"Sucker Punch" Film Review
Stars’ beauty no match for bad story
1 Star
As featured in: The Ithacan
Director Zach Snyder’s latest visual extravaganza, “Sucker Punch,” is an experiment in overindulgent style gone wrong. While memorable characters such as the dapper, mustachioed villain Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) lend a fun energy to the film too many elements don’t fit well together.
Emily Browning plays Baby Doll, a petite, feisty 20-year-old who’s imprisoned in a brothel fronting as a mental institution by her ruthless stepfather. Baby Doll, along with four other big-breasted heroines, including the opinionated, no bull Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket, Blondie and Amber plan an ambitious escape in order to avoid being harmed by their pimp Blue. Baby constructs a dream world in order to gain the confidence she needs to lead the other gals to freedom.
This premise obviously caters to a largely male audience with an appetite for scantily clad women parading around. “Punch” needs more sizzling entertainment to be successful with its target audience. The tame, restrictive PG-13 rating was probably used for financial concerns, but the studios should’ve let Snyder make an R rated film that properly reflects his vision. Yet no matter the amount of skin shown the easiest way “Sucker Punch” could’ve been successful is if the audience’s attention wasn’t focused on the actresses figures, but on their acting.
Bad acting aside it’s impossible to get over Steve Shibuya and Snyder’s idiotically paced script. There are too many instances in the picture where scenes start and end with no motivation. Hyperactive children at least have a reason for their short attention spans, but Shibuya and Snyder have no excuse for their random ideas.
This filmmaking disaster even extends to the stale musical score. Instead of creating new material music directors Tyler Bates and Marius de Vries are overly reliant on commercialized tunes such as Queen’s “I Want It All” and Lords of Acid’s “The Crablouse.” All the songs are rearranged into headache inducing nonsense. It’s never clear if what the audience is watching is a narrative film or a really long music video.
For 109-minutes a good premise is continually wasted on a disorganized plot. Fast cuts and slow motion photography are well utilized, but there isn’t enough substance to warrant this movies existence. Hopefully enough people will avoid being sucker punched into viewing this “work of art.”
“Sucker Punch” was written by Zach Snyder and Steve Shibuya and directed by Zach Snyder.
Please don't watch the trailer below because it will make you believe the movie turned out good:
As always thanks for reading!
©2011 Matthew R. Reis, All rights reserved.
1 Star
As featured in: The Ithacan
Director Zach Snyder’s latest visual extravaganza, “Sucker Punch,” is an experiment in overindulgent style gone wrong. While memorable characters such as the dapper, mustachioed villain Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) lend a fun energy to the film too many elements don’t fit well together.
Emily Browning plays Baby Doll, a petite, feisty 20-year-old who’s imprisoned in a brothel fronting as a mental institution by her ruthless stepfather. Baby Doll, along with four other big-breasted heroines, including the opinionated, no bull Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket, Blondie and Amber plan an ambitious escape in order to avoid being harmed by their pimp Blue. Baby constructs a dream world in order to gain the confidence she needs to lead the other gals to freedom.
This premise obviously caters to a largely male audience with an appetite for scantily clad women parading around. “Punch” needs more sizzling entertainment to be successful with its target audience. The tame, restrictive PG-13 rating was probably used for financial concerns, but the studios should’ve let Snyder make an R rated film that properly reflects his vision. Yet no matter the amount of skin shown the easiest way “Sucker Punch” could’ve been successful is if the audience’s attention wasn’t focused on the actresses figures, but on their acting.
Bad acting aside it’s impossible to get over Steve Shibuya and Snyder’s idiotically paced script. There are too many instances in the picture where scenes start and end with no motivation. Hyperactive children at least have a reason for their short attention spans, but Shibuya and Snyder have no excuse for their random ideas.
This filmmaking disaster even extends to the stale musical score. Instead of creating new material music directors Tyler Bates and Marius de Vries are overly reliant on commercialized tunes such as Queen’s “I Want It All” and Lords of Acid’s “The Crablouse.” All the songs are rearranged into headache inducing nonsense. It’s never clear if what the audience is watching is a narrative film or a really long music video.
For 109-minutes a good premise is continually wasted on a disorganized plot. Fast cuts and slow motion photography are well utilized, but there isn’t enough substance to warrant this movies existence. Hopefully enough people will avoid being sucker punched into viewing this “work of art.”
“Sucker Punch” was written by Zach Snyder and Steve Shibuya and directed by Zach Snyder.
Please don't watch the trailer below because it will make you believe the movie turned out good:
As always thanks for reading!
©2011 Matthew R. Reis, All rights reserved.
The asylum isn't a front for the brothel...the brothel is the first layer of her fantasy to escape the reality of the institution.
ReplyDeleteYou're also missing the distinction between the score and the soundtrack. The soundtrack is phenomenal. All of the songs are covers that reinterpret the original work and fit perfectly into the world Snyder envisions. The introduction, set to Emily Browning's haunting rendition of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," is the perfect opening note to the movie.
Not every movie needs change the world. While you film critics are sitting around complaining about poor writing and the absence of any statement on the human condition, I'll be busy having fun.
Thanks for reading! Were you were busy writing this anonymous comment I was having lots of fun actually doing something constructive.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is right about one thing: The Brothel is the first layer of Baby Doll's fantasy. The asylum is reality.. The Brothel is layer one of the fantasy.. and the action scenes where the girls fight is layer two of the fantasy.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, the movie was kind of love it or hate it, so I have no other arguments about your review.
I don't think its the first layer of her fantasy even though wikipedia's article on the movie says so. There is a change cinematography wise from when Baby enters the asylum to when her step-father leaves. However I believe this change from stark, dark blue tones to the glossy, yellowy colors are put in place because the mental institution is getting ready for a show. Baby enters her fantasy world in a very obvious manner thanks to the 180 degree camera pan that switches her enviroments and allows her to fight with great skill.
ReplyDeleteIf the mental institution is a front, how do you explain Dr. Gorski having Blue arrested at the end? He is clearly the man in charge at the brothel, so
ReplyDeletewhy would he need to forge Gorski's signature to get the lobotomy?
Also, The Crablouse isn't in the movie. At all.