Sucker Punch

Loved it up to the end.

*SPOILER*

First, loved the Dawn of the Dead reference.

I can't help but feel the bad guy one in the end. I knew the ending was a probable one and was left with a feeling that it was a cheep semi-Jesus story complete with a traitor. I am just so fixated about the ending of the movie, and every time I go back to think about it, I can't help but think at first, naaah it didn't end that way it ended like X, but I am just trying to fool myself because I like the rest of the movie. I seriously have to say the end has probably ruined the movie for me.

Saw Sucker Punch and The Lincoln Lawyer today.

Even though The Lincoln Lawyer wasn't really an Oscar-bait type film to totally contrast with Sucker Punch, I think most would say it's a more complex movie, despite the fact that everything was resolved within it while I'm still digesting Sucker Punch.

I just plainly do not like Snyder...so I find it very difficult to sit down and watch anything he has had his hands on...I lump him into the Michael Bay bin...they strive for flash but I feel like I am left wanting something with a little more substance...

Maybe they should both work on a project together!!! "Transformers: 300 Suckerpunches On The Dawn Of The Dead"

So watched Suckerpunch last night, personally feel that it's really not worth the price of admission and that this film is more of a rental or netflicks kind of thing vs. paying theatre cost for it. Action scenes were hit or miss for me, and for me the action scenes themselves were just there for the sake of being there. The whole movie had this "Look at me, I can be this type of movie to" feel to it.

I like Zach Snyder, and I liked 300 and Watchmen. But this is one of those movies that I need to be spoiled before I'll go see it.

I've been looking for a spoiler for this movie, and all I've found is an implication (not an outright statement) that:

***SPOILER***

...at the end the main character is lobotomized, and remains imprisoned in the mental institution while her mind continues fantasizing.

And if that's true then I don't want to see this film. That's a horrible way to end a movie. Worse for me, because I'm schizophrenic, and I don't need to hear that my disease is useless for affecting the real world and to be happy I should go get a lobotomy.

Screw that noise. I'd rather get my broadsword and fight my own chaingun-weilding samurais than waste time in a movie like that.

Saw Sucker Punch yesterday and wanted to take a day to "percolate" before I posted my thoughts. Bottom line/short version: didn't love it; didn't hate it. All style, little substance. For my more detailed thoughts consider anything below spoiler territory.


***Spoilers below!!!***












I really wanted to love this movie from the first time they put out teasers for this last year. To Snyder's credit, the man has an eye for art direction and visuals. I had another commitment early in the weekend so I couldn't see it opening day but was also away from any interweb type stuff so I was also lucky enough not to see any early reviews and therefore went into it completely unencumbered by other peoples perceptions or rotten tomatoes numbers. (Which I do have a tendency to "peak" at sometimes)

[Full disclosure]
I will point out that I did like Watchmen as a book and as a movie adaptation, so sorry to those people who disagree. I will say though that I do understand Ironik's point about another layer of context missing from the Snyder movie, but for me, it didn't ruin the experience. I will also disclose that I'm more of the talky/independent type movie fan and not someone that prefers or even really likes action movies solely for the sake of action. (My one weakness/guilty pleasure though is the super hero movie) While its a concept thrown around here when talking about action movies, I don't subscribe to the "turn off your brain" mentality of movie going. Now I don't begrudge anyone for liking movies that way, it's just not my thing. All I ask is give me SOME attempt at some forethought to plot and dialogue before you start choreographing fight scenes and 'splosions. In other words: I hate Michael Bay.

And I think that is the first reason Sucker Punch misses the mark: source material. Snyder's earlier work simply had much better source material. This time we got something from Snyder's mind. And we pretty much got, what we could expect. Very, very visually stunning, but pretty darned shallow as well. The man can storyboard the hell out of a movie, but I'm not so sure he can tell a story. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a terrible story by any stretch, it's still superior to a Transformers or Fast and Furious type movie. But a movie that dips into so many underutilized genres deserves to pay better homage to them than what we got. I will give him credit for tying in many of the things said kind of in the background of scenes at the beginning of the movie to its conclusion; that did require a little thoughtfullness. I think he could have cleaned up a few of the story elements and made a much much better movie. It could be an editing issue, but I just think it's not Snyders forte and Steve Shibuya's screenwriting didn't help.

Acting: The acting was pretty unbalanced. Emily Browning did a fine job, no real criticisms there. I found Carla Gugino's Polish accent off putting and to be perfectly honest, I think it stifled her performance. The woman does have range, but I felt the accent reigned her performance in to one note. I didn't care for the actor that played Blue, Oscar Isaac. While he did give off a good "weasel vibe" I didn't find him intimidating enough for the role. Jena Malone (Rocket) was the real weak link in the cast and unfortunately she was required to do the widest range. While she was fine as the bubbly Rocket, when asked for drama it vered way into melodrama and didn't fit the movie and quite honestly was just bad. I think the performance that really worked was Abbie Cornish (Sweet Pea) and that was important as we find out in the end, it was really her story all along. She had great screen presence and I think we'll be seeing a lot more of her. Everyone else was set dressing or underutilized. I think a lot of the issues with acting probably lie more with casting and directing than the actual performers though.

Visuals: This is one pretty awesome looking film. Definitely Snyder's strength and I think he really deserves points for mixing up the genres and really nailing them in the fantasy/fantasy sequences. Unlike some others in this thread, I really wanted them to be a tad bit longer and a bit more of the substance of the movie. I mean come on: steampunk/clockwork nazi zombies! Who doesn't want more of that??? The dragon sequence was fantastic, and I'd swear it looked like a few orcs from LOTRs made cameos. The bomb on a train sequence felt too short to me, but kudos for the look of the robots, especially the mirror faces and that perspective used in a lot of the action. It was a neat touch. I will criticize some of the CGI work though, especially some of the early stuff with the giant samurai. Where other parts of the movie had flawless CGI, some of the movement seemed 'undone', in that sequence. It reminded me of the bathroom scene in the Wolverine movie where the claws looked like they just forgot to finish the FX for the scene.

[Edit]- I almost forgot one of my biggest complaints. Yes, Zack, it's time to put the slow motion away. I've defended you in the past for it, but you've milked it for all it is worth. Enough already. Find a new trick.

Music: The soundtrack was great and utilized wonderfully. Another of Snyder's strengths and where he is his strongest with regards to storytelling. The man can make one hell of a music video. Honestly I'd love to see him do a dialogue free (or limited dialogue) fantasy movie with just great music to tell the story; along the lines of Fantasia or The Wall. He marries music and visuals so beautifully, I think he could do something really special.

The Rest: While I 'got' why the Dances were never seen, I really don't think it's as profound (good or bad) as some people are letting on. It was merely a storytelling device and one that felt a bit clunky, in my opinion. But one that worked, ok. The creepy factor: yeah there was a little bit of that. They did make it clear that they were of age, but you also can't deny that there was a fetishistic angle to the costuming, and that's ok. There's even a reference to it in the first scene when she enters the "brothel". It's a movie about fantasy and there are a lot of fantasy/fetish iconic looks portrayed and I think it makes sense in that world. Snyder has never really shied away from darker material but I think he played a bit more to the masses with the tone of this movie. Personally, I would have liked it to be a little more brutal on the girls, to show why they want to leave so bad other than "I really want to get out of here" "Me too!" And again, I really don't think Oscar Isaac worked in that particular part of his role. He was fine as the weasel-ly orderly but didn't work as the scary pimp. A better actor could have made both roles work. The lack of sex is fine as that portion of the movie is from Baby Dolls perspective and her creation and we are told they are "holding her" for the High Roller, and it's implied she's "innocent" so to speak.

Conclusion: not great, not terrible. Three stars, C+/B-, one thumb up/one down, however else you want to describe middle of the road. There is a very good movie in there, I just wish the story telling wasn't so weak. Much like Tron: Legacy (sorry to those of you who loved Tron) it looked beautiful, sounded beautiful but ultimately missed the mark due to plot. I went to Tron with some friends and after it was over I looked to one of them and simply said, "How did they 'F' that up???" I felt pretty much the same way after Sucker Punch. It had so many elements right, but ultimately the story/plot made it less of an experience than it could/should have been.

Bottom line: Eye candy but brain porridge.

Sucker Punch's weekend box office didn't even crack $20M, which on an $82M budget is a bad sign, and it lost the #1 slot, by a wide margin, in a surprise upset to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid sequel. At this rate, Mr. Snyder's latest looks like it will join the ranks of geek-centric movies that have wowed the crowds at Comicon and the posters on Aintitcool but have notably failed to achieve mainstream success. At this rate, we should ask ourselves the hard question of whether sci-fi is on an irreversible downward curve toward a trough like there was in the 60s, where good big-budget science fiction films were few and far between (e.g. Fantastic Voyage, 2001).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironik If you look at Star Wars from an adult perspective, especially one used to a diet of Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather, The French Connection, All The President's Men, Deliverance, Papillon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Marathon Man and so on, movies like Star Wars can seem like a silly little trifle. To reviewers of that time, Star Wars had more in common with Escape to Witch Mountain and Death Race 2000 than any of the weighty, serious films of the era.

Why not also contrast it to the serious science fiction of the first half of the decade, e.g. A Clockwork Orange, Silent Running, Slaughterhouse Five, Solaris, Soylent Green, a few Planet of the Apes sequels, and, of course, Lucas's own THX 1138? Even Woody Allen's Sleeper had lighthearted fun with weighty science fiction themes.

Although Star Wars did have hints of seriousness common to the era - its New Age-y Force and its political backdrop of corruption and rebellion in the context of the Viet Nam War and Watergate - Lucas de-emphasized those in favor of the "wow factor" of its special effects spectacle, which ultimately overwhelmed them. The message Hollywood took from its success was that even the smallest element of seriousness in a science fiction film was unnecessary as long as the SFX budget was big.

Edit: Death Race 2000 is a sneakily hilarious satire, on a par with Robocop or Starship Troopers. B-movie king Roger Corman knew that having a satiric element was important, and good for business, despite the schlockiness of the project.