Sucker Punch (2011) Dir. by Zack Snyder A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.
First of all, the critics are tearing this film apart, and for the life of me I just can't see why. What do they expect when they go to see a Snyder film? I know I expect there to be a lot of use from the Green Screen. I also know that I expect there to be the minimal amount of story it requires to get from point A to point B. Last but not least, I expect to see a lot of badass action sequences that end up being the driving point of film. I'm not a terribly intelligent person, but knowing these facts I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what I was going to be watching, and I was right. I just don't see how the critics can get off saying there is no depth within the characters. The only none action filled sequences of the film were oozing with character depth and development. Snyder managed to create characters who were each so very different from the next one and made it damn near perfectly visible.
Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning, carries the film in its lead. She offers up insane amounts of depth and emotions playing a girl who accidentally kills her sister while trying to protect her from their abusive stepfather. He then puts her directly in to an insane asylum where she is to undergo a frontal lobotomy in just a few days, and the stepfather will then be in charge of the items in the mother's will. Playing Blue Jones (The leader of the mental ward, doubling as a pleasure palace) is Oscar Isaac, and I think he was really the underestimated part of this film, as he offers a delightfully evil bad guy, and often had me laughing at his ridiculous mustache. The other pleasant surprise to me was Carla Gugino, playing the foreign Doctor/Dance Instructor. She was almost unrecognizable, and though she really brought the veteran feel to her role, he accent seemed to fade a bit at times. I give her credit for trying though, as it seemed like a difficult role to portray. Jon Hamm offered a nice little touch in his dual role of doctor/high roller, and even though his role was small he played it with the poise he usually does. And now for the other girls; Sweet Pea (The ever so beautiful Abbie Cornish from Limitless), Rocket (Played by Jena Malone with boyish good looks, haha), Amber (played by Jamie Chung of Sorority Row), and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens, of HSM, and not naked) all do an amazing job playing their straight forward roles supporting Baby Doll in her quest for freedom. Each girl serving her purpose and doing so very well.
As for the film itself, I highly enjoyed the ability of transferring from reality to fantasy with the use of dance. You could never know what kind of sexy dance Baby Doll was doing to distract the people she needed to, and a dance intense enough to let her slip in to a fantasy world in order to visualize the stuff her and her little team of misfits needed to accomplish. With characters and actions in the fantasy realm often resembling events and people in the real world. Snyder was able to pull it off perfectly. I actually do look forward to seeing Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot, but until then, I will look forward to the DVD release of Sucker Punch, as it was the most entertaining film I have seen in a while. Entertainment Value: 9/10 Items needed to escape Cinematic Value: 8/10 Items needed to escape
Sucker Punch (2011) Dir. by Zack Snyder A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility. 
First of all, the critics are tearing this film apart, and for the life of me I just can't see why. What do they expect when they go to see a Snyder film? I know I expect there to be a lot of use from the Green Screen. I also know that I expect there to be the minimal amount of story it requires to get from point A to point B. Last but not least, I expect to see a lot of badass action sequences that end up being the driving point of film. I'm not a terribly intelligent person, but knowing these facts I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what I was going to be watching, and I was right. I just don't see how the critics can get off saying there is no depth within the characters. The only none action filled sequences of the film were oozing with character depth and development. Snyder managed to create characters who were each so very different from the next one and made it damn near perfectly visible. 
Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning, carries the film in its lead. She offers up insane amounts of depth and emotions playing a girl who accidentally kills her sister while trying to protect her from their abusive stepfather. He then puts her directly in to an insane asylum where she is to undergo a frontal lobotomy in just a few days, and the stepfather will then be in charge of the items in the mother's will. Playing Blue Jones (The leader of the mental ward, doubling as a pleasure palace) is Oscar Isaac, and I think he was really the underestimated part of this film, as he offers a delightfully evil bad guy, and often had me laughing at his ridiculous mustache. The other pleasant surprise to me was Carla Gugino, playing the foreign Doctor/Dance Instructor. She was almost unrecognizable, and though she really brought the veteran feel to her role, he accent seemed to fade a bit at times. I give her credit for trying though, as it seemed like a difficult role to portray. Jon Hamm offered a nice little touch in his dual role of doctor/high roller, and even though his role was small he played it with the poise he usually does. And now for the other girls; Sweet Pea (The ever so beautiful Abbie Cornish from Limitless), Rocket (Played by Jena Malone with boyish good looks, haha), Amber (played by Jamie Chung of Sorority Row), and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens, of HSM, and not naked) all do an amazing job playing their straight forward roles supporting Baby Doll in her quest for freedom. Each girl serving her purpose and doing so very well. 
As for the film itself, I highly enjoyed the ability of transferring from reality to fantasy with the use of dance. You could never know what kind of sexy dance Baby Doll was doing to distract the people she needed to, and a dance intense enough to let her slip in to a fantasy world in order to visualize the stuff her and her little team of misfits needed to accomplish. With characters and actions in the fantasy realm often resembling events and people in the real world. Snyder was able to pull it off perfectly. I actually do look forward to seeing Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot, but until then, I will look forward to the DVD release of Sucker Punch, as it was the most entertaining film I have seen in a while. Entertainment Value: 9/10 Items needed to escape Cinematic Value: 8/10 Items needed to escape
I plan to see this one.
ReplyDeleteI was dissapointed by this one, because it felt hollow, in my opinion Snyder didnt do a good job in getting people to connect or care about the characters. The film felt cold and distant to me. But I loved the effects and action sequences. So it was an uneven film for me in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI went in with low expectations and got more out of it than I intended. I had a blast.
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