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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Seeking A Lobotomy After Watching Sucker Punch

I review films for my campus TV station and as a matter of principle, I stay till the end regardless of the experience. You never know, it could have picked up at the end. Of course, it did not.
 
Andrew Rieger said:
I review films for my campus TV station and as a matter of principle, I stay till the end regardless of the experience. You never know, it could have picked up at the end. Of course, it did not.
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Totally get that you gave it chance once there...but if you see the trailer...
what were you expecting from the finished film.
Clearly from the trailer you can see it's film based on pinball machine
images and myths. This is his only film where he originated the story and as such
he didn't have the story expertise to pull it together. Difficult to string
a great narrative onto tatoo art visuals.

The film is not a post-modern version of Girl, Interrupted..if it was it
would have been a masterpiece. But really..it couldn't even deliver
on the sexiness in the trailer..it was all hot air and hype.
 
Totally get the have-to-stay-no-matter-what scenario. Hell, I endured twilight, new moon and eclipse along with a host of other bland, mediocre and outright craptastic movies. I think I can endure Sucker Punch just as well.
 
best quote from slash film

"Battle: Los Angeles. I Am Number Four. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Clash of the Titans. The Wolfman. Resident Evil: Afterlife. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

What is it that these tentpole action films have in common?

They all received better reviews than Sucker Punch."
 
Scott Pilgrim? Oh I even never heard of it, what are you all watching? omg :D
 
I guess I am just sick of the direction that Hollywood is going and this one film essentially encompasses everything that is wrong with movies today. Everyone keeps saying stuff like, "Well, ya, the film was void of story but at least the visuals were stunning!". Really? I thought the visuals were crap. There is nothing really impressive about an overabundance of cgi. Some of the shots looked cool in the trailer but you only saw them for a second and not in the context of the film itself. The fight sequences were composed of the usual shaky cam garbage. Don't even get me started about the robot fight. And then there is the closing shot which was 100% cg. For real? They could not find a bus and a road and a sunset in real life? They had to make that cg as well? That is just lazy. And that is the direction that movies are going. Why bother using real locations or sets when you can get a bunch of fx slaves to fabricate your shots?

Really Zack, you are going to have those potatoes hit the ground in slow motion too? Sucker Punch is essentially a parody of Snyder-style, a style that goes way way over substance. And I guess all you need to do for your film to be about female-empowerment is give a girl a gun. Yawn.

This film failed on every single level. The acting was dry but I chalk that up to the script (if you can even call it a script). The visuals were lazy and unimpressive. Just more of the usual cg garbage that has thoroughly saturated films today. The story made no sense whatsoever. But worst of all, the creators act like there are innate musings on female empowerment, objectification and metal freedom woven into the fabric of this film. I'm sorry but I doubt that Snyder thought past throwing a bunch of chicks on screen with guns and explosions. This film is about as deep as a Michael Bay creation and I would go as far as to say that it is way more misogynistic.

Im not trying to ruffle feathers but seriously, are these the kinds of film that we want Hollywood to keep making? I think not. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. This film is nothing more than a fever dream fx binge masquerading as a social critique.
 
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The question here is the people that hate Sucker Punch or Battle LA is what is your opinion of Avatar.

I don't like Avatar due to parts of the plot, but if those were taken out and you just put together the interesting effects and action, its a good entertaining movie, just like Sucker Punch and Battle LA which I liked both.
 
Well, after having watched Sucker Punch twice, I feel compelled to bump this thread back from the forgotten to express my surprise at the bad reaction some board members have shown...

I really enjoyed it.

No, really, I did.

The story I found particularly original, the visuals were good, the music was awesome, the chicks were gorgeous. What's not to like?

Not only that, but every single person I've recommended the film to, that has gone and watched it, has enjoyed it as well. What gives? Are there so many bitter apples out there? Really? Is it too abstract to understand? Even Roger Ebert hated it.

I'll admit it's not the best film I've ever come across, but on a scale from 1 to 10 I'd give it a good solid 8.5.

My advice, if anyone cares, watch it.
 
Andrew Rieger said:
When will the seizure-cam die? This film made me physically ill. Half the time, I could not tell what was happening on screen with the camera flailing around like Daryl Hannah premortem. I am really fed up with this queasy-cam trend and so is the audience. It does not look epic or gritty, it pisses people off and drives them away in droves. When will Hollywood learn that clarity is king?

There should be a warning that accompanies this film: "Warning, this film contains a significant number of action sequences that are at times, unwatchable due to the poorly done shoulder mounted camera work. If you want to be able to watch the film you just payed money for, we suggest you look elsewhere. If you like your blockbusters to look like home movies, this bud is for you. We apologize for making fun of home movies. Some of them show more technical mastery than this film."
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This affectation is a TV (Read: Small Screen) innovation first used successfully on the scripted TV drama "Thirtysomething" 1987!. This aesthetic choice has been in the toolbox for at least 24 years. It evolved as a way of making talking heads more dynamic and watchable. It began as small screen and it will die as small screen.

Its use in features is misguided and with very few exceptions-- very, very few-- it shows a complete lack of understanding of the effect of image scale on the audience. I understand its pervasiveness since there are few stundents of the moving image that get to see their work on a big screen. I think the use of the video tap skews the director's perception of how the image will play on a big screen. When the Director is hunched over a small TV all day- how can they effectively judge how the picture will play when it scales up? In old Hollywood, the first time the director saw the image was in a dailies screening in a similar environment that the audience will see it.

If you are making images that will be seen on a huge screen-- get rid of that tiny, lying video monitor. Get the biggest screen you can to view the feed from the camera or to watch hourlies. The age of the small screen is over-- the age of the big screen is just around the corner. If every Director viewed the tap at a scale that replicated the scale of the cinema screen, I assure you, the "palsy cam" would be shamed into running back to TV where it first climbed out of the slime. Big screen aesthetic works on the small screen better than the small screen aesthetic works on the big screen.

And filmmakers wonder why their films don't get a theatrical release... It could not be more obvious. You can spot a direct-to-DVD movie before it leaves the storyboarding phase.
 
Sucker Punch wasn't all that bad, considering I came here, heard it was terrible, lowered expectations RIGHT DOWN and went in and came out fine...
My mates who came with me and had their expectations high were really annoyed that they even paid money to go see it...

Though I saw Source Code and Limitless, I liked them both but I didn't get that surge of "woohoo" or feel like I had truly "suspended my disbelief" when watching them,

Given my theory is that their chucking all these "ok" films out now so when Thor and the like hit...it will be awesome! I am hoping though that they don't mess up these movies,

Looking forward to Cowboys and Aliens too as well as Captain America...I'm sure theres a few others I'm forgetting, got reminded the other day about X-Men First Class

but I don't have high hopes after watching the previous X-Men films...

EDIT:

To bring this back around to sucker punch, it felt like it was a short film by a university student (had what I count as a few of the hallmarks I've heard more then just a few times, step father beating/r##ing step kids, girl messed up, mental ward, dream state etc.) extended to a feature film. Felt like a bit of Inception meets Shutter Island meets 300/Watchmen. Given it's nothing as good as those 3 but it did feel like it was trying to feed from them...
 
Seen it. Didn't like it. Not because of the guns or sexy outfits - that was fine for an action kind of movie. No, the real reason it doesn't work is because it's BORING. The action scenes have no tension (though well shot) and the entire movie feels a bit "meh". Really liked the opening and they could've gone places with that, but instead it just degenerates into really bad action schlock. The funny part is it almost feels like they made two movies and, after shooting them, just sort of went, "you know, we could combine these into one! Wouldn't that be f***ing cool?!"...

The hospital scenery and brothel are just too disconnected from the rest of the movie - it comes to a point where I just wanted to get the action scenes over with so we could get back to the story. You know, the interesting one. I felt like this during Inception too when watching it for a second run, but the difference is that feeling eventually passed and I could enjoy the movie. Here, it did not.

If you see beyond the unnecessary action sequences and the really overused cliché bad guys, this could have been a really fun movie. Hell, even good! But instead what we get is action schlock, but no! Worse.

Boring action schlock...

...and that pretty much sums up the movie. Also, the idea that this empowers women is really silly - it would be like saying DOOM empowers men. I've got no clue where that idea came from (or why it needed to be said in the first place). Snyder must have thought it necessary though, for some reason...
 
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