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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Sucker Punch (2011)




Sucker Punch has an inconsistent appeal that will satisfy a limited audience, a failure of marketing and effort. The explosion-filled action and digitally-powered visuals will appeal to all modern audiences, but the layered plot will be confusing and test their attention spans. The eroticism of the cast of women will get appeal mass appeal from boys to young men, but their young ages will turn away older men. The explosion-filled action and digitally-powered visuals will appeal to all modern audiences, but the layered plot will be confusing and test their attention spans. Zach Snyder's first attempt to express his own ideas is a pathetic mess that fails miserably; proving that technical talents, alone, cannot form a strong film.



We are taken into the fantasy world(s) of Babydoll (Emily Browning) who is deemed insane when she tries to stop her stepfather from killing her sister. When she overhears her stepfather and one of the orderlies, Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac), making a deal to have her lobotomized in 5 days, she escapes to her first fantasy world. The all-female mental hospital is substituted for a brothel with the girls as dancers and Mr. Blue as their pimp. Babydoll has a plan to escape, and she gains the support of her fellow dancers: Rocket (Jena Malone), Sweetpea (Abbie Cornish), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung).   Her plan consists of her dancing her hypnotic dance for some of the colorful characters of the brothel, but that isn't where it ends.

When she dances, Babydoll goes into yet another fantasy world. To reach their freedom Babydoll and her squad of kinkily dressed femme fatales must fight their way through a new world for all the 5 objects they much retrieve- a map, fire, a key, a knife, and "the answer." Equipped with weapons that range from samurai swords to giant, robotic war machines. I did guiltily enjoyed the first two CGI induced settings even with all their outrageousness - the first world has giant metal samurais with rocker launchers and the second has nazi zombies (yes, I said nazi zombies!) decked out in robotic suits. There is an ongoing obession with robots. But by the third "mission" where Snyder shows off his inner Lord of the Rings fanboy, my patience is gone and stupidity has taken over.



A cast of beautiful women, lead by talented   Emily Browning (The Uninvited), is squandered. Abbie Cornish's performance  as the aggressive doubter Sweetpea isn't solid but by the time we realize it was actually supposed to be vital to the film it is too late. Even tween idol Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) has a solid role as Blondie where some talent flashes through. Unfortunately, their entire appeal is set on their eye-candy looks and outfits that are straight out of a whorehouse. Each girl has her own moment of badassatry, and all succeed in making this mess of a film nicer to look at. But once the action stops and they try to appeal to us in a deeper way the shallowness of the film is revealed.

Oscar Isaac's performance as the brothel owner/orderly Bleu Jones is the only consistent performance - see if you can find find him in the noirish thriller, Drive (2011). Playing the role of a villainous sadist abusing power, he is satisfying, yet also nothing special. Scott Glenn is the chameleon of the film with a new role for every world. His performance consists of changing outfits only to mutter the same idiotic "words of wisdom" for each character. The last significant male in the film is Jon Hamm who is the star of the award-winning AMC television series, Mad Me. Jon Hamm's appearance is tragically short, he is in two cameos as the lobotomist - his role is made much more significant in the extended cut. The men of female dominated Sucker Punch are wasted goods.

Snyder first showed us his talents at creating overloaded CGI effects and stop-motion action sequences with 300 (2007). Every location was digitally animated and all action sequences featured slow-motion movements and intense close-ups on the violence. Snyder is one of the unfortunate filmmakers who puts tireless effort into the visual aspects of their films, but fail miserably to create a coherent story or formulate ideas that have any purpose for being shoved into our ears. His adaption of Watchmen is the only film he has been able to use to craft a well-organized plot, but he had great source material to guide him. Sucker Punch is his attempt to create something original which he achieves, but this film is a pile of smashed together ideas that just won't get cleaned up. What made it impossible for me to just enjoy the stupid entertainment of the film are the pathetically desperate attempts to bring some depth into a hollow film.

I have no doubt that Sucker Punch will develop a following, people are suckers for these visual treats. After watching something like this, I get a sick feeling in my stomach because I realize that this is the path films are taking; audiences choose to watch these CGI disasters over almost anything else. Those rare times when CGI is used with a purpose are becoming even harder to find - Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is one of the few recent examples. When a visuals are just thrown together without any purpose, expecting us to like them just because they look interesting, they become ugly. This is what Snyder does with this film, and that is what this film is - ugly.






8 comments:

  1. Good review Adam. I didn't like Watchmen or 300 and this looks like total garbage so I shall stay well away

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  2. After 300 & Watchmen, I never even bothered with the trailer for this. Zack Snyder abuses CGI, and this sounds like he raped it. Wonderful work Adam.

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  3. I've loved Zack Snyders previous films and after the trailers, I was anticipating this so much, but after all the reviews, I didn't see it. Maybe one day, but not any day soon. Great review

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  4. I did not mind it all that much, but it is the only Zack Snyder film thus far that I have not enjoyed. I like the man's films because he can turn CGI and Slow-Motion into his own style. The reason Sucker Punch didn't work was because Snyder is not a great writer or even director; he works best when adapting unoriginal material. He's good at translating images, not creating new ones. Anyways...nice review.

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  5. @Rodders If you liked Snyder's previous stuff, I'm pretty sure you'll like this one.


    I'm going to have to disagree 100% with this review. I've been watching people trash this movie since it came out, and it really makes no sense.

    " Snyder is one of the unfortunate filmmakers who puts tireless effort into the visual aspects of their films, but fail miserably to create a coherent story or formulate ideas that have any purpose for being shoved into our ears."

    How is the story in Sucker Punch incoherent? I understood all of what was going on, and there was a purpose.

    "What made it impossible for me to just enjoy the stupid entertainment of the film are the pathetically desperate attempts to bring some depth into a hollow film."

    The overarching plot is pretty simple, but it doesn't have to be complicated to be good. The world-within-a-world stuff is the only thing that needs to be sorted out, and once it is, there's meaning to be found. It might be obvious meaning, but it was done extremely well.

    I don't think the casts' entire appeal is from their looks. Of course, they're all hot, but their performances stood out more than their features. It's all intertwined, though.

    Snyder is an awesome director, and he's been consistent with every one of his movies. Yes, visuals are a focus of his. The difference between him and people like Michael Bay or Paul W.S. Anderson is that he actually uses the visuals to help tell a story. Sucker Punch is no exception. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but the depth and characters were there.

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  6. Man, me and you disagree SO MUCH!! Haha. I respect your opinion and I'm glad you were able to find a lot to appreciate here, but I thought it was trash and there is no way you are going to make me think otherwise. Snyder is a very good director, I thought Watchmen was fantastic, but this film is an absolute mess. I understood what was going on too, but that doesn't mean it made any sense. That third world with the orcs and dragons was some of the stupidest crap I have ever seen!

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  7. I think we'll probably agree on a lot of stuff, too. We already have...maybe just not certain types of movies.

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