I'm already giggling picturing the cries of protest that will rise up when I post this review, but the hell with it, I really like Zach Snyder's Sucker Punch. I never deliberately play the contrarian, I just seem to often gravitate towards films that have been maligned by the masses, and I can't really help it. Now, in this film's case, a few of the many and varied negative criticisms are somewhat warranted, yet blown out of proportion when you really take a good look at the story. The film is pure style, and although Zachary might have let his imagination run a little wild and clutter the whole affair with fanboy fantasies and video game visuals, there is a clear and discernible story beneath if one cares to look. Now, the only way that story is entirely comprehended is by watching the extended director's cut, which includes an absolutely crucial, pivotal scene that's should have never, ever ended up on the editing room floor for the theatrical version. Seriously, they we're straight up asking for hostility and confusion by not keeping it in every cut of the film, it's just common sense. Speaking of story, here we go: the film opens in breathless style and classic patented Snyder slo mo, with young Baby Doll (Emily Browning) trying to save her little sister from their tyrannically abusive stepfather. Outsmarted and shipped off to an austere mental institution, her journey is a sad, surreal and somewhat befuddling one, but there's a method to the madness that might not be clear with only one viewing of the film. The asylum she is sent to is plagued by a sinister orderly (Oscar Isaac) who is abusing the girls in his care, and as a result, Baby Doll channels such horrors into a grandiose set of fantasy worlds, the base of which rests on a burlesque style brothel where she and others work for volatile pimp Blue (also Isaac). Joined by Amber (Jamie Chung), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), she blocks out the reality of what is happening and replaces the details of an elaborate, systematic escape attempt with impossibly epic, highly stylized adventures, each of a different theme or set in a vaguely familiar period of history. Battling medieval dragons, giant samurai golems with mini-guns, WWI zombie hordes in a gaunt, bombed out European landscape, it's all a detailed rush of sound and fury that hits you like a ton of bricks, and although is far too much for the film to handle and still get its point across, it's completely dazzling stuff, especially on Blu ray. Guided by a mysterious Wise Man (a kickass, rootin tootin Scott Glenn) who shows up in a different get up each time and mentored by brothel Madam of sorts Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino), each setting holds the key to move along a certain cog in their plan, correlating back down the line of delusions straight to the asylum, if a little tenuously. Now it all hinges on the arrival of the High Roller (Jon Hamm), a rich playboy who has come to the brothel to see Baby Doll dance, and probably more. Here's where they messed up royally: The scene I mentioned earlier is a monologue from him that is pretty much one of the most important parts of the film, capping off both realities beautifully, and without it, not only is Hamm relegated to basically a walk on extra, the entire final punch of the climax is rendered lost and neutered, not too mention quite uncomfortable in a sense. Whoever was in charge of that particular piece of the editing should be tarred, feathered and run off the studio lot by teamsters. With the scene left in on the extended version, however, the story is given both point and purpose, feeling like a complete vision with a little weight to go along with it's Hindenburg sized bag of visual tricks. Not Snyder's best for sure, but it's in no way close to the turkey some people will have you believe it is. Whiners. Style over substance? Yes, I'll definitely concede there's an imbalance, but don't try and tell me the whole thing is bereft of substance at all, because that is a lazily researched argument. The soundtrack is a treasure chest, I might add, with beautiful covers of Sweet Dreams and Sing Me To Sleep sung by Browning herself.
1,133 Reviews
One word... underrated!
lechihoanglonghiie21 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Not everyone can see through an emotional story in a visually-stylized movie. Besides the spectacular cinematography, editing, action sequences, there's also a touching story behind it. It's not a movie for everyone, but I was actually appreciated Zack Snyder's vision and his visually brilliant storytelling. Although there are cons in this movie, I actually love how the concept of fantasy and reality and blurring line between them are being portrayed in this movie. Also, I love the ensemble cast in this movie, especially the 5 female leads. Either way, it has got to be one of the most overlooked movies of the last decade.
Snyder pushing buttons for polarising results.
hitchcockthelegend7 November 2017
Off the bat I have to say I'm over thirty years older than what some pro critics have claimed is the demographic for this one. Sucker Punch, as reviews etc attest, is not for everyone, it has been called any number of things in derogative fashion, which since I enjoyed the film a lot means I'm a misogynist fetishist gamer, which to the best of my knowledge is not true. Lest I'm in the closet and now in middle age about to unleash traits and feelings previously untapped. Which if the latter is true you would have to say well done Zack Snyder, for that's serious film making...
Sucker Punch is loud, full of visual orgasms, musically adroit, exciting, clever and very sexy. Snyder has made no secret of his fetish leanings when making this piece, but it hardy constitutes a dark seedy mind at work. It can easily be argued that the film is very much pro women, the story itself - in amongst the explosive thunder of the fantastical action - is tender and beautiful, complete with emotional kickers. Perhaps it's in the eye of the beholder? But I see a strong female led action movie, with shifting fantasy realms, and cunningly it calls for deeper ponder come the finale.
Love it or hate it, Snyder has pushed buttons with this exercise. Better that than another cash cow sequel or another remake, re- imaging or rebirth. 7/10
Sucker Punch is loud, full of visual orgasms, musically adroit, exciting, clever and very sexy. Snyder has made no secret of his fetish leanings when making this piece, but it hardy constitutes a dark seedy mind at work. It can easily be argued that the film is very much pro women, the story itself - in amongst the explosive thunder of the fantastical action - is tender and beautiful, complete with emotional kickers. Perhaps it's in the eye of the beholder? But I see a strong female led action movie, with shifting fantasy realms, and cunningly it calls for deeper ponder come the finale.
Love it or hate it, Snyder has pushed buttons with this exercise. Better that than another cash cow sequel or another remake, re- imaging or rebirth. 7/10
Idiosyncratic, atmospheric and engaging fantasy
vandeman-scott5 July 2020
With its rustic-futuristic visuals, synergic use of classic rock music, overt sexuality, and dreamlike action sequences, SUCKER PUNCH feels like a live action homage to 1981's HEAVY METAL with a heaping helping of MATRIX folded in for good measure. Excellent, quirky performances from a bevy of skilled young actresses serve to enhance the idiosyncratic nature of this film.
From its atmospheric use of color to its smallest detail (think a snowflake melting on an eyelash), SUCKER PUNCH is a visual feast. The movie sounds great, too. Contemporary versions of songs like "White Rabbit," "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," and "Love is the Drug," to name a few, harmonize well with both the imagery and the unique, fantasy-within-a-dream storyline.
Like many, I'm scraping the bottom of the Netflix quarantine barrel and wasn't expecting much more from this movie than a forgettable distraction. I couldn't possibly have been more pleasantly surprised. SUCKER PUNCH grabbed me from its third-wall-busting opening shot and held my attention right to the eyebrow-raising ending. I'll be watching again. Soon.
7 stars.
From its atmospheric use of color to its smallest detail (think a snowflake melting on an eyelash), SUCKER PUNCH is a visual feast. The movie sounds great, too. Contemporary versions of songs like "White Rabbit," "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," and "Love is the Drug," to name a few, harmonize well with both the imagery and the unique, fantasy-within-a-dream storyline.
Like many, I'm scraping the bottom of the Netflix quarantine barrel and wasn't expecting much more from this movie than a forgettable distraction. I couldn't possibly have been more pleasantly surprised. SUCKER PUNCH grabbed me from its third-wall-busting opening shot and held my attention right to the eyebrow-raising ending. I'll be watching again. Soon.
7 stars.
A fistful of mediocrity.
johnnymacbest25 March 2011
With 300, Zack Snyder has made it abundantly clear that his movies dazzle they eyes, indeed they do, but his characters never engage the audience in a personal and emotional level. And Sucker Punch is just that. A visually dazzling collage of mental insanity taken to the extreme with a fairly interesting premise that looks promising on the surface, but never truly lets you sink your teeth into the inner workings of the main character.
Emily Browning plays Babydoll, a blond bombshell who is placed in a mental institution by her cold stepfather, and is then seen trying to persuade the orderlies into lobotomizing her to keep her from giving details surrounding a tragedy in her life. However, Babydoll begins to create a dreamworld in which not only to pass the time, but to figure a way out of the asylum.
As if that makes any sense whatsoever, here are the main problems with Sucker Punch that's been plaguing modern cinema; no plot and character development. Barely any of the characters that the protagonist meets are developed. They're just static talking heads spouting out lines that are trying to hammer into the audience that they are more than just cliché's and cardboard cutouts. The acting feels stiff and artificial with no sense of tension or suspense. You never feel that the characters are in real danger of any kind. It just goes thru the motions and despite having a nice premise to go on, the film feels like a half-ass-ed attempt to be something new and fresh.
Sucker Punch has some merits. The special effects and action scenes are impressive. I did get a kick out of some of the battle scenes which are nicely choreographed and executed with lots of explosions. Watching it is sort of like looking at a silent film on steroids but minus the heart and soul of that bygone era.
The incredible aesthetic beauty and action choreography are a lot impressive than Snyder's 300. But the problem with Sucker Punch is that even in a fantasy film, or any action film for that matter, you have to put effort into making the audience care for your characters no matter how good looking the action and special effects are. You simply won't care who lives or dies in this film. At some point, you have to try to make the audience care. This film simply never does.
I think that I got my point across perfectly clear regarding this film. If it entertained you, fine, then it did it's job. The problem is is that there's nothing remotely remarkable about this film aside from the visual aspect of this film. If more time was spent fleshing out the story, characters, with a more coherent script, then this could've been a really good film. But since so much potential was utterly wasted, I have no choice but to give my grade and it's a D.
Emily Browning plays Babydoll, a blond bombshell who is placed in a mental institution by her cold stepfather, and is then seen trying to persuade the orderlies into lobotomizing her to keep her from giving details surrounding a tragedy in her life. However, Babydoll begins to create a dreamworld in which not only to pass the time, but to figure a way out of the asylum.
As if that makes any sense whatsoever, here are the main problems with Sucker Punch that's been plaguing modern cinema; no plot and character development. Barely any of the characters that the protagonist meets are developed. They're just static talking heads spouting out lines that are trying to hammer into the audience that they are more than just cliché's and cardboard cutouts. The acting feels stiff and artificial with no sense of tension or suspense. You never feel that the characters are in real danger of any kind. It just goes thru the motions and despite having a nice premise to go on, the film feels like a half-ass-ed attempt to be something new and fresh.
Sucker Punch has some merits. The special effects and action scenes are impressive. I did get a kick out of some of the battle scenes which are nicely choreographed and executed with lots of explosions. Watching it is sort of like looking at a silent film on steroids but minus the heart and soul of that bygone era.
The incredible aesthetic beauty and action choreography are a lot impressive than Snyder's 300. But the problem with Sucker Punch is that even in a fantasy film, or any action film for that matter, you have to put effort into making the audience care for your characters no matter how good looking the action and special effects are. You simply won't care who lives or dies in this film. At some point, you have to try to make the audience care. This film simply never does.
I think that I got my point across perfectly clear regarding this film. If it entertained you, fine, then it did it's job. The problem is is that there's nothing remotely remarkable about this film aside from the visual aspect of this film. If more time was spent fleshing out the story, characters, with a more coherent script, then this could've been a really good film. But since so much potential was utterly wasted, I have no choice but to give my grade and it's a D.
Should have gone for the R Rating
noah-6573216 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Sucker Punch tells the story of a young girl who goes only by Baby Doll; whose abusive stepfather commits her to a mental institution that turns out to be a front for an abusive prostitution ring. As the girls practice their dance routines Baby Doll's leaves everyone in awe though we never actually get to see her dance. As soon as she starts dancing she's thrown off into a fantasy world in which her and other "patients" battle everything from World War 1 German zombies to ogres and dragons to super agile robots. These dances and fantasy sequences all lead an escape plan. Honestly, I think the subject matter alone should have constituted an R rating because it's basically a combination of the exploitation genre and all out fantasy fiction. The fantasy sequences are well done and the overall storyline is decent; Director Zack Snyder really did a great job at making the audience despise the villain; but again an R rating would have been more appropriate to intensify the girls' suffering and make the battle scenes more violent. Despite the drawbacks the story is very original and about as hardcore as a PG-13 film can get. Overall Sucker Punch was a fun film that could have been a lot better if it were just a little truer to the exploitation genre which is by no means PG-13.
Bring a script please!
AndresBorghi24 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I'm from Argentina and here this movie was premiered today, one day before the rest of world.
Sucker punch has great action, production and music but there's one big problem which is the same problem many many directors and producers and filmmakers in general keep doing: The script is BAD.
Today I learned that not even Zack Snyder can save a bad script.
The main character gets confined to a mental asylum for reasons that stop being important once she is inside (for the rest of the movie). There, she flashes a weird burlesque world slightly related to the real world. and there, she flashes another world which is pure fantasy. This flashy third world has the cool action that we want to see. sadly it doesn't work at all, since nothing there makes sense. She finds suddenly turned into a super powered chick who fights robots, Nazis, dragons and samurais. Who are them? nobody. Why does she fight them? No reason. What if she loses the fight? We don't know. Who gives a damn then about them? Well, not me. Of course, after we start to see that her actions there mean something in the real world (actually it's not the real world either) but it's already too late. We see the first fight without caring about it since it doesn't have a background at all. And that transfers to all the rest.
Some of the actors were good but many of them have the problem of having to act a scene that makes no sense at all and that hurts their performances really bad. The perfect example of this is the doctor that lobotomizes her, having to repeat the "there was a creepy look in her eyes" speech like 5 times to make the audience believe it.
It's sad that all those good action scenes fell flat for the lack of story. When I saw the first action scene versus the samurais (the best one by far) I thought: "Man!! if I had this one action scene alone at the end after a great movie with good characters I'd been totally happy. No need for more action than this in a well constructed movie." of course, I was able to think that so early cause the fatal flaw of the movie was all exposed already.
Aniway. Nice action and nothing else.
I'm from Argentina and here this movie was premiered today, one day before the rest of world.
Sucker punch has great action, production and music but there's one big problem which is the same problem many many directors and producers and filmmakers in general keep doing: The script is BAD.
Today I learned that not even Zack Snyder can save a bad script.
The main character gets confined to a mental asylum for reasons that stop being important once she is inside (for the rest of the movie). There, she flashes a weird burlesque world slightly related to the real world. and there, she flashes another world which is pure fantasy. This flashy third world has the cool action that we want to see. sadly it doesn't work at all, since nothing there makes sense. She finds suddenly turned into a super powered chick who fights robots, Nazis, dragons and samurais. Who are them? nobody. Why does she fight them? No reason. What if she loses the fight? We don't know. Who gives a damn then about them? Well, not me. Of course, after we start to see that her actions there mean something in the real world (actually it's not the real world either) but it's already too late. We see the first fight without caring about it since it doesn't have a background at all. And that transfers to all the rest.
Some of the actors were good but many of them have the problem of having to act a scene that makes no sense at all and that hurts their performances really bad. The perfect example of this is the doctor that lobotomizes her, having to repeat the "there was a creepy look in her eyes" speech like 5 times to make the audience believe it.
It's sad that all those good action scenes fell flat for the lack of story. When I saw the first action scene versus the samurais (the best one by far) I thought: "Man!! if I had this one action scene alone at the end after a great movie with good characters I'd been totally happy. No need for more action than this in a well constructed movie." of course, I was able to think that so early cause the fatal flaw of the movie was all exposed already.
Aniway. Nice action and nothing else.
Watch it twice for the heartbreak.
dilloncamp13 April 2021
Really underrated movie. It's not just your typical stylized action flick, it's quite a heartbreaking story in its core.
On a rewatch of this movie I really started to understand what was REALLY going on here. Once you understand what's really going on in the movie it will break your heart.
Great action, great story line, characters you really feel for.
I think this movie is rated so low because the people drawn to it don't think past the surface.
On a rewatch of this movie I really started to understand what was REALLY going on here. Once you understand what's really going on in the movie it will break your heart.
Great action, great story line, characters you really feel for.
I think this movie is rated so low because the people drawn to it don't think past the surface.
Better than you originally thought
staceynicolerogers19 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This movie has been one of my favorites for so many years, 13 years to be frank. Please, don't be so quick to write this one off. Rotten tomatoes must have some very unexperienced, no imagination folks judging movies. Suckerpunch leaves you with an open ended story. What do you think is the meaning of this movie? That is the exact question that will keep you asking it over and over, each time after you watch it. You'll find yourself looking up on Google the meaning of this movie, with no real answer. You might even Google lobotomies and find yourself researching into the past.
It's a unique, fun and completely alternative adventure. Open up your imagination and give this brilliant movie a chance!
It's a unique, fun and completely alternative adventure. Open up your imagination and give this brilliant movie a chance!
Very unconventional, but entertaining and beautiful
Enchorde20 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
First of all, Sucker Punch is a really controversial, odd movie, certainly not for everyone. It's an uncommon mix of spectacular high octane action and a dark grey psychological drama about a girl wrongfully imprisoned and abused at a mental institution. These sometimes sharp shifts between genres, and contrasts in storytelling, might not be to everyone's liking. If you expect a simple and purely entertaining action movie, you'll probably feel cheated and disappointed, because Sucker Punch certainly isn't that. Sucker Punch works on more levels than that.
Babydoll is a young girl imprisoned and abused at a mental institution in a bid by her stepfather to get to a big heritage. To cope with the abuse Babydoll glides into a different levels of sub-reality in her own imagination. One is that the asylum is instead a brothel (hence the name Babydoll), and in next Babydoll and the other girls form a special military unit in different fantasy or science fiction worlds. It's in these third level worlds that all the action are in. And the action is very good, filled with effects and coordinated combat. But if the movie would have consisted only if this it would have been too simple, unmotivated. The brothel-world builds a framework that the action work inside, and suddenly all action makes perfect sense. But to be honest, without the action the movie would have been quite boring. The different levels in the movie really needs, and feeds of another.
If you want a mental picture of how this works, one way to put it is that Sucker Punch is how the result would be if two of Snyder's earlier movies would have been cut together. Sucker Punch is an peculiar mix of both 300 and Watchmen.
At the same time, Sucker Punch can look like a teenage boys simple fantasy. Hard action, scantily clad young women and both fantasy and sci-fi war. But to discard Sucker Punch as something simple as that is wrong. Then you have missed the bigger picture. I really liked how Snyder makes the different levels interact. How visual small tags in one level become important in another, and vice versa. And one of the big strengths of the movie is the visual component. Sucker Punch is a very beautiful movie. It is skillfully filmed, with smart perspectives and editing, enhanced by a lot of impressive special effects.
I enjoyed Sucker Punch. But then I from the beginning expected a very odd movie. I think it is a must to be open to a unconventional and sometimes provocative storytelling. If you expect something ordinary, you will most likely set you up for a disappointment.
7/10
Babydoll is a young girl imprisoned and abused at a mental institution in a bid by her stepfather to get to a big heritage. To cope with the abuse Babydoll glides into a different levels of sub-reality in her own imagination. One is that the asylum is instead a brothel (hence the name Babydoll), and in next Babydoll and the other girls form a special military unit in different fantasy or science fiction worlds. It's in these third level worlds that all the action are in. And the action is very good, filled with effects and coordinated combat. But if the movie would have consisted only if this it would have been too simple, unmotivated. The brothel-world builds a framework that the action work inside, and suddenly all action makes perfect sense. But to be honest, without the action the movie would have been quite boring. The different levels in the movie really needs, and feeds of another.
If you want a mental picture of how this works, one way to put it is that Sucker Punch is how the result would be if two of Snyder's earlier movies would have been cut together. Sucker Punch is an peculiar mix of both 300 and Watchmen.
At the same time, Sucker Punch can look like a teenage boys simple fantasy. Hard action, scantily clad young women and both fantasy and sci-fi war. But to discard Sucker Punch as something simple as that is wrong. Then you have missed the bigger picture. I really liked how Snyder makes the different levels interact. How visual small tags in one level become important in another, and vice versa. And one of the big strengths of the movie is the visual component. Sucker Punch is a very beautiful movie. It is skillfully filmed, with smart perspectives and editing, enhanced by a lot of impressive special effects.
I enjoyed Sucker Punch. But then I from the beginning expected a very odd movie. I think it is a must to be open to a unconventional and sometimes provocative storytelling. If you expect something ordinary, you will most likely set you up for a disappointment.
7/10
Suckerpunched into seeing this travesty
gregeichelberger27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This film could not be more appropriately titled. I was a "sucker" to pay good money to see this slop, and I felt like "punching" writer/producer/director Zach Snyder for putting me (and many others) through it.
In addition to Snyder's ("Watchman," "300") "point-the-camera-and-get-away" direction, there's the horrid acting (a term I use more than loosely) of Emily Browning and others. Add to that the convoluted storyline and not-so-special effects, and you easily have one of the worst movies of the year.
What small plot this picture has features Babydoll (Browning) as a much abused stepdaughter placed in a "Shutter Island"-type 1950s mental institution. There, she meets a group of equally terrible actresses and begins her flights of fantasy. Browning seems to have one expression, a sad-sack, dopey-eyed, head-cocked look that makes Anna Faris' thespian abilities look like Katharine Hepburn's.
With this group, she delves into an "Inception"-like world of multi-layered dimensions, fighting giant killer robots, massive zeppelins, German zombies from World War I. These scenes are all one big CGI mess that - to some, I suppose - are going to appear impressive, but when all is said and done give the (intelligent) viewer one large headache.
Meanwhile, an oriental-like wise man (Scott Glenn, "The Right Stuff," "Hunt For Red October") waxes philosophical about finding a map, a key, fire, a knife and other mundane items which are supposed to make this film somewhat deep. Glenn, by the way, only was considered for this role because David Carradine had passed away.
To waste any more words on this slick piece of garbage would only serve to justify Snyder's pathetic vision of titillating teenage males by enticing them them with nearly bare-breasted, violent adolescent girls with guns and martial arts skills.
Take my advice here; unless you're a confused young women with anger and appearance issues, or a horny 14-year old boy, avoid this movie like the bubonic plague. No matter what kind of money you save by doing so, eventually, you will thank me for it.
In addition to Snyder's ("Watchman," "300") "point-the-camera-and-get-away" direction, there's the horrid acting (a term I use more than loosely) of Emily Browning and others. Add to that the convoluted storyline and not-so-special effects, and you easily have one of the worst movies of the year.
What small plot this picture has features Babydoll (Browning) as a much abused stepdaughter placed in a "Shutter Island"-type 1950s mental institution. There, she meets a group of equally terrible actresses and begins her flights of fantasy. Browning seems to have one expression, a sad-sack, dopey-eyed, head-cocked look that makes Anna Faris' thespian abilities look like Katharine Hepburn's.
With this group, she delves into an "Inception"-like world of multi-layered dimensions, fighting giant killer robots, massive zeppelins, German zombies from World War I. These scenes are all one big CGI mess that - to some, I suppose - are going to appear impressive, but when all is said and done give the (intelligent) viewer one large headache.
Meanwhile, an oriental-like wise man (Scott Glenn, "The Right Stuff," "Hunt For Red October") waxes philosophical about finding a map, a key, fire, a knife and other mundane items which are supposed to make this film somewhat deep. Glenn, by the way, only was considered for this role because David Carradine had passed away.
To waste any more words on this slick piece of garbage would only serve to justify Snyder's pathetic vision of titillating teenage males by enticing them them with nearly bare-breasted, violent adolescent girls with guns and martial arts skills.
Take my advice here; unless you're a confused young women with anger and appearance issues, or a horny 14-year old boy, avoid this movie like the bubonic plague. No matter what kind of money you save by doing so, eventually, you will thank me for it.
Just like Stanley Kubrick's ''Eyes Wide Shut''
nothimme30 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Don't look at the movie the way it is. You can hate it for whatever reasons you like but this movie isn't just stupid, soulless and pointless sexual fantasy. There is more thought put into it than you could ever imagine. Too bad critics panned the movie for the things that couldn't comprehend and the audience went with it.
The whole thing is a big fantasy that does not exist or happening in the real world. The movie is actually about Sweet Pea(Abbie Cornish). She is the star of the show. Snyder made that very clear from the start. Babydoll(Emily Browning) is a figment of Sweet Pea's imagination. She is the physical embodiment of Sweet Pea. She is the 5th thing. She is the guardian angel that Sweet Pea created to deal with her trash life. The entire film is a reflection of the internal struggle of Sweet Pea. That's why she is the one who's narrating the film. The stuff that we've seen with Babydoll during the first act, that's all Sweet Pea acting out her past trauma in her mind, just as she was taught to do in the mental institution. That's why the movie opens on a stage that direct parallel to how Sweet Pea is acting out that same trauma on a stage when Babydoll first arrives in the mental institution aka the theater. After that, the lobotomy comes, the key to everything that happens in the movie. Reimagined through Babydoll perspective, Sweet Pea disassociates from reality when the needle plunges into her brain, retreating into her mind in the same way she's taught to by Dr. Gorski. She's not in the real world anymore. This is also what happened in Sweet Pea's real life. And the effect of that lobotomy is the goddamned movie. Yes, this movie is the result of a lobotomy. Just one big subconscious coping mechanism for Sweet Pea to find peace. And this girl is able to interrupt the lobotomy, intruding on her own story. She's even able to repurpose the accidental killing of her sister into a deliberate and necessary sacrifice on her sister's part to save her. In this second layer of fantasy, Sweet Pea imagines herself and the rest of the girls working in a brothel, objectified and lusted after by an audience. This mirrors us tuning in to see these girls perform for us in various outfits. This connection is made clear from the opening of the film, which lets us know that we're the audience watching all this unfold on stage. By choosing to watch the movie, we are complicit in everything that's happening. Of course, this doesn't mean to condemn you for wanting to see nubile girls kicking ass. What this movie is really about is the difference between empowerment and exploitation. This is represented through three layers of fantasy, first was the mental institution, second is the brothel, third is the fantasy-action scenes, each exploring a different set of social values, each aligning with different phases of the feminist movement. First up is a grim incarnation of the '60s -the mental institution- set during the second wave of the feminist movement, when gender inequality was much more widespread. That gender inequality is amplified in the second world -the brothel- which takes us back even further, to a time when women were literally treated like property. And finally we have the pop culture world -the world of today, action scenes- which imagines Babydoll's dancing through various aspects of modern geek culture, dressing the girls up in all the typical fetishistic attire we've come to expect video games, TV, movies, etc... Sweet Pea is aware of how sick this is and rejects that Baby Doll's dancing could possibly be empowering. It's only through seeing its effect on men does she start to see how much power they really have, as the girls start taking back the control they've lost by using men's objectification of them to their advantage. By embracing their sexuality instead of fearing it, they learn that their inherent femininity can be better used as a means of holding men under their sway. Suddenly, it's the men who become helpless instead of them. Point being, men may be in a position to physically overpower women, but women have the power to psychologically overpower men, thus inverting history's long-standing power dynamic between men and women. This is then mirrored to very much the same effect in the action fantasy scenarios - a symbolic gesture on Snyder's part to show women taking back geek culture, which men have been dominating with their boy club mentality and pervasive misogyny for far too long. This is demonstrated further once we cut back to Babydoll's lobotomy after Sweet Pea has found peace. While Sweet Pea busy imagining that she's taking the magic school bus to a better world, Blue has plans of his own. But its no use, she's already escaped, even if it's only mentally. Sweet Pea sacrifices her body -Babydoll- and retreats into the comfort of her own mind, a paradise over which nobody has control of but her. Blue may have control over her body, but without her mind, he has nothing. The importance of this is also apparent during Babydoll's encounter with the High Roller, who recognizes that the choice to truly be with someone lies with you and you alone. As the scene with the High Roller reaffirms, the distinction between exploitation and empowerment all comes down to personal choice. And that is just half of the point this movie trying to make. Women deserve just as much control over their bodies as they have over their minds. You can interpret this movie so many ways, it's beyond belief. It gives you so many options to think. It's really funny that the one who made this kind of a movie and the one who is trying to defend it is a male. But it is what it is. If this movie made by someone like Stanley Kubrick, probably everyone would have tried to decipher the depth of it and wouldn't have even minded the bad reviews.
It's really sad that people turn off their brains and see everything literal, and never uses their brain to read the images that appear on the screen when they see a Snyder film.
The whole thing is a big fantasy that does not exist or happening in the real world. The movie is actually about Sweet Pea(Abbie Cornish). She is the star of the show. Snyder made that very clear from the start. Babydoll(Emily Browning) is a figment of Sweet Pea's imagination. She is the physical embodiment of Sweet Pea. She is the 5th thing. She is the guardian angel that Sweet Pea created to deal with her trash life. The entire film is a reflection of the internal struggle of Sweet Pea. That's why she is the one who's narrating the film. The stuff that we've seen with Babydoll during the first act, that's all Sweet Pea acting out her past trauma in her mind, just as she was taught to do in the mental institution. That's why the movie opens on a stage that direct parallel to how Sweet Pea is acting out that same trauma on a stage when Babydoll first arrives in the mental institution aka the theater. After that, the lobotomy comes, the key to everything that happens in the movie. Reimagined through Babydoll perspective, Sweet Pea disassociates from reality when the needle plunges into her brain, retreating into her mind in the same way she's taught to by Dr. Gorski. She's not in the real world anymore. This is also what happened in Sweet Pea's real life. And the effect of that lobotomy is the goddamned movie. Yes, this movie is the result of a lobotomy. Just one big subconscious coping mechanism for Sweet Pea to find peace. And this girl is able to interrupt the lobotomy, intruding on her own story. She's even able to repurpose the accidental killing of her sister into a deliberate and necessary sacrifice on her sister's part to save her. In this second layer of fantasy, Sweet Pea imagines herself and the rest of the girls working in a brothel, objectified and lusted after by an audience. This mirrors us tuning in to see these girls perform for us in various outfits. This connection is made clear from the opening of the film, which lets us know that we're the audience watching all this unfold on stage. By choosing to watch the movie, we are complicit in everything that's happening. Of course, this doesn't mean to condemn you for wanting to see nubile girls kicking ass. What this movie is really about is the difference between empowerment and exploitation. This is represented through three layers of fantasy, first was the mental institution, second is the brothel, third is the fantasy-action scenes, each exploring a different set of social values, each aligning with different phases of the feminist movement. First up is a grim incarnation of the '60s -the mental institution- set during the second wave of the feminist movement, when gender inequality was much more widespread. That gender inequality is amplified in the second world -the brothel- which takes us back even further, to a time when women were literally treated like property. And finally we have the pop culture world -the world of today, action scenes- which imagines Babydoll's dancing through various aspects of modern geek culture, dressing the girls up in all the typical fetishistic attire we've come to expect video games, TV, movies, etc... Sweet Pea is aware of how sick this is and rejects that Baby Doll's dancing could possibly be empowering. It's only through seeing its effect on men does she start to see how much power they really have, as the girls start taking back the control they've lost by using men's objectification of them to their advantage. By embracing their sexuality instead of fearing it, they learn that their inherent femininity can be better used as a means of holding men under their sway. Suddenly, it's the men who become helpless instead of them. Point being, men may be in a position to physically overpower women, but women have the power to psychologically overpower men, thus inverting history's long-standing power dynamic between men and women. This is then mirrored to very much the same effect in the action fantasy scenarios - a symbolic gesture on Snyder's part to show women taking back geek culture, which men have been dominating with their boy club mentality and pervasive misogyny for far too long. This is demonstrated further once we cut back to Babydoll's lobotomy after Sweet Pea has found peace. While Sweet Pea busy imagining that she's taking the magic school bus to a better world, Blue has plans of his own. But its no use, she's already escaped, even if it's only mentally. Sweet Pea sacrifices her body -Babydoll- and retreats into the comfort of her own mind, a paradise over which nobody has control of but her. Blue may have control over her body, but without her mind, he has nothing. The importance of this is also apparent during Babydoll's encounter with the High Roller, who recognizes that the choice to truly be with someone lies with you and you alone. As the scene with the High Roller reaffirms, the distinction between exploitation and empowerment all comes down to personal choice. And that is just half of the point this movie trying to make. Women deserve just as much control over their bodies as they have over their minds. You can interpret this movie so many ways, it's beyond belief. It gives you so many options to think. It's really funny that the one who made this kind of a movie and the one who is trying to defend it is a male. But it is what it is. If this movie made by someone like Stanley Kubrick, probably everyone would have tried to decipher the depth of it and wouldn't have even minded the bad reviews.
It's really sad that people turn off their brains and see everything literal, and never uses their brain to read the images that appear on the screen when they see a Snyder film.
Not a movie everyone would like
harshad-d27 March 2011
There are movies which everyone loves, and then some which everyone hates. Sucker Punch cannot fall into either category-- its more like a film made by a geek for the geeks among us. From what you see in the opening sequence - the lead character being lead to the asylum - you get the feeling that this movie is done by a director who wanted to put in what he himself loved into the movie. The dark clouds, a very brooding arch with the name of the asylum on it, the stylized automobile...everything gives the scene a typical flavor. And you either get immediately attracted to it or you just get put off. Me, I was pulled magnetically!
The movie has everything a geek loves - there's Steampunk, there's Fantasy and there's Sci-Fi. Running through all this are the lead girls-with-big- guns-and-swords and the amazing fight sequences. Its a totally fun movie. But if you go in for the movie looking for a reason or method to the mayhem, then you will come out feeling confused, disappointed and duped. Its a movie to be enjoyed just for the way it IS. No hidden meanings to be expected, nothing to be deduced. Everything is served the way it is, and you have to enjoy it in that spirit. Don't treat the movie like Wine--looking for all the hidden flavors and subtleties - but treat it like a shot of Vodka - just take it for what it is, shut up and feel the kick! And one solid kick it is, with the lovely girls, skimpy skirts, big explosions, massive fight sequences and amazing CGI.
I went along with a non-geek friend and he didn't get it. But he found it entertaining. So before you go for the movie, think of what you are looking for.
The movie has everything a geek loves - there's Steampunk, there's Fantasy and there's Sci-Fi. Running through all this are the lead girls-with-big- guns-and-swords and the amazing fight sequences. Its a totally fun movie. But if you go in for the movie looking for a reason or method to the mayhem, then you will come out feeling confused, disappointed and duped. Its a movie to be enjoyed just for the way it IS. No hidden meanings to be expected, nothing to be deduced. Everything is served the way it is, and you have to enjoy it in that spirit. Don't treat the movie like Wine--looking for all the hidden flavors and subtleties - but treat it like a shot of Vodka - just take it for what it is, shut up and feel the kick! And one solid kick it is, with the lovely girls, skimpy skirts, big explosions, massive fight sequences and amazing CGI.
I went along with a non-geek friend and he didn't get it. But he found it entertaining. So before you go for the movie, think of what you are looking for.
Do NOT watch this movie, unless you like getting sucker punched.
used_to_like_movies27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I'm not sure how this movie got such rave reviews by some people, oh wait yes I can, the ONLY people who can possibly like this film are fantasy/anime/comic book junkies!
Where do I begin... First and foremost, the biggest upset of this movie is the plot, which flip flopped back and forth, with no real point or purpose for the most part - and not in a creative/unique way. The plot starts off in some wannabe 'Inception' idea, with a fantasy inside a fantasy. Baby Girl goes from about to get a lobotomy (odd enough as it is), to going to a story inside a story, which ends with the lobotomy ending (basically the story in between the lobotomy was never explained outside the fantasy, and couldn't have happened since the lobotomy happened from the beginning of her entering the insane asylum).
Now for the second level of the story: So Baby Girl and her pose are trying to escape their slavery from the burlesque/whore house, and they must obtain 4 items and a "mystery" in order to escape, which is all fine and good. However, in the process of obtaining these items, Baby Girl and/or her pose enter the third fantasy/story aspect of the film, which is COMPLETELY NON RELATED TO ANY OTHER ASPECT OF THE FILM, and is replaced with pretty much every popular fantasy/fiction battle scene from the last 30 years of movie history. From a generic samurai sword/battle battle, to a Nazi war scene with some mech machines, to a scene literally right out of Lord of the Rings with Orcs, a castle, and dragons, to a Unstoppable(runaway train scene)/Matrix/Terminator/Defuse a bomb scene, the plot is a mess! I was waiting for some fairies, elfs, werewolves, vampires, or unicorns to come up next, but I'm sure they are saving those for sucker punch 2!
Aside from the plot, there were some other major issues. The soundtrack consisted of about 3 songs (or at least the same artist since they all sounded the same), It was so predictable that there would be nothing but hard chick rock. I think the movie tried way too hard to emphasize the hardcore, tough chick act; yet they still always have to have women look like little sex dolls when they battle, with perfect makeup, tits hanging out, and short skirts.
The volume of the audio was WAY off, in some dialog scenes the words were barely audible, yet in the battle scenes, the sound was so loud that you couldn't even think, and after the movie my ears were ringing as if I were standing right next to the speaker at a Metallica concert. I even plugged my ears at some points to attempt to save my hearing, and I could still hear the sound perfectly. I'm sorry but blasting music does NOT make a movie better.
I typically enjoy fantasy/super hero movies, but this one failed on all levels for me. I feel there was almost no effort in the writing of this movie, almost as if it were an after thought. The actors all seemed second rate, the crying was clearly fake and lacked emotion. Oscar Isaac seemed like he was trying too hard to be like Joker from Batman, yet he showed no genuine emotion in the scene where he executes the two girls (that execution scene had no place in this film, it made no sense, look around the theater after this scene and you will see most people scratching their head).
If I could rate the CG alone, it's easily an 8 or 9 out of 10, but the terrible plot, mediocre acting, and overblown-everything ruined it for me. If you honestly enjoy this movie, you have to be lying to yourself, or foolishly attempting to defend it based solely on the fact that it has fantasy/comic book aspects.
Where do I begin... First and foremost, the biggest upset of this movie is the plot, which flip flopped back and forth, with no real point or purpose for the most part - and not in a creative/unique way. The plot starts off in some wannabe 'Inception' idea, with a fantasy inside a fantasy. Baby Girl goes from about to get a lobotomy (odd enough as it is), to going to a story inside a story, which ends with the lobotomy ending (basically the story in between the lobotomy was never explained outside the fantasy, and couldn't have happened since the lobotomy happened from the beginning of her entering the insane asylum).
Now for the second level of the story: So Baby Girl and her pose are trying to escape their slavery from the burlesque/whore house, and they must obtain 4 items and a "mystery" in order to escape, which is all fine and good. However, in the process of obtaining these items, Baby Girl and/or her pose enter the third fantasy/story aspect of the film, which is COMPLETELY NON RELATED TO ANY OTHER ASPECT OF THE FILM, and is replaced with pretty much every popular fantasy/fiction battle scene from the last 30 years of movie history. From a generic samurai sword/battle battle, to a Nazi war scene with some mech machines, to a scene literally right out of Lord of the Rings with Orcs, a castle, and dragons, to a Unstoppable(runaway train scene)/Matrix/Terminator/Defuse a bomb scene, the plot is a mess! I was waiting for some fairies, elfs, werewolves, vampires, or unicorns to come up next, but I'm sure they are saving those for sucker punch 2!
Aside from the plot, there were some other major issues. The soundtrack consisted of about 3 songs (or at least the same artist since they all sounded the same), It was so predictable that there would be nothing but hard chick rock. I think the movie tried way too hard to emphasize the hardcore, tough chick act; yet they still always have to have women look like little sex dolls when they battle, with perfect makeup, tits hanging out, and short skirts.
The volume of the audio was WAY off, in some dialog scenes the words were barely audible, yet in the battle scenes, the sound was so loud that you couldn't even think, and after the movie my ears were ringing as if I were standing right next to the speaker at a Metallica concert. I even plugged my ears at some points to attempt to save my hearing, and I could still hear the sound perfectly. I'm sorry but blasting music does NOT make a movie better.
I typically enjoy fantasy/super hero movies, but this one failed on all levels for me. I feel there was almost no effort in the writing of this movie, almost as if it were an after thought. The actors all seemed second rate, the crying was clearly fake and lacked emotion. Oscar Isaac seemed like he was trying too hard to be like Joker from Batman, yet he showed no genuine emotion in the scene where he executes the two girls (that execution scene had no place in this film, it made no sense, look around the theater after this scene and you will see most people scratching their head).
If I could rate the CG alone, it's easily an 8 or 9 out of 10, but the terrible plot, mediocre acting, and overblown-everything ruined it for me. If you honestly enjoy this movie, you have to be lying to yourself, or foolishly attempting to defend it based solely on the fact that it has fantasy/comic book aspects.
Not as awful as you have heard but just empty, noisy, pointless, heartless and cynically commercial
bob the moo7 July 2011
Of course I had heard all the negative reviews when I sat to watch this. Of course I had seen the MTV-friendly action trailer. But critics can be biased and marketing can be misleading, so I decided to give this a go. On the face of it this film could have been similar to Pan's Labyrinth in regards the idea of a young girl/woman living through hardship and extending that hardship into a fantasy world of demons and otherworldly creatures. Certainly after watching the first very stylish fifteen minutes this felt like a film that would take this foundation of abuse and deep physiological injury and do something exciting, interesting and clever with it – at least, that's how it felt it could have been.
The problem is that, despite setting up these themes, the film does nothing with them – nothing at all. The dual fantasy sequences do not connect to any of the ideas or possible themes but rather represent an action sequence in the place of a (often mundane) aspect of the girl's plan to escape the burlesque house (which itself is a fantasy version of the mental institution). So for example when Babydoll dances to distract the mayor to allow the others to pickpocket a cigarette lighter , we cut away to a sequence of the girls raiding a castle to kill a dragon and steal the crystals that make it breathe fire. It might as well be a different film in these action sequences, and indeed they are – but the problem is that these sequences seem to be the film that Snyder wanted to make.
In fairness these massively dumb action sequences are full of style and presentation with impressive effects. They work for what they are and, even though the slow-mo, use of music and overall design is derivative, it does still provide plenty of style. But they aren't connected to anything in the film and this means that they have the same effect as they do in the trailer – "oh, that's fancy" but nothing more. There is no heart to them and as such these parts of the film are nothing more than another blockbuster with loads of effects but nothing else.
The lack of anything else is what kills the film because by the halfway point the empty noise becomes nothing more than noise. It is not even that it fails to make something of the ideas, characters and story – it is that it simply has no desire to do anything with them – like it is happy to be nothing. This annoyed me and it gets worse as the ending of the film attempts to suddenly have a darkness, to have a heart – it is too little too late and it doesn't work. In the absence of ideas to interest the viewer, one is left to think about other things. The exploitative fetishism of school-girl outfits, guns, sexuality and violence is one such thing I thought about – particularly since it was in a film whose final lines of dialogue appear to lift up the women characters. The sexual costumes and imagery do nothing of the sort but there is not some underlying misogyny as some have claimed – it is simply another part of Synder making his film as emptily commercial as possible, and sexy young women being sexy sells – just as gun porn and special effects sell. The cast match this as well – occasionally they look like they could have delivered more but ultimately they are little more than sexual effects. Browning, Cornish and Malone have a bit of heart to them but Hudgens and Chung are just flesh (not that I minded too much). This is not a film that cares about its cast – and the audience won't either.
Sucker Punch is not as awful as you have heard – it is too expensive and stylish for that. No, it is just poor because it simply does nothing other than empty, heartless style that is noisy and pointless. The ideas and themes go nowhere and the film has no interest in them or the characters. All that matters is slow-motion, cool music, big action and comic book style – if that is all you want without caring about any of it then this will fill your ears and eyes for a while – but if you want more then best give this a miss.
The problem is that, despite setting up these themes, the film does nothing with them – nothing at all. The dual fantasy sequences do not connect to any of the ideas or possible themes but rather represent an action sequence in the place of a (often mundane) aspect of the girl's plan to escape the burlesque house (which itself is a fantasy version of the mental institution). So for example when Babydoll dances to distract the mayor to allow the others to pickpocket a cigarette lighter , we cut away to a sequence of the girls raiding a castle to kill a dragon and steal the crystals that make it breathe fire. It might as well be a different film in these action sequences, and indeed they are – but the problem is that these sequences seem to be the film that Snyder wanted to make.
In fairness these massively dumb action sequences are full of style and presentation with impressive effects. They work for what they are and, even though the slow-mo, use of music and overall design is derivative, it does still provide plenty of style. But they aren't connected to anything in the film and this means that they have the same effect as they do in the trailer – "oh, that's fancy" but nothing more. There is no heart to them and as such these parts of the film are nothing more than another blockbuster with loads of effects but nothing else.
The lack of anything else is what kills the film because by the halfway point the empty noise becomes nothing more than noise. It is not even that it fails to make something of the ideas, characters and story – it is that it simply has no desire to do anything with them – like it is happy to be nothing. This annoyed me and it gets worse as the ending of the film attempts to suddenly have a darkness, to have a heart – it is too little too late and it doesn't work. In the absence of ideas to interest the viewer, one is left to think about other things. The exploitative fetishism of school-girl outfits, guns, sexuality and violence is one such thing I thought about – particularly since it was in a film whose final lines of dialogue appear to lift up the women characters. The sexual costumes and imagery do nothing of the sort but there is not some underlying misogyny as some have claimed – it is simply another part of Synder making his film as emptily commercial as possible, and sexy young women being sexy sells – just as gun porn and special effects sell. The cast match this as well – occasionally they look like they could have delivered more but ultimately they are little more than sexual effects. Browning, Cornish and Malone have a bit of heart to them but Hudgens and Chung are just flesh (not that I minded too much). This is not a film that cares about its cast – and the audience won't either.
Sucker Punch is not as awful as you have heard – it is too expensive and stylish for that. No, it is just poor because it simply does nothing other than empty, heartless style that is noisy and pointless. The ideas and themes go nowhere and the film has no interest in them or the characters. All that matters is slow-motion, cool music, big action and comic book style – if that is all you want without caring about any of it then this will fill your ears and eyes for a while – but if you want more then best give this a miss.
Welcome to the asylum
Tweekums17 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
In the opening sequence we see a girl attempting to save her little sister from her abusive stepfather; unfortunately she is too late and he has already killed her; he then has her committed to a sinister asylum. The director, Blue, tells her she must be ready to please High Roller in a few days
the asylum appears to double as a brothel with the female inmates expected to satisfy rich 'visitors'. As part of their therapy the girls must dance; when our protagonist, who has been dubbed Babydoll, starts to perform she finds herself transported to a fantasy world where she meets a man who tells her she will need five things to gain her freedom; a map, fire, a knife, a key and another item only she will know
he also gives her a variety of weapons that she will need to defeat three twelve foot demonic samurai! Once they are dispatched she finds herself back in the asylum; apparently her dance was amazing. She then tells the girls of her plans to escape and together they work to get the items; each time the try to get one Babydoll distracts people with her dance; during which times she is transported to a different fantasy world where she and the other girls battle a variety of dangers and any failures have consequences in the real world
assuming anything we see after her arrival at the asylum is real.
I probably wouldn't have watched this if my favourite reviewer hadn't been very negative about it; I was curious to see why! Perhaps because of this it proved better than my expectations; the story is dark; much darker than I expected. The fantasy scenes feature some fairly obvious CGI and music video aesthetics but that just emphasised that what we are seeing is fantasy rather than the reality of the film. The action is stylishly, rather than realistically, choreographed and looks great. One of the main complaints about the film is the fact that the girls are sexualised, even though they don't do anything sexual; this isn't too unfair and I'm sure some, but not all, viewers will feel uncomfortable with it others will love the sight of Emily Browning dispatching foes with a katana while wearing in a skimpy sailor fuku! Those expecting a happy ending with everybody escaping will be in for quite a shock as there are casualties and then the film delivers its final Sucker Punch which will leave the viewer wondering what if anything we've seen is real. The cast do a fine job; in particular Emily Browning is good as protagonist Babydoll and Oscar Isaac is delightfully creepy as the sleazy Blue. Overall I enjoyed this far more than I expected and would recommend watching it, although despite its '12' Certificate I'm not sure it is suitable for younger viewers.
I probably wouldn't have watched this if my favourite reviewer hadn't been very negative about it; I was curious to see why! Perhaps because of this it proved better than my expectations; the story is dark; much darker than I expected. The fantasy scenes feature some fairly obvious CGI and music video aesthetics but that just emphasised that what we are seeing is fantasy rather than the reality of the film. The action is stylishly, rather than realistically, choreographed and looks great. One of the main complaints about the film is the fact that the girls are sexualised, even though they don't do anything sexual; this isn't too unfair and I'm sure some, but not all, viewers will feel uncomfortable with it others will love the sight of Emily Browning dispatching foes with a katana while wearing in a skimpy sailor fuku! Those expecting a happy ending with everybody escaping will be in for quite a shock as there are casualties and then the film delivers its final Sucker Punch which will leave the viewer wondering what if anything we've seen is real. The cast do a fine job; in particular Emily Browning is good as protagonist Babydoll and Oscar Isaac is delightfully creepy as the sleazy Blue. Overall I enjoyed this far more than I expected and would recommend watching it, although despite its '12' Certificate I'm not sure it is suitable for younger viewers.
Invincible Chicks On "God-Mode" Never In Any Real Danger. Very Irritating!
smhb_inc26 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Even with millions of bullets flying through the air, dozens of swords swinging & the hundreds of punches these hotties take, not one of these girls ever gets a single scratch during the battles. After the first brawl pitting the Girls Club against steam-powered Germans & ferocious shooting planes it's so painfully obvious that none of the girls will be in any real danger that the big budget special effects are just fluff & overkill. What's the point of all the bullets & bad guys if the chicks are indestructible? By the second battle it's just so irritating watching these females punch, kick, shoot, jump & slice their way through crowds of bad guys when they could have just walked & not gotten hurt. The story is clever but watching chicks that fight again & again & can't possibly be defeated is not one-tenth as interesting as watching people who can actually die in battle.
awful
mr_budalah27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I'm sick and tired of wasting my time watching garbage because of reviewers on IMDb have gone soft...
Lately, meaning last two years or so, except for a few titles like "Shutter Island", "Inception", "The King's speech"etc., that have met the expectations, because of some real great professionals were involved, there was a ton of shitty films. I think... I HOPE! it's because of the financial crisis that turns even artists into money hungry cons.
This is one film that could've, should've revitalized the industry but failed to do so because of greedy director, producer, etc... Dude, you don't mix heavy drama, psychological tension, sexy teenagers, sci-fi, tons of cgi, and constant action, together in a big pot and hope that because of the fact that you used all the best and most expensive ingredients you'll get a smashing result! It is Crap! better of with a low budget-good plot movie. It is too much, and instead of getting our attention, it bored us, too much of everything for almost none strong backbone plot... "Punisher 3" would have been far better, I would have enjoyed it more, no matter how cheesy it would have been...
"Sucker Punch", in my opinion is a big screw up.
P.S.: Thought that baby doll girls with head drama would fantasize something that wouldn't involve heavy guns, monsters, swordplay, Nazis, dragons, orcs, mechanized samurai, robots, mechs, zombies, etc... I'm almost sure I missed something... That is only a boy's sweet dream. I think that both the producer, and director, woke up all wet and hard one day, and decided to put their wet dreams into a movie.
I recommend this sort of action-fantasy-drama-psychological-horror-thriller flick, to twisted teenage horny boys who enjoyed "sailor moon" with napkins instead of popcorn...
Lately, meaning last two years or so, except for a few titles like "Shutter Island", "Inception", "The King's speech"etc., that have met the expectations, because of some real great professionals were involved, there was a ton of shitty films. I think... I HOPE! it's because of the financial crisis that turns even artists into money hungry cons.
This is one film that could've, should've revitalized the industry but failed to do so because of greedy director, producer, etc... Dude, you don't mix heavy drama, psychological tension, sexy teenagers, sci-fi, tons of cgi, and constant action, together in a big pot and hope that because of the fact that you used all the best and most expensive ingredients you'll get a smashing result! It is Crap! better of with a low budget-good plot movie. It is too much, and instead of getting our attention, it bored us, too much of everything for almost none strong backbone plot... "Punisher 3" would have been far better, I would have enjoyed it more, no matter how cheesy it would have been...
"Sucker Punch", in my opinion is a big screw up.
P.S.: Thought that baby doll girls with head drama would fantasize something that wouldn't involve heavy guns, monsters, swordplay, Nazis, dragons, orcs, mechanized samurai, robots, mechs, zombies, etc... I'm almost sure I missed something... That is only a boy's sweet dream. I think that both the producer, and director, woke up all wet and hard one day, and decided to put their wet dreams into a movie.
I recommend this sort of action-fantasy-drama-psychological-horror-thriller flick, to twisted teenage horny boys who enjoyed "sailor moon" with napkins instead of popcorn...
Not What You've Heard
imaniac5 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
In a world filled with mindlessly violent movies and flimsy plots with practically nothing to substantiate the actions of the characters, I went into this movie looking for mindless violence and girls-with-guns escaping reality and an asylum and not much more.
What I found instead was apparently missed by a lot of other people out there. I read reviews that said this movie was soulless and pointless sexual fantasy. I don't know what movie they saw because that wasn't this movie.
This movie wasn't about a girl escaping reality by setting up a fantasy within a fantasy and using those fantasies to escape an institution in reality. This movie was about a young woman who had accepted a hopeless fate, but is saved by someone she eventually calls an angel told from the angel's point of view. This is not Babydoll's story. Yet she still brought down the beast.
This movie was not about a boy's fantasy about girls in short skirts and fishnets holding big guns and a really cool sword. For one thing, boys tend to like bloodshed. Girls tend to like looking awesome. (Please note, I am using the phrase "tend to like" on purpose. I do like bloodshed on occasion and I am a girl. I know those of the male set of the species who also like to look awesome. I'm making a separate point here.) There is very little bloodshed in this movie. The steam-work soldiers did not bleed. They're already dead. The other creatures, the robots, the dragons There's practically no blood shed within the fantasy. There is a highly sexual look to the movie. Babydoll is sexually objectified by her stepfather and the orderlies and the guards. Is it any wonder that her first reality-escaping-fantasy is a brothel? And then, within that fantasy, she uses her ability to dance provocatively to render the men motionless, thoughtless, and incapable of noticing anything else around them. It's called a power trip. Every woman wants to be sexy. Every woman wants to be that capable of holding every man's attention that completely. It was Babydoll's way of using that sexual objectivity as a weapon. And that weapon carries into the next level of her fantasy, becoming a handgun with cartoonish animal charms dangling - taking a weapon and adding a distinctively feminine touch to it - and a really sweet katana engraved with intricate and delicate designs.
This movie was about heroes and self-sacrifice. It was not about women in lingerie holding weapons. It was about using everything you have to fight for freedom - and that your freedom is not the only freedom worth fighting for. This is not Babydoll's story. It may not be yours. But it's still worth telling.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: If someone fights for your right to breathe free, fight for the next person's right. You won't know whose story this is until the end.
What I found instead was apparently missed by a lot of other people out there. I read reviews that said this movie was soulless and pointless sexual fantasy. I don't know what movie they saw because that wasn't this movie.
This movie wasn't about a girl escaping reality by setting up a fantasy within a fantasy and using those fantasies to escape an institution in reality. This movie was about a young woman who had accepted a hopeless fate, but is saved by someone she eventually calls an angel told from the angel's point of view. This is not Babydoll's story. Yet she still brought down the beast.
This movie was not about a boy's fantasy about girls in short skirts and fishnets holding big guns and a really cool sword. For one thing, boys tend to like bloodshed. Girls tend to like looking awesome. (Please note, I am using the phrase "tend to like" on purpose. I do like bloodshed on occasion and I am a girl. I know those of the male set of the species who also like to look awesome. I'm making a separate point here.) There is very little bloodshed in this movie. The steam-work soldiers did not bleed. They're already dead. The other creatures, the robots, the dragons There's practically no blood shed within the fantasy. There is a highly sexual look to the movie. Babydoll is sexually objectified by her stepfather and the orderlies and the guards. Is it any wonder that her first reality-escaping-fantasy is a brothel? And then, within that fantasy, she uses her ability to dance provocatively to render the men motionless, thoughtless, and incapable of noticing anything else around them. It's called a power trip. Every woman wants to be sexy. Every woman wants to be that capable of holding every man's attention that completely. It was Babydoll's way of using that sexual objectivity as a weapon. And that weapon carries into the next level of her fantasy, becoming a handgun with cartoonish animal charms dangling - taking a weapon and adding a distinctively feminine touch to it - and a really sweet katana engraved with intricate and delicate designs.
This movie was about heroes and self-sacrifice. It was not about women in lingerie holding weapons. It was about using everything you have to fight for freedom - and that your freedom is not the only freedom worth fighting for. This is not Babydoll's story. It may not be yours. But it's still worth telling.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: If someone fights for your right to breathe free, fight for the next person's right. You won't know whose story this is until the end.
Some good, some bad...
TheLittleSongbird27 August 2011
I do agree Sucker Punch is a love it, hate it type of film. Some people loved it, some despised me. As for me, I neither loved it or hated it. I have mixed feelings on Sucker Punch. I noticed some good things, but some areas of improvement too. It is not among my favourites of the year, but I think there are much worse movies released this year.
PROS: Sucker Punch's visuals are spectacular, the case with all of Zack Snyder's movies. The cinematography and editing are excellent, and the costumes, settings and effects likewise.
There is also an atmospheric soundtrack, stylish direction from Snyder and good performances from Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jenna Melone Vanessa Hudgens and Oscar Isaac.
Plus I loved Sucker Punch's idea. It was original and very interesting.
CONS: Despite this great idea, Sucker Punch doesn't quite live up to it in the execution of the storytelling. The story had this great concept and started off wonderfully, but as the film progresses it does get increasingly bewildering and convoluted.
Pacing is also uneven. The film could have been longer, so the film could have had more time to explain itself further, and some of the middle feels a little pedantic.
The script does have some stilted moments as well, and the characters while intriguing and decently acted could have done with more development.
In conclusion, Sucker Punch has its good points, but some assets could have been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox
PROS: Sucker Punch's visuals are spectacular, the case with all of Zack Snyder's movies. The cinematography and editing are excellent, and the costumes, settings and effects likewise.
There is also an atmospheric soundtrack, stylish direction from Snyder and good performances from Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jenna Melone Vanessa Hudgens and Oscar Isaac.
Plus I loved Sucker Punch's idea. It was original and very interesting.
CONS: Despite this great idea, Sucker Punch doesn't quite live up to it in the execution of the storytelling. The story had this great concept and started off wonderfully, but as the film progresses it does get increasingly bewildering and convoluted.
Pacing is also uneven. The film could have been longer, so the film could have had more time to explain itself further, and some of the middle feels a little pedantic.
The script does have some stilted moments as well, and the characters while intriguing and decently acted could have done with more development.
In conclusion, Sucker Punch has its good points, but some assets could have been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox
Only worth its weight in references.
chocolatemilk02021 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I would only recommend this movie to my friends that play Warhammer 40K because the only kick I got out of the movie was the references to units in the "dreams." I can sum up everything good about this movie in two points:
1. It had stunning visuals (though ill-used motifs). 2. It had the best original soundtrack of any movie I've seen (better than even Aronofsky's The Fountain).
The movie's opening was almost great being very reminiscent of the movie Up's opening that I could watch enough times to constitute the entire movie's screen time. However, the opening to Suckerpunch was squandered by a bad voice over and unnecessary dialogue that broke the mood very soon into the film. Throughout the rest of the movie, this becomes a recurring theme incarnate in useless screen time and an equally ruined ending to movie (a movie that should have ended two minutes and forty seconds earlier, but another bad voice over and pointless dialogue detracted from what would have been a lasting impression on the audience and me.
Now that we have cleared away the beginning and the end of the movie, we can look at all that's in between. The main character was very well written:
1. She was portrayed as a blank slate, but rather than having the other characters and her environment reflect onto her, she paints her own canvas as the movie goes on allowing the audience to grow with the character and share empathy. 2. She doesn't ruin the mood with poor dialogue too often.
On the other hand, she had many flaws that could have been left out to create a more enjoyable experience:
1. Her entire purpose in the movie seemed very much visual and much less mental in that much of her screen time was spent running and gunning against an endless stream of enemies. 2. Rather than contributing to the scenarios she is placed in, she goes with the flow and merges in with the other characters she is paired with giving her no room to stand out. 3. She is never alone enough for the audience to really grow into her without having to push another character out of the way.
Considering she's the protagonist, it's a bit unnerving to see her character have more flaws than strengths. I really did find myself rooting less for her, and more for the group she was in. The characters she attempts to escape with don't really become part of her, but rather conform to her contributing nothing, detracting from nothing, and being overall just filler.
The dreams in the movie themselves are poorly used and come across as merely an excuse to flash more military hardware in your face. This is where the movie becomes very much like the worst first person shooter released this year: Call of Duty: Black Ops. Much screen time is pointless firefights between Warhammer 40K factions and scantily clad teenagers wielding L/SMG's that does not advance the plot or develop the characters any, rather, all the people in this movie are two-dimensional without personality that drew no emotion from me with their deaths. Ask yourself, "Why do the characters in the movie cry when their friends die and I don't shed a tear?" The answer is clear: Those characters knew more about each other than we did, they were under greater stress than we were, they had greater ambitions than any of us in that theater, and they felt more emotions than we could looking at the screen in front of us. All of this is because the movie does not do a good job of replicating the character's emotions, we do not connect to the people in the film, and we know very little about almost all of them.
Plot and character wise, there is really nothing good about this movie at all. I suggest you watch a slideshow of some of the more stunning screenshots with the amazing soundtrack played over it, then you will get the optimum experience this movie has to offer, because that's all it is: a pretty picture and good music. My final statement: I watched it so you don't have to.
1. It had stunning visuals (though ill-used motifs). 2. It had the best original soundtrack of any movie I've seen (better than even Aronofsky's The Fountain).
The movie's opening was almost great being very reminiscent of the movie Up's opening that I could watch enough times to constitute the entire movie's screen time. However, the opening to Suckerpunch was squandered by a bad voice over and unnecessary dialogue that broke the mood very soon into the film. Throughout the rest of the movie, this becomes a recurring theme incarnate in useless screen time and an equally ruined ending to movie (a movie that should have ended two minutes and forty seconds earlier, but another bad voice over and pointless dialogue detracted from what would have been a lasting impression on the audience and me.
Now that we have cleared away the beginning and the end of the movie, we can look at all that's in between. The main character was very well written:
1. She was portrayed as a blank slate, but rather than having the other characters and her environment reflect onto her, she paints her own canvas as the movie goes on allowing the audience to grow with the character and share empathy. 2. She doesn't ruin the mood with poor dialogue too often.
On the other hand, she had many flaws that could have been left out to create a more enjoyable experience:
1. Her entire purpose in the movie seemed very much visual and much less mental in that much of her screen time was spent running and gunning against an endless stream of enemies. 2. Rather than contributing to the scenarios she is placed in, she goes with the flow and merges in with the other characters she is paired with giving her no room to stand out. 3. She is never alone enough for the audience to really grow into her without having to push another character out of the way.
Considering she's the protagonist, it's a bit unnerving to see her character have more flaws than strengths. I really did find myself rooting less for her, and more for the group she was in. The characters she attempts to escape with don't really become part of her, but rather conform to her contributing nothing, detracting from nothing, and being overall just filler.
The dreams in the movie themselves are poorly used and come across as merely an excuse to flash more military hardware in your face. This is where the movie becomes very much like the worst first person shooter released this year: Call of Duty: Black Ops. Much screen time is pointless firefights between Warhammer 40K factions and scantily clad teenagers wielding L/SMG's that does not advance the plot or develop the characters any, rather, all the people in this movie are two-dimensional without personality that drew no emotion from me with their deaths. Ask yourself, "Why do the characters in the movie cry when their friends die and I don't shed a tear?" The answer is clear: Those characters knew more about each other than we did, they were under greater stress than we were, they had greater ambitions than any of us in that theater, and they felt more emotions than we could looking at the screen in front of us. All of this is because the movie does not do a good job of replicating the character's emotions, we do not connect to the people in the film, and we know very little about almost all of them.
Plot and character wise, there is really nothing good about this movie at all. I suggest you watch a slideshow of some of the more stunning screenshots with the amazing soundtrack played over it, then you will get the optimum experience this movie has to offer, because that's all it is: a pretty picture and good music. My final statement: I watched it so you don't have to.
Time Will Tell
mort3466 April 2011
Nearly every review you read for this film will say the same thing, it's a 'love or hate' movie, and there's a very good reason for this. "Sucker Punch" is not the film you were expecting, whatever that might have been, particularly if you were expecting a hyper-masculine affair a la "300". If anything it is hyper-feminine; at its core this is a movie about women struggling against the evil male influences in their lives. That doesn't mean it isn't loaded with action - it really is, and it is beautiful, but if you're looking for an easy watch, this isn't for you. In terms of sheer originality, this movies narrative style is right up there with classics like Pulp Fiction and Memento, but there is a downside to this - you need to keep an open mind. If you can't watch this movie, at least once without - and this may sound weird, but you'll get what I mean when you watch it - demanding to know exactly what is going on, right the hell now, it will lose you, and it won't get you back. But if you can keep an open mind, right till the end, at the very least it will give you a lot to think about
On the other hand, don't go thinking that is all it has to offer. It is visually stunning in a way that makes director's like Michael Bay and (dare I say it) James Cameron, look like blind toddlers with a handy-cam strapped to their heads. As for the music, it's not often I'm afraid of giving spoilers for a movies soundtrack, I'll say that much, and every track fits the movie perfectly.
I'm going to shoot myself in the foot here, but when it comes to this movie, don't listen to the reviews, and just go see it. I really think time will tell with this one on that front. I can't promise you'll like it, but I can promise you'll remember it 6 months from now, and how many movies can you say that about?
On the other hand, don't go thinking that is all it has to offer. It is visually stunning in a way that makes director's like Michael Bay and (dare I say it) James Cameron, look like blind toddlers with a handy-cam strapped to their heads. As for the music, it's not often I'm afraid of giving spoilers for a movies soundtrack, I'll say that much, and every track fits the movie perfectly.
I'm going to shoot myself in the foot here, but when it comes to this movie, don't listen to the reviews, and just go see it. I really think time will tell with this one on that front. I can't promise you'll like it, but I can promise you'll remember it 6 months from now, and how many movies can you say that about?
Beauty and Style
wolffmarcel-516162 June 2023
Sucker Punch isnt a new high in case of Story telling, altho it manages to keep the somewhat plot interesting enough.
A handful very beautiful Girls try to escape some kind of asylum, which is also a brothel in which the Girls have to "perform".
Its not easy to explain whats going on since the small plots are mixed all the time.
But overall its like a standart Video Game. The Girls have several Goals to archive to get certain items they need for the escape. And every "mission" is told in a complete new setting on its own. Those sequences are maybe around 10 Minutes long each.
And here is where the strength of sucker punch is.
The Action is solid, the effects are great and the pacing fits.
This Movie is the definition of Popcorn Cinema. Good Popcorn Cinema.
Normaly i enjoy intelligent Movies more, but this one is just 1,5h of lay down and relax after a hard days work.
A handful very beautiful Girls try to escape some kind of asylum, which is also a brothel in which the Girls have to "perform".
Its not easy to explain whats going on since the small plots are mixed all the time.
But overall its like a standart Video Game. The Girls have several Goals to archive to get certain items they need for the escape. And every "mission" is told in a complete new setting on its own. Those sequences are maybe around 10 Minutes long each.
And here is where the strength of sucker punch is.
The Action is solid, the effects are great and the pacing fits.
This Movie is the definition of Popcorn Cinema. Good Popcorn Cinema.
Normaly i enjoy intelligent Movies more, but this one is just 1,5h of lay down and relax after a hard days work.
A disaster
zetes27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
A crime against the cinema. It's too bad. I honestly have enjoyed Zack Snyder's films in the past, besides that crappy owl movie he made last year. I'd classify them more as guilty pleasures than actual good movies, but I found them entertaining and neat to look at. Sucker Punch, though, combines all his worst traits and adds a script that he himself wrote (along with co-writer Steve Shibuya). His previous films were all adaptations, three of picture books and one a remake of a George A. Romero classic. He didn't have to think much himself to make those neat images. Sucker Punch demonstrates that he just doesn't have the ability to think of things himself. It's a movie that combines mental hospitals, burlesque shows, giant samurai warriors, half-mechanical zombie-Nazis, mech suits, orcs, dragons, killer robots, and atomic bombs, pretty much every cool thing one can think of.
And then one might guess that the problem is overkill. It isn't (well, that may be a smaller problem). The major problem is that there's not a single thing we haven't seen before here. Also, the plot is created in the worst possible way. The skeleton of it is pretty much identical to Inception. While this film had to have been conceived beforehand, so you can't blame it for ripping Nolan's film off, that's just one more strike against it. Emily Browning plays a girl who accidentally kills her sister while trying to defend her from her rampaging stepfather. She's sent to a mental hospital, where she hides behind two levels of reality. In the first level down, she's the new girl at a burlesque house/whorehouse. Snyder inserts a very video game-esque premise: she and her hooker friends (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung) are basically sex slaves, and they must find five objects to help them escape. Now, up to this point, the film is tolerable. It's not good, but it's watchable. The girls are very attractive, and the visuals are kind of old-fashioned and nice to look at.
But here comes the third level: whenever the girls are about to steal the next thing they need to escape, they all descend into a fantasy world which is about the most video game-like thing to ever appear in a movie. Well, kind of. There was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last year. That one actually used video games in a clever, metaphorical way, and it did it with its tongue in its cheek. Snyder really thinks we want to watch people play video games on the big screen. The worst thing was, after I experienced the abject horrors of how boring this could possibly be the first time, I realized I was going to have to sit through this same thing four more times. Oh, these sequences are beyond awful, with these girls fighting through dozens of not-very-great-looking CGI Nazis, robots, orcs, whatever. This is the worst parts of every event movie of the past decade mashed into never-ending sequences. There's nothing logical about the existence of these sequences. The funny thing is, in that second level of reality, while these fantasy sequences are going on, Browning is dancing sexily in front of whomever the girls want to distract. I think Snyder had to have known that the premise that this girl is such a sexy dancer that anyone watching her would be so utterly distracted that the other girls could steal from them was laughably ridiculous. But, watching the movie, I'm not so sure he was smart enough to realize this. He's also not smart enough to realize that the audience this film was intended for would probably rather be watching the girl dance sexily than watch these hot girls play video games in front of us.
While these video game sequences are some of the worst cinema I've ever experienced, and about the worst bit of narrative, as well, Snyder isn't done completely screwing up. He completely miscalculates which characters the audience gives a damn about. He also doesn't make any sense of the connection between the first and second levels of reality (we'll thankfully forget about the third), and characters whom we met in the second level but not in the first aren't able to connect to the audience when we meet them there. The film ends with a character whom we don't know and don't give a crap about. And then I stand up and flee the theater, and it's all I can do not to start a riot in the lobby.
And then one might guess that the problem is overkill. It isn't (well, that may be a smaller problem). The major problem is that there's not a single thing we haven't seen before here. Also, the plot is created in the worst possible way. The skeleton of it is pretty much identical to Inception. While this film had to have been conceived beforehand, so you can't blame it for ripping Nolan's film off, that's just one more strike against it. Emily Browning plays a girl who accidentally kills her sister while trying to defend her from her rampaging stepfather. She's sent to a mental hospital, where she hides behind two levels of reality. In the first level down, she's the new girl at a burlesque house/whorehouse. Snyder inserts a very video game-esque premise: she and her hooker friends (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung) are basically sex slaves, and they must find five objects to help them escape. Now, up to this point, the film is tolerable. It's not good, but it's watchable. The girls are very attractive, and the visuals are kind of old-fashioned and nice to look at.
But here comes the third level: whenever the girls are about to steal the next thing they need to escape, they all descend into a fantasy world which is about the most video game-like thing to ever appear in a movie. Well, kind of. There was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last year. That one actually used video games in a clever, metaphorical way, and it did it with its tongue in its cheek. Snyder really thinks we want to watch people play video games on the big screen. The worst thing was, after I experienced the abject horrors of how boring this could possibly be the first time, I realized I was going to have to sit through this same thing four more times. Oh, these sequences are beyond awful, with these girls fighting through dozens of not-very-great-looking CGI Nazis, robots, orcs, whatever. This is the worst parts of every event movie of the past decade mashed into never-ending sequences. There's nothing logical about the existence of these sequences. The funny thing is, in that second level of reality, while these fantasy sequences are going on, Browning is dancing sexily in front of whomever the girls want to distract. I think Snyder had to have known that the premise that this girl is such a sexy dancer that anyone watching her would be so utterly distracted that the other girls could steal from them was laughably ridiculous. But, watching the movie, I'm not so sure he was smart enough to realize this. He's also not smart enough to realize that the audience this film was intended for would probably rather be watching the girl dance sexily than watch these hot girls play video games in front of us.
While these video game sequences are some of the worst cinema I've ever experienced, and about the worst bit of narrative, as well, Snyder isn't done completely screwing up. He completely miscalculates which characters the audience gives a damn about. He also doesn't make any sense of the connection between the first and second levels of reality (we'll thankfully forget about the third), and characters whom we met in the second level but not in the first aren't able to connect to the audience when we meet them there. The film ends with a character whom we don't know and don't give a crap about. And then I stand up and flee the theater, and it's all I can do not to start a riot in the lobby.
Sucked.... and felt like I was punched.
anyroadwilltakeyouthere27 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Sat down with my favourite guys... amped for a good film. This film was a waste of 2 hours. The plot was ill-constructed and weak. The characters were not well developed.
Rant: If you're using your imagination to escape a mental asylum why would you escape to an equally horrendous place. Seriously! I'm expected to believe a woman in any reality would dream of being a prostitute/erotic dancer. This isn't Showgirls.
This film was insulting to me as woman. It's a man's fantasy about what woman really want. We all don't want to be prostitutes. We don't all wish we could wear outfits that show too much cleavage and our butt-cheeks.
It's insulting that in Baby Doll's fantasy from the mental institution.... the only way a group of woman can distract or get the best of their captors was dance erotically. That is an awful message. And the action-fantasy sequences that are the escape from the first fantasy... are weak. I felt like every time the so-called wise man showed up it was Bosley telling the Angels what their mission was. There was no context. Why were their Nazis? Why was their a dragon? Why did Jon Hamm get top billing for a movie he was barely in?
Also it lacked any and all plot points. The dialogue wasn't believable and every world rang false. It was would have worked better as just a trailer.
It was also a really big downer. Not something that makes you go: wow that was good, or wow that made me feel good. Neither. Just made me feel punched in the gut.
Rant: If you're using your imagination to escape a mental asylum why would you escape to an equally horrendous place. Seriously! I'm expected to believe a woman in any reality would dream of being a prostitute/erotic dancer. This isn't Showgirls.
This film was insulting to me as woman. It's a man's fantasy about what woman really want. We all don't want to be prostitutes. We don't all wish we could wear outfits that show too much cleavage and our butt-cheeks.
It's insulting that in Baby Doll's fantasy from the mental institution.... the only way a group of woman can distract or get the best of their captors was dance erotically. That is an awful message. And the action-fantasy sequences that are the escape from the first fantasy... are weak. I felt like every time the so-called wise man showed up it was Bosley telling the Angels what their mission was. There was no context. Why were their Nazis? Why was their a dragon? Why did Jon Hamm get top billing for a movie he was barely in?
Also it lacked any and all plot points. The dialogue wasn't believable and every world rang false. It was would have worked better as just a trailer.
It was also a really big downer. Not something that makes you go: wow that was good, or wow that made me feel good. Neither. Just made me feel punched in the gut.
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