WOW, WHAT A MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JUST FUCKING GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well critics got this one right. What a mess of a movie. WB it is not to late to find a new firefox for superman

To be blunt: Sucker Punch is a disaster. Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has here indulged his every last nerd whim, and he has been given free reign to do so by Warner Bros. The result is a bloated, mean-spirited, over-designed, underdeveloped chore to sit through with almost no redeeming qualities.

The film's busy, dream-within-a-dream-within-a-delusion plot begins with two deaths: first, pouting heroine Babydoll (Emily Browning) loses her mother. Then, during a stylized struggle with her leering, red-faced, sadistic stepfather (every man in this film, with one exception I will get to later, is a red-faced sadist who leers), her sister dies.

Her evil stepfather then sends her to Lennox House, a gothic mental institution in Vermont. This is the film's cue to lose its mind. As Babydoll counts down the days to a planned lobotomy (to be administered by, gasp, Jon Hamm), she escapes into a dream in which Lennox House is a brothel/burlesque theatre and a cruel orderly (Oscar Isaac) is now a cruel pimp. In this dream, she has just days before the "High Roller" (Hamm again) comes to deflower her. With four other patients/dancers (played by Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung), Babydoll plots her escape. This requires, in classic video game style, her finding several items, including a knife and a key. Babydoll and co.'s each attempt to attain an item is presented by Snyder as an ultra-elaborate action sequence; for example, stealing a lighter from a john becomes an extended siege on a Tolkien-esque castle in which the girls fight grotesque goblins and a dragon.

Though Sucker Punch is filled with action sequences, moments of genuine excitement are few and far between. The key to establishing high stakes in an action, horror, or science fiction film: rules. Tell us what is possible, tell us what isn't possible, tell us what happens if such-and-such event transpires. The Wachowskis knew this when writing The Matrix, and Christopher Nolan knew it when writing Inception. Snyder and co-writer Steve Shibuya don't care, though. Their only aim is to shoehorn in as many over-the-top, out-of-this-world elements as possible, many of them lifted from other, better films, including The Lord of the Rings, Hellboy, and I, Robot. (The mental-institution scenes are very Shutter Island-esque.) There is never any sense the characters are in mortal danger, and the extreme level of activity and noise is obnoxious rather than epic or awe-inspiring. "Cool" can only get a film so far (not very).

The writing is even worse. Snyder and Shibuya seem to feel they can have their cake and eat it, too, but, no, it turns out giving every one of your female characters a stripper name and then dressing them in skimpy attire does undermine your intention to create a feminist action extravaganza. Plus, though Snyder may believe the repeated scenes of porcelain-skinned young women being threatened with sexual violence by one-note, super-dastardly men convey a girl-power, find-your-inner-strength-ladies! message, his crotch and camera seem to disagree. Despite what it preaches, this film is in love with images of women in danger and in pain.

I won't place much blame on the cast, with the irritating exception of Scott Glenn as the Zen-advice-dispensing, David Carradine-esque "Wise Man," the one male character who isn't a total a-hole. Glenn is awful. Of course, he also has the worst lines ('Never write a check with your mouth you can't cash with your ass'). The lead actresses do their best with flawed, limited material. Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone in particular have nice chemistry as sisters estranged from their family and lost in the world, clinging to each other for hope and strength. It's sad seeing these talented young ladies emote as best they can. What's the point? They're just adrift in Snyder's playland, not in a real, flesh-and-blood movie.

I'll say this for Sucker Punch: it isn't nondescript. So many action movies are just generic entertainments; easy to swallow, easy to forget. Not Sucker Punch. No, this is bitter pill of a movie. It's bad in ambitious, distinct ways.

D

SUCKER PUNCH

First off, the trailer to Thor was fantastic. I'm very hyped to see it now. Extremely.

This movie felt like pieces of music videos put together and actually I liked alot of the music. I think Bjork was singing in some of it. I'm not sure atm. I thought it started off very slow. It was a good 30 or more minutes before we got to the first action set piece. There were just 4 of those in total if I recall correctly. The samurai fight was pretty good. It was fun awesome action. The fight in WWI against steam powered dead soldiers was pretty sick. Bad sick. I would have preferred real soldiers. Next we had the orcs from LOTR fighting maybe human knights. I'm not sure there but a big ass dragon was involved. It was a nice fight but I wasn't happy how the dragon was killed. Finally, there was a train fight against robotic androids. The style of the droids was very well done. They were awesome and the fight was excellent. I liked how the film veered from reality to imagination and I thought the characters were alright. One of the last scenes with the girls in the dressing room being confronted was a bit emotional. I kinda cared for the girls. Overall, however, I wasn't happy with the film. The action was limited to 4 items and the gore was held back as well. I'm a bit annoyed I spent 10$ plus 7.50$ for the ticket and concessions for the film. Oh well.

Grade - C

Unspeakably bad. I almost walked out. D

BJs Grade:

C

worst film I have ever checked out for the midnight showing.

AMAZING HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS MOVIE.....ONLY GRILL GOT IT RIGHT!

SEEMS LIKE THE MATRIX SEQUELS ARE OUT AGAIN!

I gave it a B. Perhaps I'm generous as I wanted to like it, but I really think people are being at least a little unfair to this movie.

Sure, the acting is weak, and the way the events unfold is disjointed and confusing. And it's not a typical action movie with top notch martial arts choreography and what-not, but that's ok as the main action in the movie is supposed to be fantastical and not realistic.

But I still felt a gust of fresh air from this movie. Not just from the beautiful visuals we've come to expect from Snyder, but from the way a teenage fantasy was set against a scene of historical significance to tell a post-industrial story in a steampunk fashion related to a horrific period in American history with regard to the way citizens were treated in institutions by authorities including those in the medical establishment. The sexual imagery many are complaining about was integral to the theme the movie needed to convey - if it feels like sexploitation, well that's kind of the point - that is what was happening to girls in the story. I think people are only complaining about this to appear like progressive feminists or something, and to me that's annoying. It's a fact that women were treated this poorly once upon a time, and no one is doing anybody any favors by denying it.

While the theme of the movie was made fairly clear, I would have liked a stronger sense of what was going on in the world and the moral zeitgeist of the times. Snyder got this across better in his adaptations of 300 and Watchmen. Using his own pen, he narrows the world considerably and confines it mostly to the inside of one girl's mind, when it's not confined to one institution. It's not clear how aware the rest of world is off what is going on here, or if so, how much they cared. At one time it seems like everyone knows everything, and at another it seems like only the couple of evil bastards running the joint and the prisoners know what is going on, and they have the rest of the world fooled. The sense of isolation you're supposed to feel for the main characters was conveyed much more successfully in Shutter Island. As for the disjointedness you experience from the events, it is supposed to be there for artistic purposes to be thought-provoking and draw you into the mind of the protagonist, however it comes off a bit as lazy storytelling.

As the movie ends, the narration reminds us of the awesomely inspiring theme that accompanies all of Snyder's films: the message that we must fight to the bitter end, even in the face of impossibly overwhelming power that seeks to enslave and control us, to protect our most precious commodity - freedom. I liked it, but you get the feeling a better writer would not have needed a narrated epilogue to explain the moral of the story.

So it's a flawed movie, but certainly not a disaster. It has the trappings of a rare high budget cult classic. The mainstream will mostly dislike it for any of various reasons, but it is guaranteed to find an audience who is loyal to it and appreciate it just for what it is and not reject it for what it isn't. But that is why I'm not a professional film critic - I prefer to try to enjoy a film for what it is and I didn't find it too challenging to do that here.

I disagree with this. Most of the acting is just fine. Cornish and Malone are very good.

It's Snyder who dropped the ball in a big way here. The narration at the beginning and end was just embrassing. "Fight for it!" Ugh.

Emily Browning, Carla Gugino and that mustache-twirling villain were all atrocious.

I thought Oscar Isaac gave a fun performance as the villain. Though it was very similar to his work in Robin Hood last year.

Gugino was annoying.

For the most part, Gun got it right. I found the film visually fantastic. I loved the opening and the music used throughout the film. But the actual movie is a mess and at times laughable. I know a few of us in the nearly sold out audience were laughing at things they weren't intending to be funny. My favorite has to be how they didn't actually show any dancing. Or how some relatively simple tasks became over-the-top action sequences in the mind of our heroine. Like Gun said, you really don't feel any sense of danger during these scenes because they're in her mind. I'd have been much more interested in seeing how they played out in reality. But then you wouldn't have a movie because there's not much to it otherwise. The action sequences were boring and draggy, and at one point I turned to my friend and said, "I seriously regret picking this movie." She agreed and said it was not what she was expecting at all. I did think the girls did a decent job though, at least Cornish, Malone, and to a lesser extent, Browning. She certainly looked cute.

I expect some very bad legs for this. I can't see it having good WOM, though on the way out a group of boys ran into their friends in the lobby and were like, "You guys have to see Sucker Punch. It's amazing. It's like Donnie Darko." To which the one friend replied, "I hear it's just a long music video." And he would be correct. The Donnie Darko comparison is baffling.

Very disappointed in this movie. It looked really cool, but it's a chore to watch. I thought the beginning was very promising, and it picked up in the finale, but the middle is just a huge mess.

C-

I started to dread the action sequences.

The movie did have a few very cool design elements, but I never "felt" anything on a gut level. The giant samurais, for example. Definitely a cool design. If a person drew them in a high school art class, I'd say, "Wow, nice job." But they didn't inspire any real awe or terror, and I never believed for a second they posed any real threat to the well being of Browning's character. Beyond Snyder's masturbatory flair for design, the action had no backbone, emotional or otherwise.

A
The fantasy sequences were awesome to see in IMAX.
I felt very sad for the girls. Men are monsters!

Another chauvinist turned.

Keep your comments to yourself please

A really bad women in prison film (maybe more of a girl power chick flick made by pedophiles), vulgar and as boring as watching braindead infants playing videogames in front of you, with much slowmo, id-software -like leveldesign and annoying voice overs, but without any ideas. In between numb CGI-ejaculations, you've got actresses that are even worse than fake-moaning dead-eyed bimbo-chicks in a below-average gonzo-porn: but even those use to have more facial expressions than the main actress, trying hard to arouse pity with her ultimately stupid face... If the goal of this torturing crapfest was to make you feel what it's like to be lobotomized and deprived of the innocent dignity of your imagination, then it really succeeded.

Well done, Mr. Snyder.

F

Where the hell is bradley witherberry's glowing, emphatic review? It's rude to keep all of us waiting bradley.

So judging be these reviews... I shouldn't see it?

Witherberry has been MIA in general lately.

Only if you can get in free. Otherwise wait for it on redbox.

well, seems like this is the only worthwhile review here....smart....

The only worthwhile review is the one that agrees with your opinion, shocker.

sorry but it is the most right on one!