmen was deeply flawed but as a fan of the graphic novel, I was glad that it made it to the big screen, even if some parts were bastardized. I certainly don't hate Snyder, I think he is visually gifted and his past three film have proven that but there was nothing remarkable about Sucker Punch. The action, which was the main selling point, was unwatchable at times (the robot train sequence ranks up there with the worst fight scenes I have ever seen). I am fine with Snyder adapting other work (but I would still be very careful about what I let him touch), but I think this film proves that he should avoid tapping into his own brain for ideas, as it will only bring pain and suffering to the audience. Who knows, Superman could turn out alright but after Sucker Punch, he seriously needs to reevaluate his filmmaking mentality.
 
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I haven't really enjoyed anything Snyder's done so far. I think his Dawn of the Dead missed the point, his 300 chose to focus on the more socially degrading elements of Miller's story, and Watchmen simply doesn't work as a film because it's a commentary on comics and that presupposes its audience is well read in comic lore. Can't say I'm looking forward to Superman, but I'll go see anything if the trailer really gets to me.
 
I feel like Snyder just didn't know what he wanted to stick to- and so he did it all.

First there's the two main storylines, the Brothel and the Asylum. These two storylines seemed to run in conjunction with each other, but I feel like they simply missed the mark and had no reason for being next to each other. As someone I believe mentioned, and as my friends pointed out, why not chose one or the other? Snyder could have made it work with one of the storylines alone. On top of that, if she's creating a place to escape, why does she imagine another horrible place similar in a lot of ways to her own?

A lot of people do mention the scantily clad women of the film. I don't mind it (in fact I applaud it... I am a guy), but my problem is it doesn't fit. This is a Male Gaze film, which is clearly in the imagination of a female. She's the one dreaming this world, putting it together, so why does she dream herself and her friends as scantily clad warriors? I get that it's an extension of the brothel, but why is she imagining the brother then? It just felt unreasonable that she would imagine herself as a sex object...

Then my beef is with the clutter of the entire thing. She's a prisoner in an asylum, so she escapes mentally by imagining a world similar to her own, where she's not only a prisoner, but she's a prisoner as a sex slave. Then she goes deeper into a world when she dances, and each time it's something completely different from the other. I suppose the fighting represents her 'fight for survival,' but it felt a bit much. Dragons, orc, samurai, undead germans, it was just so over the top. It made it feel cluttered, and I really questioned the real purpose for the action (other than for spectacle and the male fantasy).

Lastly is my Beef with the dialogue. I'm a fan of Snyder, and 300 needed the over the top dialogue to make it work. However this one felt forced. BabyDoll is trying to dance, and her madam feeds her lines "These are your weapons, you're fight for your survival begins right now." Where did that come from!?

I enjoyed it, and it was a fun ride. However it was lacking, and felt more pointless than engaging. Not to mention that even though they were scantily clad, there wasn't much in that department. It fell bit flat for me unfortunately.
 
i dont see it,theres something wrong with embeding youtubes,i know i could dig it out from sourcecode ,i click on agree and nothing happens
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Ok ive seen it,im tired of "tough" woman who look like prostitutes,cheesy and depressing.
If someone has problem to see it here is the link:
www.youtube.com/v/XSIetIg7O3M
IMO his movies are hard to watch,too much over the top stuff ,i liked watchmen but its a movie that can bore you to death if youre not into any character,i needed about 3 times to see whole watchmen,this looks very similar but CGI is more fake.
 
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Saw this today and I enjoyed it. I certainly don'y think it deserves the beating it's taking. It had moments that I would have done differently, but most movies do. If you can look past a few bits bad dialog and open yourself up to the fantasy Baby Doll is living in, you may find an entertaining popcorn flick.

Bottom Line: If you don't like high style action stay far away.
 
October Black said:
...Bottom Line: If you don't like high style action stay far away.
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I don't think anyone is complaining about the action. I found the German battlefield sequence to be sloppy in its realization, but I'm a fan of the larger style Snyder brought to the screen. There are serious issues with the story, that's the bottom line. One thing is for certain - the people who made an $8M Friday opening possible aren't people who wanted Zack to fail.
 
Erik Olson said:
I don't think anyone is complaining about the action. I found the German battlefield sequence to be sloppy in its realization, but I'm a fan of the larger style Snyder brought to the screen. There are serious issues with the story, that's the bottom line. One thing is for certain - the people who made an $8M Friday opening possible aren't people who wanted Zack to fail.
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Sin City, The 300, The Spirit, Sky Captain, & now Sucker Punch all suffer the same problem - weak stories. Of the the bunch I think Sucker Punch has one of the better stories. Super stylized storytelling is still a bit new and will likely suffer from growing pains for years to come. I myself am a big fan of this type of film-making and hope that the holy grail of style film is around the corner.

Did Sucker Punch miss it's mark? Considering the reviews I have to say yes. But the Bottom Line is - I enjoyed it!
 
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walked out 3/4 of the way through and watched the lincoln lawyer. That says a lot cuz I hate mathew mchanahay. terrible soundtrack...the cover of the pixies about made me puke. This guy better stick to the graphics novels in which he just copies frame for frame onto film, otherwise he is like a 13 year old child making multimillion dollar films.
 
The way I see it, Baby Doll imagined herself as a sex object in a place of sexual slavery from which she must escape because she was clearly dealing with sexual abuse as something which was haunting her. It's not clear in the opening whether the sexual abuse from her stepfather was new or had happened before, but it seemed to me it'd happened before. That gives her reason to externalize her fight against the sexual abuse by imagining the mental institute as a brothel and herself as a sex slave.
 
Michael Traven said:
The way I see it, Baby Doll imagined herself as a sex object in a place of sexual slavery from which she must escape because she was clearly dealing with sexual abuse as something which was haunting her. It's not clear in the opening whether the sexual abuse from her stepfather was new or had happened before, but it seemed to me it'd happened before. That gives her reason to externalize her fight against the sexual abuse by imagining the mental institute as a brothel and herself as a sex slave.
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Alright, the brothel I understand, but then why the sexy schoolgirl soldier? Perhaps it was an extension of her extension at the brothel, but it just feels too much of a stretch. This film is just too male oriented, to the point that it doesn't make sense... but hey I shouldn't try and make sense of a Snyder stylized film I guess.
 
Jon Starr said:
This film is just too male oriented, to the point that it doesn't make sense...
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I think my girlfriend liked it more than I did. I wonder if it is geared more for women and most of the target demographic is male.

Seemed to me that the sexy outfits were more of an extension of their self image. Baby Doll states that most of the girls were not strong enough to make it on the outside. I think that supports the idea of bad self image. Once someone is abused they tend to run with people that keep taking advantage of them.
 
Oh my God people, stop reading into this film like there is some kind of redeeming message. Snyder is not capable of complexity. He wants you to think that it is all about female empowerment or something deeper but this is without a doubt a shallow film. It was just an excuse to put young girls in skimpy clothing and give them machine guns. People keeping saying that at least the visuals and fight sequences were good. I disagree. There is nothing impressive about cgi anymore. Been there, done that. The fight sequences were sloppy, especially the robot sequence. Some stuff looked cool in the trailers but when it played out in the film, it did not work at all. There was nothing at stake in the fantasy world. None of the girls were ever in any real danger other than in the Asylum level and none of them could do any of the bad ass stuff they were doing in real life, so who cares? This film was little more than excuse to do a mash-up of guy stuff which is a big bore to me.
 
Yeah, seriously guys! Just stop thinking about it. Stop trying to use your own brains and form your own opinions on something. Just listen to what shorty15 says and repeat it to your friends, because he's right and you're wrong.

BTW, I agree that although the fight scenes were beautiful to look at (the cinematography was amazing), they could have been MUCH better. Especially the trench scene. But overall, I thought the movie was ok. Could've used a lot more script revisions to clean up the dialogue and story. I'm a big fan of 300 and Watchmen, but this didn't really do it for me. Maybe I've had too high expectations. Oh well.
 
shorty15 said:
Oh my God people, stop reading into this film like there is some kind of redeeming message. Snyder is not capable of complexity. He wants you to think that it is all about female empowerment or something deeper but this is without a doubt a shallow film. It was just an excuse to put young girls in skimpy clothing and give them machine guns.
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I don't think anyone was looking for a redeeming message. I was just bothered by exactly what you said, it's just an excuse for young girls, skimpy outfits, and guns. I was simply going a bit deeper with that notion.

Personally I refuse to shut off my brain for pure action/popcorn flicks like this. Is it too much to ask for a smartly written action flick?

Though I find it funny that this film is about lobotomy and that's what people suggest to do to enjoy the film.
 
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