Sucker Punch

If you actually saw the fight, you couldn't help see the anime inspirations of it. My friend told me before he saw the movie, "Man, they are totally ripping off Silver Samurai in Marvel comics", but decided it wasn't the case after he saw the movie.

I claimed I was influenced by a movie to make breakfast. I didn't claim any influence from the comic...maybe if I played the piano and sang songs.

Totally agree with Dark One here. District 9 was terrible on almost every level. That thing was a mess.

IIRC, the "Samurai" in Brazil even spewed out a fiery light in every location Lowry damaged it, much like what happened in Sucker Punch.

Honestly this whole back-and-forth discussion about whether or not Snyder "borrowed" from Brazil is basically pointless when it's quite obvious that it indeed happened. Sure Snyder may have been influenced by other anime/comic sources, but Sucker Punch was effectively his attempt to "re-imagine" Brazil, to a very poor result.

Ironik, I respect your movie opinions and know how, but here.......you're wrong.

Oh and you too, Dark One.

Apparently the guy who made the movie disagrees with you.

I'm a huge fan of you, too, MM but you got some 'splainin' to do...

Like, why does the film start off as a documentary, then the film crew stops filming... but it somehow KEEPS ON BEING a documentary? How is that possible, exactly?

And speaking of that, what's with the absolutely pointless interviews with the main guy's friends and family? He does something, we see it, we know why he did it, and then they have an interview with someone telling us why he did it. Is it because Blomkamp thinks we're idiots?

Sometimes the interviews are a lazy way to save money by having people tell us the things that happen.

And let's talk about the acting, such as it is. No wait, let's not. Too painful to watch and way too painful to reminisce about.

What's up with the McGuffin? A bunch of goo that takes 20 years to make that both powers interstellar starships and alters human DNA? WTF indeed.

There's nothing original about it, despite so many proclaiming that. It's like no one has ever seen a movie where the bad guys turn out to be the corporation and military, which is only, like, half the movies ever made. (Blomkamp knows this is so lame, in fact, that he named his evil company "Multi-National United." He must've spent zero time and brainpower coming up with that.)

I don't know why people keep equating this movie with Apartheid, because it's not about that at all. It's about illegal aliens. (Which is a little on the nose, isn't it?) Refugees. Apartheid was a racist system whereby the white minority subjugated and dehumanized the black majority. That's got nothing to do with refugees. So the Apartheid metaphor? Broken from the outset. That doesn't bother you? Because it bothers me. Don't advertise something you aren't.

The subtext of racism is still there, but not how reviewers want us to think it is. The depiction of the black thugs is simply cringe-worthy. They're superstitious and simple to the point of being racist cartoons. Witch doctor? Eat the protagonist's arm? Why not just say "Oogah-boogah" and be done with it.

There's a bunch of other stuff I disliked about it, too, but it's been long enough that I've forgotten it in favor of more important information. Like where I put my boots.

Exactly... Brazil? When I think big guys with light shooting out of them before exploding, I think Voltron, as in, that's how almost every Ro-beast died. When did Voltron come out? 1984. Brazil. 1985.

Game, Set, and Match.

Also: people who didn't like District 9 can't be reasoned with.

I think it needs repeating. If for nothing else, because the movie isn't about schizophrenia. The only thing the movie has to do with the mentally ill, is the fact that the movie takes place in a mental institution.

The world is a product of a non-mentally ill girls imagination, created due to the psychiatrist's form of therapy, where the patient (she was admitted by a stepfather who wanted her out of the way, and bribed the orderly to fake a signature to give her a lobotomy so she couldn't talk to the police) creates an imaginary world inwhich they control.

Remember, this is 1950 with different ideas on what was good for patients.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Well, much like was said in the movie, it wasn't the main character's story. I personally took that to mean, this was really about how Sweet Pea was suppossed to escape, and my guess is, if the movie succeeded enough to get a sequal, we would of seen Sweet Pea some how become the lead of her own imaginary world.

big-ticket geek-centric busts? o.O

Transformers didn't bust.

Batman Begins/The Dark Knight didn't bust.

Superman Returns didn't bust (though sadly event though it was a big money maker it got seen as one).

Wolverine wasn't considered a bust. None of the X-Men movies period.

Iron Man 1 & 2, not busts.

Resident Evil series is getting a 5th movie.

As for Sucker Punch's geek centric style, I don't think any bust on it's part, and I fully admit, while I enjoyed it, it looks like it's going to be a bust at the box office (at least in the US), I don't think it will be an end to this style of movie, to those who want to make such a movie.

Hollywood still has people who are willing to take chances.

Some of us haven't said SUcker Punch had a bad story.

The story was simple. Simple doesn't mean bad. And while some see the connections of the imaginary to the real world, it sounds like some missed it.

If you're looking for character developement, then yes, Sucker Punch lacks that. I however, am of the opinion that not every movie needs character developement to be a good movie.

You're getting farther and farther off base. Sucker Punch blatantly homages anime and video games in its action sequences. There's no argument to that. But if you're analyzing why the movie shows a squad of girls in stripperific costumes with cool weapons, and a mech, sent FPS style after an army of steampunk nazi zombies, you're missing the point.

It's the same with people who like the Bay Transformers movies.

Snyder was forced to cut a lot of material from the movie to get the PG-13 rating. Supposed to be a Director's Cut DVD in the works that's a lot closer to what he wanted to do.

I can see why the wanted the PG-13 rating.

People often say "such and such movie" should of gone with an R rating, forgetting that when movies go with an R rating, it can easily lose a large part of it's audience.

Not to mention R rated movies aren't known for being the OMG HUGE SUCCESS (not that they can't be).

True. As often as I like the idea of a movie not having a happy ending, it can turn people off.

They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!

@Starflier

The TV show Mad Men is not about smoking. But smokers should not watch it. That's all I'm saying.

How soon we forget (Tron, Scott Pilgrim, Serenity, Green Hornet, Kick ***, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Superman Returns, Spider-Man 3, and, oh yes, Watchmen).

Please believe me, I don't want to have to think about Sucker Punch at all - and the Comicon trailer strongly suggested its audience wouldn't - but once Zack the Hack invoked Brazil, he might as well have slapped me across the face with a kid glove and challenged me to pistols at dawn.

Fortunately, there are paid professionals out there who are more than ready to articulate how much they dislike this film.

I know they had anime in the 1950's, but those were more Disney like at the time, made with kids and cute animals, and WWII obviously had influence on Baby Doll's imagination. However, one of my issues with the dance sequences (other that what I had already mentioned) was how modern some of the concepts seemed and how modern some of the weapons were, which was kinda weird considering the era Baby Doll was living.

Is it sad that I loved a few of those? Hated Wolverine and spider-man 3 though :P

Wait wait wait, are we talking "busts" in terms of quality or box office? In either case, that's a shaky set of examples.

So nice of you to remember wit' yer stealth edit.

But yes, I have to agree with Ironik's summation. District 9 was horrible on many levels and I just can't understand the praise that is heaped upon that movie.

I liked 'em for what they were...big robots fighting, Peter Cullen's VA'ing, stuff blowing up, and Megan Fox's body. I was under no impression that they were "deep" movies. They had problems, a lot of problems. But they were enjoyable nonetheless.

I don't think I've ever agreed with a "professional" reviewer. They are more concerned (IMO) with appearing to be above us plebian masses who don't find 8 hour subtitled films about the life of a pancake that is shot in some obscure dialect of Swahili enjoyable.

I think you guys keep missing the fact that ZACK SNYDER said he based Sucker Punch on Brazil. The parallels are there because he put them there. He didn't base it on Volron, he based it on Brazil. And the giant samurai doesn't look like Voltron, it looks like the giant samurai in Brazil. Baby Doll doesn't go through the same character arc as Voltron, she goes through the same character arc as Sam Lowry.

I am always more than willing to discuss any film or book with someone who holds the opposite opinion. But you have to be able to explain to me logically why these obvious flaws exist in order for me to accept your point of view. There aren't many examples of me changing my mind on this forum, but those examples do exist.

In the case of District 9, though, you aren't going to achieve that feat, because it really is a stupendously stupid movie. This doesn't mean that you are a stupid person for liking it. That *might* be the case, but it's not an equation I make automatically, because you never know why someone likes something stupid. My mom liked watching Golden Girls when she came home from work, but she was an ER nurse who literally saved people's lives every single day. So she liked something that was neither emotionally nor intellectually taxing. If that's why you enjoy the stupidity of District 9, that's fine, but if you want to argue that it's a smart piece of cinema, I'm going to gut your argument like a fish and make you cry like a baby.