Sucker Punch (Film 2011) Grading/Discussion

[Showdown]

My thoughts on some of the previous discussions

For the inclusion the wise mentor, I think Snyder wanted a positive male character in the movie. Most of the men in the movie, the stepfather, Blue, the cook, are all bastards. He doesn't want the subtext of "all men are evil". Story wise, I too believe Babydoll wanted a good father figure in her life. A kind of Gandalf, Obi-Wan, type of a person that will help and guide her. Besides, is Neo less of hero because of Morpheus and the Oracle?

As for the brothel, yeah just another excuse to have the girls dress more provocative. Of coarse, if Babydoll imagined herself in a paradise environment, like being a princess in a castle, there won't be a reason for Babydoll to escape, nor will the audience get the sense she's a prisoner in a terrible place. She knows she's in a prison, bu it's a place where she's not a criminal or a lunatic, just someone that lost her way.

Just curious - I haven't seen the film... But are the other girls figments of Babydoll's imagination? Or is it some bizarro shared imagination/dream state where what happens to the other girls also happens in the asylum and is experienced by them?

I think the other girls are real. They are other female patients in the asylum. Babydoll imagined them as other dancers/prostitutes in the brothel. When they help her gather materials to escape, she viewed as fellow soldiers. Everything in the imaginations are viewed through Babydoll's eyes. And for the events where she's not present, it's how she imagine it would have happened.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I am planning on seeing this again That's how much I loved it.

 

[Jetfire]

I saw the first 5 minutes online at ComingSoon website and it was a little disturbing...guess that is the point.

 

[O'Dib]

Any concern you may have for the lead character goes out the window soon enough, when she starts imaginary kicking ass and taking names, and you realize that nothing can actually hurt her.

 

[Bishop76]

Any concern you may have for the lead character goes out the window soon enough, when she starts imaginary kicking ass and taking names, and you realize that nothing can actually hurt her.

I agree entirely with this - 10 minutes in, you know how it ends and that there will be almost no consequences or drama from the rest of the movie. It's a giant clusterfuck of self-important visual diarrhea from there out that Snyder apparently felt didn't really need to make much sense.

 

[Aldo]

Any concern you may have for the lead character goes out the window soon enough, when she starts imaginary kicking ass and taking names, and you realize that nothing can actually hurt her.

That's not entirely true. She can still be hurt in the brothel reality and actual realities. Babydoll was never actually in any harm during the action fantasies because as we saw they were merely another form of her dance.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I saw the first six minutes of the film and I don't think I'm going to like this.

 

[O'Dib]

Any concern you may have for the lead character goes out the window soon enough, when she starts imaginary kicking ass and taking names, and you realize that nothing can actually hurt her.

That's not entirely true. She can still be hurt in the brothel reality and actual realities. Babydoll was never actually in any harm during the action fantasies because as we saw they were merely another form of her dance.

But hey, what if she botched an action scene by tripping while dancing? She'd probably imagine herself getting wounded or something. That's the thing though, anything that happens in what should've been the most exciting parts of the movie has little to no actual bearing on the "plot", because the peril is not in that world, but the other one, where a nuke going off equals a stabbing. I'm sure Snyder wanted to equate the emotional impact of a single death to a city blowing up, but if you can't make me feel the terror of a nuclear assault ('cause it's not real, and apparently in a world populated by robots, so who the fuck cares?), then I'm just gonna be desensitized to the other thing as well.

 

[God Magnus]

Any concern you may have for the lead character goes out the window soon enough, when she starts imaginary kicking ass and taking names, and you realize that nothing can actually hurt her.

I don't agree with this only because as the final "battle" showed, there could be real consequences if the "plans" didn't go 100% correctly. There was always a sense of dread, at least for me. ::

 

[Bishop76]

I'm still wondering how that went down in the "real" world of the movie. I think that might have been much more interesting than the stupid brothel reality we get through the movie. Also, I didn't have any sense of dread not only because I knew that the shit that went down in the Land of Make Believe didn't much matter, but because I didn't give a rat's fat ass about any of these characters. The 45 minutes of computer graphics could have maybe been spent to make me care about the broads in some way other than lustily.

I'm still left wondering in "real" world asylum, did some of them actually belong there? How exactly did the escape to the land of digital monsters or the brothel relate to the real world? Why is the imaginary sensei a real bus driver at the end? Why would you need to create an altered reality as bad as if not worse than real reality? Don't give me that "oh, she needed a bad altered reality so she still wanted to escape" crap either. That's a load of shitty apologism. Any time I apply more thought to this movie it gets more and more stupid, and it was pretty stupid to begin with.

 

[Aldo]

Don't give me that "oh, she needed a bad altered reality so she still wanted to escape" crap either. That's a load of shitty apologism.

That's getting awfully close to saying "You're opinion is wrong." Reading stuff like that makes me not want to try to debate your points, because it's becoming apparent you don't have any points.

You hated the film, that's fine, I have no problem with that. But please don't sit there and say I'm wrong for interpreting the movie the way I did.

 

[Bishop76]

I had and made several points aside from that one - but no one has given me any logical reasoning why in a shitty situation you want to escape from you'd create an imaginary shitty situation you'd want to escape from.

Sorry if my manner offends you, I'm not aiming to tear you apart, I'm going after this movie.

 

[T'Baio]

I still think people are taking the film way too literally.

None of it is in reality. Not a single aspect.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

There's also the fact that some people, when in bad situations of their own making, will often fantasize the world around them to make things seem more glamorous, or make themselves more sympathetic. That's how I read Baby Doll's brothel fantasy. She didn't "take control" of her reality until she descended even further into the action-fantasy.

But as been stated before, the action sequences lacked any grounding to make them seem "dangerous." I know I pretty much daydreamed through nearly all of the action sequences. I found the dialogue more interesting.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The best action sequence in my opinion was the World War II/Steampunk Nazi's. I also think that was the most video game-esque part of the movie. Especially with Amber's mech.

I'm amused by reviewers who are essentially saying that they didn't get any kind of sense of fun or enthusiasm from Zack in this movie. I dare say that they didn't understand or pay attention to what the film was about or have read any of his interviews. This was his first original theatrical film and a project that he was extremely passionate about. I think this comes out in spades during the film.

 

[Davros]

I had and made several points aside from that one - but no one has given me any logical reasoning why in a shitty situation you want to escape from you'd create an imaginary shitty situation you'd want to escape from.

Sorry if my manner offends you, I'm not aiming to tear you apart, I'm going after this movie.

It seems to me that you went into the movie determined to hate it and you did.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The best action sequence in my opinion was the World War II/Steampunk Nazi's. I also think that was the most video game-esque part of the movie. Especially with Amber's mech.

FWIW, I thought the dragon was wonderfully rendered. I just had no reason to really pay attention to that sequence -- or any other action sequence. Now, if the action sequences had some specific, symbolic significance to the film's theme of empowerment I might be interested. But I'll be honest and say I didn't even pay attention to what was happening until the 'splosions were over.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ That'd be my second favorite sequence.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Yeah ... the one meandering thought I had during the sequence was: "I hope The Hobbit manages to render a dragon as well as this." Then I began to think about where they might split The Hobbit story in two ... and so on ... until the film came back to the "reality" of the brothel.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Second best CGI rendered Dragon I've seen. The first was in "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". It gives me hope that Smaug will be even more bad ass. I would rank the altered reality sequences like this (this is a personal list)

1. World War II/Steampunk Nazi's
2. Dragon/Fantasy Castle sequence
3. Start of journey/Giant Samurai fight sequence
4. Futuristic City/Robot sequence (the most emotional because of the end of it)