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Suckerpunch
03-26-2011, 03:34 AM
That was an assualt on the senses. And I mean that in the worst way possible. It was too loud, too bright, too busy, too stupid... ugh. The fight scenes lacked any coreography, the set-pieces looked more like something out of a bad music video than anyplace interesting (they have rocket train tracks, no, not a rocket train, a train track held in the air by rockets, seriously wtf?), the dialogue was bad, the plot was terrible, the SFX looked weren't even very impressive. The plot "twist" might have mattered if I gave one fucking damn about any of the characters.
There was one line that encapsulates the movie: "Don't let your mouth write cheques your ass can't cash."
Blerg.
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Epsilon
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Pity. It seemed like it had some promise when I found the trailer months ago.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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So, the movie's title is accurate (in what it does to the audience), then?
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MovieBob at The Escapist quite liked it. For my money, I've never gone wrong trusting his opinion. I'll be going, tomorrow most likely.
http://www.escapistmagazi...movies/2962-Sucker-Punch
--sofaspud
-- "Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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"Intelligent and moving, if utterly deranged."
Okay... maybe I will give it a chance.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Sucker Punch was Awesome, we went to the midnight showing here. If you went to see a Zach Snider movie and were expecting something else, you have no one else to blame but yourself. It was an hour-and-forty-minute long music video. Some of the covers for songs they did were epic. I'm hard of hearing, so music is not somthing that's important in my life, but . . . wow. It was Zach Snider masturbating all over the screen, and, it was awesome.
I'm sorry if I painted a picture no one wanted to see . . ..
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A quick question, though. Does it have a really depressing ending where she "escapes" only into her own insanity? The combination of Crazy action with Brazil/1984 ending doesn't appeal to me.
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Jinx999 Wrote:A quick question, though. Does it have a really depressing ending where she "escapes" only into her own insanity? The combination of Crazy action with Brazil/1984 ending doesn't appeal to me. Spoiler:
Yes and no. The ending is the twist I talked about. It's as happy an ending as Total Recall.
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Epsilon
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Short Story or Movie version?
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Okay, just returned from a matinee showing of Sucker Punch. And, honestly...
... Epsilon, why do you hate fun?
I'll grant that it was an assault on the senses, but I would argue that it was deliberately and constructively so. You seem to have missed the entire *point* behind *why* there are rocket train tracks and steampunk Nazi's, and while there's definitely an element of fanservice to the 'why', it's not the entire reason. It can be summed up in one simple word: Escapism.
I feel like I'm trying to explain color to a blind man, however, so I'll leave off there.
At the core, this movie has a strong message it wants to deliver, one that is very, very clear. And Snyder delivers that message emphatically and without any hint of subtlety. It is delivered with all the grace and decorum of a hurled discus... and this is quite obviously a deliberate design choice. The movie is meant to be fun, sure -- but it's also got a deeply serious undercurrent. You can focus if you like on the fact that the discus just blew through your windshield at 90mph, bounced off your forehead, described a loop in the air, and landed on your nuts... or you can admire the fact that that was done on purpose by a professional, with loving craftsmanship and from the back of a moving car going 90mph the other direction as he flashed past you, and that it didn't hurt at all
The movie is just about that over-the-top, and it works.
You'll either love it or hate it; there won't be any middle ground on this one. But it's worth seeing regardless, and it's been a long while since I saw a movie deliver on a topic so serious without taking itself seriously in the least. This is not pretentious art-house foo-foo filmmaking, nor is it brain-dead popcorn fare. I think, however, that in the long run it's going to be regarded as a failure, and that's sad.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Sofaspud Wrote:steampunk Nazi's, Steampunk zombie Huns!
(It's WWI, not WWII, they were Huns, not Nazis)
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Having gone to see this with Spud, I find that it's one of those movies that sneaks in subtlety underneath the blatant message that it's trying to tell.
As best I can tell, that message is "You have the freedom to choose. So what do you choose?"
So, overly long spoiler-laden analysis under the cut:
The opening establishes the major point: Baby Doll is going to be lobotomized in five days. And just as we see her about to be, it jumps from Stage 1 (reality/the institution) to Stage 2 (The brothel/dance club). Here we see Baby Doll put together her plan to escape and rally her allies to help her do so. At no point do we go back to Stage 1 until the ending where Baby Doll is lobotomized and Sweet Pea escapes. Over the course of the movie, we see characters die, presumably, but in Stage 1, there's no reference to Blue (the slimy main antagonist) killing anyone, and three patients being killed would have raised a lot of noise, rather than his just being arrested for trying to rape Baby Doll post-lobotomy, which Dr. Gorski only knows to think about when she realizes he forged her signature to authorize the lobotomy. Therefore, Stage 2 is suspect as a hallucination. Also, Baby Doll sees all the items she needs to escape in the intro, before she's told by the Wiseman that she needs them. So, presumably, the plan is already in place. Therefore, my theory is that the entire film is basically Baby Doll's subconscious over the course of the days between her admittal and her lobotomy, working up the courage to choose to do what she can: get Sweet Pea out of the asylum. Her step-father's already institutionalized her, her mother and sister are dead. She has no life to go back to. Sweet Pea does. By providing the 5th item, a sacrifice, she can exchange her life that's about to end for Sweet Pea's which is about to begin again. And in the process, she also causes the downfall of the system that made this entire thing possible, including her step-father, who Blue starts trying to sell out at the end as he's dragged away. Thus, essentially, Baby Doll could either accept what the others were doing to her, or embrace the fact that, with nothing left to lose, she's free (there's that word again) to do what she wants with her last days. The Wiseman said that her quest will "set her free", not that it will help her escape. And given the opening narration about "guardian angels can take many forms", it's entirely possible that this is referring to Baby Doll being Sweet Pea's guardian angel, as she's a Decoy Protagonist.
tl;dr edition:
This movie isn't going to be for everyone. It's a LOT more complex than the trailer makes it look, and it's not a pure-cut happy ending. But the work IS good, so I suppose it's a question of what you get out of it.
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OpMegs, that's actually a very good synopsis. However, Zach Snyder is slightly less subtle than Michael Bay at blaring any message he wants to make. On the other hand, Zach Snyder seems to be able to understand complex emotions and that if you're going to get his message, you won't mind it being accompanied by scantily-clad hawties, steam/clockwork zombies and a bomber/dragon dogfight.
Crap. Now I want to go see the movie again.
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Sofaspud Wrote:Okay, just returned from a matinee showing of Sucker Punch. And, honestly...
... Epsilon, why do you hate fun? Because I am a heartless monster who recoils in horror for your ability to enjoy things.
Or because of exactly what I said. The sound is blaring and discordant and the music is terrible. The set design is as interesting as a bad heavy metal album cover. The action scenes are as well concieved and executed as a bad music video. The characters are bland and lifeless. The plot is dumb. The "message" is inane.
Fuck, dude, I wrote a story in which a giant evil planet tentacle rapes Tokyo while people kung fu fight on spinning debris caught in a flucuating gravity field. I'm not averse to over the top. I'm averse to badly constructed stories.
And before somebody says I hate Zack Snyder I will go on record as saying I liked both Watchmen and 300. I think Snyder is great when he's working with somebody elses idea. This entire thing struck me as Snyder not having anybody around willing to tell him "No, Zack, that is a stupid idea."
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Epsilon
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Epsilon Wrote:Fuck, dude, I wrote a story in which a giant evil planet tentacle rapes Tokyo while people kung fu fight on spinning debris caught in a fluctuating gravity field. I'm not averse to over the top. I'm averse to badly constructed stories. Ok, I need to read this. Could I please have a link?
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"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
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Jorlem Wrote:Epsilon Wrote:Fuck, dude, I wrote a story in which a giant evil planet tentacle rapes Tokyo while people kung fu fight on spinning debris caught in a fluctuating gravity field. I'm not averse to over the top. I'm averse to badly constructed stories. Ok, I need to read this. Could I please have a link? Hybrid Theory.
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Epsilon
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Epsilon Wrote:Jorlem Wrote:Epsilon Wrote:Fuck, dude, I wrote a story in which a giant evil planet tentacle rapes Tokyo while people kung fu fight on spinning debris caught in a fluctuating gravity field. I'm not averse to over the top. I'm averse to badly constructed stories. Ok, I need to read this. Could I please have a link? Hybrid Theory.
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Epsilon See you next month, Jorlem. (It's a big story...)
--
Rob Kelk
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- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Warning, it takes a while to get the point Epsilon described. It doesn't start out that way.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
HoagieOfDoom
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Bob Schroeck Wrote:Warning, it takes a while to get the point Epsilon described. It doesn't start out that way. But the journey to that point is holy shit awesome.
... does anyone else think the word "awesome" is starting to become devalued through overuse?
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Heh, thanks. I'll get started on that once I've finished reading The Order War (paperback). I'm on page 132 now, so I should be done sometime tonight.
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"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
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NotDavies Wrote:... does anyone else think the word "awesome" is starting to become devalued through overuse? I'm pretty sure that this process started in the 80's
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Having come back from just seeing it, I have to say I enjoyed it.
It was fun over the top escapism. But it was also about escapism and how people use that to deal with reality.
OM has it nailed for the most part.
I enjoyed the music, I'm a fan of remix. Could it have done with less heavy metal and more orchestral, maybe.
(personally I think that someone should orchestrate a fight scene with nothing but wind instruments, but that's just me)
I liked the set pieces, and how the use of color related to reality. The *ooh, shiny* managed to smooth over some of the more disjointed fight scene moments. But the movie is more than just the fight scenes.
It's probably not a movie I'm going to go back and see again in the theaters, but I'm not sorry I went. It was time and money well spent.
-Terry
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A fight scene with nothing but wind instruments would be... flighty, mischievous... but probably not terribly awesome. Not unless there's a prank involved that is of epic proportion.
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blackaeronaut Wrote:A fight scene with nothing but wind instruments would be... flighty, mischievous... but probably not terribly awesome. Not unless there's a prank involved that is of epic proportion. Not necessarily, I can picture a wuxia fight scene to nothing but wind instruments.
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Epsilon
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