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Liar
Dec 14, 2003

Smarts > Wisdom
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/

Impressive to look at, but not all that interesting... I think that sums up this movie pretty well. The first twenty minutes are a slow drag. We never really get to know most of the characters to know why we should feel anything for them. And the few characters we do get to meet seem they were pulled of from a Lifetime movie.

Babydoll is the main character; a blonde who switches between one world and the next when music plays. Her fantasy worlds are insane lands where technology clashes with the magical. There's no denying that these scenes look fantastic. But then again they looked equally fantastic in 300; except we actually liked the characters in 300, or at least I did. Babydoll is joined by four other scantly-clad women. It's established that the girls are all "of age", but watching this you can't help but to feel like you're looking at children in their bra and panties.

This movie simply doesn't compare to Snyder's other works; like 300, Watchmen, and the remake of Dawn of the Dead. In those films he had a desire to give us characters who we'd like. In Sucker Punch he's created characters you'll jerk off to and feel guilty about it later.

All in all I'm gonna give this a 2 out of 5. It's nice to look at, but lacks a good story to drive it... No, actually it has a good story. It lacks likable characters played by actors who don't look like they have better things to do. And that's why it's just not all that good.

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GameboyRMH
May 2, 2010
Thanks. I'd read CNN's and Wired's reviews, I was worried CNN's might be a little too PC-biased/highbrow, and that Wired's might have too much geek boner influence to tell me if this was a good movie or a movie that will give me a geek boner. I really wanted to like this movie, but your review now seals the deal for me that even as an unapologetic action-orgy, this movie isn't good enough to pay to see at the theater.

Pangolin Poetry
Jan 1, 2008
the fan edit for this film will be really good because it will be 45 minutes exclusively about a crack team of super-commando ladies killing the poo poo out of, in sequence, giant stone golems, steampunk nazis, orcs, robots. it will have a good soundtrack and good action.

The other 1 hour 15 minutes of this film are eye-rollingly terrible and gross. nobody cares what happens to these people at all and we're never given a reason to.

Pangolin Poetry fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Mar 26, 2011

amishbuttermaster
Apr 28, 2009

Pangolin Poetry posted:

The other 1 hour 15 minutes of this film are eye-rollingly terrible and gross. nobody cares what happens to these people at all and we're never given a reason to.

That was my big issue with the movie. The first action sequence was beyond awesome because the whole movie up until the point built enough characterization to make us care about the character. After that all of the characterization just really seemed to stop. After that the whole thing was just eye-rollingly boring.

Smegmalicious
Mar 13, 2002

I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence.

Pangolin Poetry posted:

the fan edit for this film will be really good because it will be 45 minutes exclusively about a crack team of super-commando ladies killing the poo poo out of, in sequence, giant stone golems, steampunk nazis, orcs, robots. it will have a good soundtrack and good action.

The other 1 hour 15 minutes of this film are eye-rollingly terrible and gross. nobody cares what happens to these people at all and we're never given a reason to.

I think you hit the nail on the head, except the fan edit will only be about 20 minutes long.

Honestly this movie is a fun watch because it's eye candy but I was literally falling asleep during the non-action sequences and I never fall asleep during movies. You couldn't write a less interesting story if you tried, and because the action is multiple fantasy layers deep there is no suspense at all. At all.

This is a very, very bad movie.

The Ninth Layer
Jun 20, 2007

I saw this with a friend and he ended up falling asleep halfway through. As for me, I agree with the other reviewers in this thread: it was tough to care about anything that happened in this movie. There's a fair amount of action scenes in the movie, full of eye-catching special effects and such, but they are cutaways from the plot and only tangentially relate to it as a representation of the main characters and their struggles. It's an interesting idea that really doesn't work upon execution, since the action sequences are really just stand-ins for the main character dancing, and don't advance the story at all.

In 300, and really any other action movie, the main plot supports the action and gives us a reason to care about it. In this movie, the action does not add anything to the plot beyond a certain narrative style. You could eliminate all the cutaway segments from the movie without touching the plot at all. And unfortunately for the movie, the plot outside of the action scenes is pretty badly done. The protagonists are interchangeable and aren't personalized beyond "main character orphan," "young idealist" and "cynical protective sister," so what they do is pretty uninteresting. The action segments then feel like they're in the movie to get us away from the boring plot, which itself is just there to get us to another action sequence.

Basically the action here is pointless. There's no reason it is in this movie, except to give us something from it that is worth watching. It is action for the sake of action. I actually started getting restless at around the third cutaway sequence (the castle one I think) just because I wanted the movie to hurry up and get on with the story. Unfortunately the payoff was not worth it; there's a twist ending but even that wasn't enough to make me care about the movie or change my mind about what I'd seen.

I'll give it 1.5/5 because even though it is terribly boring, most of the action scenes would still be pretty cool on their own.

SlimGoodbody
Oct 20, 2003

This movie was gorgeous and each action scene was cool and imaginative enough to have supported its own entire movie, but all told the movie feels like it was trying to go for high concept and failing. The "twist" ending was, in my opinion, stupid, completely out of the blue, and vaguely... insulting? Is the word? There is no reason for the focus of the story to have switched the way it did. It just felt like they went "We don't know how to end this movie, so BAM! Betcha didn't see that coming!" Which I guess is probably where they get the title of the movie.

I get that the action scenes are supposed to be heightened, metaphorical representations of the stresses the girls are going through in the "real world," but they needed to show that real world to actually ground the suspense and characterization. Because we only ever got to know most of the characters from "brothel world" on, it felt like they weren't real. We needed to meet and understand them in the actual real world so that we could enjoy the heightened, brasher versions of them in brothel world and fantasy-action-crazy world.

The action scenes are representations of Baby-Doll's dance numbers, but what are the dance numbers supposed to represent in the real world?

I dunno. This movie really lost me in the third act.

Pros: Flawless action scenes and visual effects, incredible costume and set design, eye candy everywhere you look (even if you feel somewhat... tainted for appreciating it in that capacity), unique soundtrack.

Cons: This movie comes so close to being about something. Also, as another poster said, characterization stops at the first action scene. From that point on, it's action scenes and spank bank.

2.5/5

low8284
May 20, 2003
I realize this movie is getting almost all negative reviews, but I have to admit I enjoyed it. For me personally I never felt bored in the two hours spanning the movie.

Now don't get me wrong, there was little to no plot, very little character development, and not much to get you to care about the film. I didn't really feel the end could be classified as a twist, more like a slight shift in perspective. Chances are if you see the film you'll know almost exactly how the film wraps up in the first 10 minutes. Now I realize there's no excuse for such a shoddy plot and by no means am I saying this was an amazingly written movie, however it is what it is.

I went into the movie expecting action, hot girls, and not much of a plot and I got what I hoped for. The action sequences are amazing. The music was also very very well done and fit perfectly I felt.

Look at it like this, when you go to see something like Alien vs predator or a Schwarzenegger or Stallone film, what are you expecting? Action, blood, guts, a few cheesy lines, and a tenuous plot. This film is in that same vein.

It's no 300 or Watchmen, but I still have faith in Snyder that Superman will be amazing, and I would def watch Sucker Punch again....but not in the theaters.

3/5

Jenova Project
Aug 5, 2007

by Fistgrrl
This movie tries to be two things at once, and doesn't really succeed at either.

On the one hand, you have an Inception-like "levels of reality" thing going on, with lots of rear end kicking, cool visuals, and a sad story with a somewhat realistic conclusion. On a visual level, this film is pure gold. If you have a problem with scantily clad women or violence, then perhaps you should ask yourself why. The girls are trying to escape this horrible brothel/sex symbol "reality" society has forced them into. With violence and trickery, the only way they feel they can. The non-PunchSquad actors all play 3 or 4 characters, fairly well. The ending isn't happy, but it's realistic. Sort of. Them girls is still cray-zay.

On the OTHER hand, the plot is pretty strange/horribad in some parts. Who the hell is the old man in reality? He's never explained properly. What happened to two of the girls in reality when things fall apart in the brothel? The musical choices are, frankly, atrocious. I get that the director was going for a stylish, music video feel, but perhaps someone who isn't retarded should pick the music next time. The fact that Babydoll "dances" to go down another level seems like some sort of ploy to get the Glee-loving crowd to watch it. (That, the poor music choices and Vanessa Hudgens.) Seriously. Listen to some dancers or theater students sometime. It's like they're almost speaking another language sometimes. They might like those parts more than me, however.

I guess what I'm saying is that the stuff put in to make it more "girly" or "accessible to the glee club" mars what should have been an awesome stylish action film.

I give it 3 out of 5, for action and visuals, but ultimately it's an eye candy movie.

Schwack
Jan 31, 2003

Someone needs to stop this! Sherman has lost his mind! Peyton is completely unable to defend himself out there!
Just going to echo the majority that the action sequences were great and really fun to watch, but the movie as a whole was terrible. For me, the story really suffered because we never really got to see the real world. For example, what happened to the two girls Blue shoots before the High Roller shows up? It's like they just disappear After about the second action sequence I was praying for the end of this thing because the Brothel stuff in between was beyond boring.

Definitely a 2/5. If the action sequences weren't so spectacular it would be a 1.

bullvine1
Feb 13, 2009
I just watched this movie last weekend. Echo the fight sequences being awesome, and I digg the schoolgirl outfit with a sword.

I thought this movie got bad reviews, but the plot within the plot I found to be entertaining.

3/5

Nelson Mandela
Jun 4, 2007

SO SHINY
SO CHROME
(Reposting from the main SP thread)


Got back from this a little while back and it's taken a while to process my thoughts on it...

In short: vastly, wildly disappointing.

Slightly longer...

As a half-hour cut being shown in an art gallery, it would totally work. It's absolutely beautiful almost all the way through. The effects aren't exactly believable but seeing as it's taking place in a literal dreamworld, I can forgive that. The style was stunning and a lot of the cinematography was just amazing. Visually this film blew me away.

Which makes it a shame that almost everything else about it loving blows chunks. The storyline was, well, lacking at best. Dialogue was amateurish. I agree with others' comments that Snyder should never be let behind the writer's desk again. You basically know how the film ends right from the start, which removes any tension in the non-dream sequences, and the film immediately establishes the main character as a totally indestructible badass in the first dream sequence so there's no tension there either. The film is like a gorgeous spectacle but you never feel drawn along by it, except to see what crazy poo poo will be throw at you next, and you have to wade through so much crap to get there that you're constantly doubting that it's worth it.

The first half hour or so was so... goddamn... depressing. Jesus Christ. I didn't come to see Schindler's List, I came to see what is being billed as an action movie. Yeah, make me think - that's awesome - but don't make me want to slit my loving wrists. Saying that I did feel that a lot of people are reading too much into it and I really didn't feel the whole 'exploitation of women' angle was being pushed as obnoxiously a some are making out. Yeah, it's out to make a point and it does it in a very hamfisted way, but it's not THAT bad.

Some of the music was really cool... and some of it was MEGA-jarring. Seriously, someone probably should have watched it with music in place before it went to print. There are a couple of tracks that just flat-out don't work at all and literally rip you out of any immersion the film has somehow managed to produce.

The actors generally did a decent job. They didn't have much to work with, so I will give them credit. Not exactly Oscar-worthy performances, but they weren't terrible, so that's something.

The movie was at least a half hour too long. Many of the non-dream scenes felt redundant or at least had large redundant chunks within them. I'm hoping that in the almost-inevitable Director's Cut the director CUTS a large portion of the movie out.

Trying to sum it up I'm left feeling that it's a piece of art that sadly just missed the mark. Whatever the mark was in this case. It really is beautiful and stylistically it's utterly inspired but it has zero substance beyond that. It would be best seen on DVD where you can cut out all the total poo poo, but then you'd be missing out on seeing it on a huge screen with huge sound, which is the only way it will actually work on any kind of artistic level.

Let's put it another way: my university's LARP society were in the same screening as me. They went in for schoolgirl costumes and robot samurai and they all seemed to love it. Absolutely everyone else, who expected some film with their visuals, seemed somewhere between wildly nonplussed and absolute burning hatred.

2/5 for the visuals alone, more or less.

Xenixx
Dec 1, 2007

by T. Mascis
DL'd the movie with clear expectations that I could turn off my brain and just watch visually cool poo poo happen, so long as the movie didn't try to be something else I would enjoy it for what it was...

Sadly, it had some bizarre message and boring storyline that made it feel like you were watching two different movies cut into each other. I don't know or care what they were trying to tell us with the movie but don't spend money on this. God, no! If you can wait after these reviews, see the fan thing they're all talking about I'm sure that will be much more interesting!

1/5

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

hmmxkrazee
Sep 9, 2006
why
I was gonna just post this in the CineD thread but I have no idea what is going on in there and I'm just gonna stay away..

I'm actually really surprised at the negative reactions this movie is getting. I thought it was pretty awesome. I heard that the acting was terrible but it was fine and it never really bothered me (except maybe Amber on occasion). The dialogue was fine except the voiceovers in the beginning and end were kinda cheesy. The action was awesome except for one part where Synder went a little overboard with the slo-mo. The story was good enough and actually more depressing/serious than I thought it would be. I'm not sure what went wrong with the movie for people to be hating on this movie so much. I guess it's another Speed Racer.. which I loved.

4/5

Nutsngum
Oct 9, 2004

I don't think it's nice, you laughing.
This was a rather large disappointment for me as I loved 300, thought it was a fantastic stylized action piece centered around ideas of loyalty and honour that made you want to really root for the heroes and hate the badguy, and thought Watchmen was flawed but still good. I went in hoping for the real best despite a lot of goon predictions.

As stated by others i just did not find i cared at all about the main characters or even about the fantastic action sequences. The Star Wards prequels basically explained that action scenes without real risks or danger are ultimately pointless to the story. You may not realize it straight away, but your brain did!

The problem is that the action scenes are so far removed from "reality" that i cant for the life of me see how they impact the plan at all or show any kind of representation of actual dangers.

And its a shame too as the art direction and special effects are very very good and action scenes would work well if we just gave a drat about the characters. The WW1 scene was pretty loving slick.

The ending felt like a real cop out to me, particularly the attempted humanising of the doctor and his disagreeing with the idea of lobotomies. Seriously, you zombify people for a living and have reservations? gently caress off.


Ill give it a 2/5 as its still okay and worth it for the visuals at least but don't be mistaken that its a good movie.

Satone
Feb 10, 2007
Good to the last drop
This movie looked promising up until the first action sequence ended. The first sequence with the three samurai statues, and that music was...amazing. Then the movie totally fell to poo poo. As other people have said, your introduced to characters that your given no reason to care about, and a plotline that will put you to sleep. The alternate world sequences with the bizarre fight locales and scenes are the only real upside to this movie (and the girls are kinda hot, too, but not anywhere near enough to make up).

Flying Fortress
Oct 23, 2008

For a very interesting alternate take on the film's story check this out:

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/sucker-punch-or-how-to-make-monarch-mind-control-sexy-7-2/

Whether or not you are willing to accept that premise it does offer an interesting perspective on it all.

mysterious frankie
Jan 11, 2009

This displeases Dev- ..van. Shut up.
The script should have stayed on the back of the high school notebook it was written on.

1/5

melon cat
Jan 21, 2010

Nap Ghost
It really tries too hard to be "300 for girls". You don't care about the characters (and the film makes no effort to change this), the script was terrible, and the acting contrived. It was painful to finish this movie.

0/5.

melon cat fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Feb 5, 2024

Neosuki
Jul 14, 2004
Maybe I went in with such low expectations, but I thought this movie was a great ride through the Protagonist's mind. It wasn't really 300 for girls, I'd liken it more to a Fight Club for girls.

Granted, I saw the "Director's Cut" on DVD and apparently, there's a handful of background scenes that change the way the film and story play out. I can't tell if Snyder was making a Horror/Tragedy and snuck it into a sexy wrapper, or if he was just trolling the entire male demographic.

I liked it. There were a handful of weird Fridge logic moments that I'm still trying to sort through. I think I might actually watch it again.

I wish I could explain the awesome a bit better, but this guy does pretty well.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10701804&postcount=136

4/5

Neosuki fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Feb 7, 2012

dougie
Dec 28, 2012

I loved this movie. It is one which makes more sense on a repeat viewing, but once you realise that although Babydoll is centre stage it is Sweet Pea whos head you are inside, it all falls into place. The soundtrack was great too, that cover of the Beatles 'Tomorrow never Knows' was stunning.
If I was to try and charecterise this movie, it's kind of like Shutter Island and Sin City had a bastard love child.
Do not expect it to be anything like 300, it is a film about a mental patient, not about ancient Sparta.

Phosphia
Jan 29, 2013

Oh you.. :>
The only good thing about the movie was the fact you're left confused as to which parts really happened and which did not, even after the movie had finished. :iiam:

2.5/5

Terminally Bored
Oct 31, 2011

Twenty-five dollars and a six pack to my name
Not only the movie is terrible, it also contains the absolute worst cover of Pixies "Where Is My Mind" I've ever heard.
1/5

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keyframe
Sep 15, 2007

I have seen things
I rented this movie on blu ray and ended up fast forwarding most of it because it was unbearably bad. One of the worst movies I have ever seen.

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