Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
#401
Banned by request
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
I can only answer what i mean when i use these words in this context. I sometimes watch a movie to literally escape from thinking about something. What i am watching does not have to be coherent, make sense, be well written, or sometimes even what someone else would call entertaining. It just has to distract me from some aspect of my life, my work, or my thoughts.
But honestly, by your definition, anything that isn't a blank white screen for two hours could classify as escapist and thus worthy of your time. I can't believe you really think that's the case.
#402
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re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
I'd like to see him use his visual eye without resorting to so many showy tricks. Nolan should demand that Superman have no slow motion at all.
Giles, I'd agree that Sucker Punch is sound and fury signifying nothing. Even when the film concludes it doesn't have any meaning or value.
Giles, I'd agree that Sucker Punch is sound and fury signifying nothing. Even when the film concludes it doesn't have any meaning or value.
#404
DVD Talk Limited Edition
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
#408
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
And you may regret spending the 9.99 on this flick...or not. Oddly enough, I did the same blind buy for Kick Ass. I hated the trailers and avoided it but kept reading the rave reviews. I was pleasently surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Lesson learned, don't review the trailer of a movie as the movie itself.
#409
DVD Talk Legend
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
Saw it. Movies like this are a good reason to legalize pot, especially if it can be sold at a concession stand.
I would be lying if I said I didn't get some form of enjoyment out of it. There's definitely plenty of eye candy in terms of scantily clad women with big racks and outlandish action sequences. However, the movie was lacking one thing to make it something good: a sense of fun. This movie comes across as Michael Bay trying to be Terry Gilliam. I know people have tried to play the whole "it's just a mindless popcorn movie" card on this, but I have to call B.S. The framework in which they set it pretty much eliminates it from being something fun and free-spirited. Why did they have to try the whole fantasy within fantasy B.S. if the characters were going to pretty much meet the same ends in all of them? Why not just have it set in a brothel to begin with and be done with it? Why have such a dark overtone to I guess illustrate how helpless young women in the 1950s were when it came to certain matters (I am guessing that's when it is supposed to take place). The fact that the movie took itself so seriously is why I did not like it. If Snyder wanted to make a movie with a bunch of scantily clad women who really can't act for the most part, why not have it be about five girls on Spring Break stuck in a sleazy motel where it rains all of the time? Something to keep it lighthearted. As it is, the movie has no sense of identity and is a mess.
What's sad is that as I watched the end credits sequence with Gugino and Isaac , I knew that there was most likely a good movie hidden in this mess somewhere. Sadly, it didn't make it to the screen. I give this movie a C-, and I'm only that generous because it did entertain me at certain points.
P.S. Given Snyder's penchant for larger than life CG creatures and FX, he better put at least some of it to use in the new Superman and give him a foe that actually tests him, not Lex Luthor again!
I would be lying if I said I didn't get some form of enjoyment out of it. There's definitely plenty of eye candy in terms of scantily clad women with big racks and outlandish action sequences. However, the movie was lacking one thing to make it something good: a sense of fun. This movie comes across as Michael Bay trying to be Terry Gilliam. I know people have tried to play the whole "it's just a mindless popcorn movie" card on this, but I have to call B.S. The framework in which they set it pretty much eliminates it from being something fun and free-spirited. Why did they have to try the whole fantasy within fantasy B.S. if the characters were going to pretty much meet the same ends in all of them? Why not just have it set in a brothel to begin with and be done with it? Why have such a dark overtone to I guess illustrate how helpless young women in the 1950s were when it came to certain matters (I am guessing that's when it is supposed to take place). The fact that the movie took itself so seriously is why I did not like it. If Snyder wanted to make a movie with a bunch of scantily clad women who really can't act for the most part, why not have it be about five girls on Spring Break stuck in a sleazy motel where it rains all of the time? Something to keep it lighthearted. As it is, the movie has no sense of identity and is a mess.
What's sad is that as I watched the end credits sequence with Gugino and Isaac , I knew that there was most likely a good movie hidden in this mess somewhere. Sadly, it didn't make it to the screen. I give this movie a C-, and I'm only that generous because it did entertain me at certain points.
P.S. Given Snyder's penchant for larger than life CG creatures and FX, he better put at least some of it to use in the new Superman and give him a foe that actually tests him, not Lex Luthor again!
#410
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
I really liked 300 but the special effects style of Synder is a little off putting. Even with Watchmen which has many action scenes involving non-super powered people and beings, everything still seems like it involves Matrix like characters.
#411
DVD Talk Legend
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
this happens all the time with these movies... Its nothing more than a mindless action piece. If you happen to like this one, then its good escapist fun. If you dont like it, then its trash thats ruining hollywood and takes itself too seriously. I had fun with it and enjoyed it as for what it was. Nothing in this thread surprises me as its pretty much the M.O.
I think one thing we can agree on, the trailer for The 3 Musketeers was fucking repulsive
I think one thing we can agree on, the trailer for The 3 Musketeers was fucking repulsive
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re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
this happens all the time with these movies... Its nothing more than a mindless action piece. If you happen to like this one, then its good escapist fun. If you dont like it, then its trash thats ruining hollywood and takes itself too seriously. I had fun with it and enjoyed it as for what it was. Nothing in this thread surprises me as its pretty much the M.O.
I think one thing we can agree on, the trailer for The 3 Musketeers was fucking repulsive
I think one thing we can agree on, the trailer for The 3 Musketeers was fucking repulsive
ON TOPIC:
If a film like Predator and Die Hard can be great action flicks while also being great flicks in general than yeah...I want it to be in that boat. Awesome action while also being a good flick in general.
#416
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re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
Wow, I just realized who the lead girl is. She was in that Jim Carey film where he plays the weird old man. I remember thinking then that she was going to grow into a great looking girl.
#418
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
While I didn't hate this movie, I did find it to be gloriously boneheaded. Like others have written, some of those sequences are stunning - but it's such visual overload that my mind went into autopilot. All that CG started running together and I had trouble focusing. I enjoy Zack Snyder's other movies, but I found this to be the epitome of ADD filmmaking. Surprisingly, the acting wasn't as bad as I was prepared for. The chick from "The Real Word" was probably the worst. She even made a line reading like "Son of a-" fall flat, but her screen time was limited. Emily Browning was bland in the lead, but she wasn't given much to work with. I doubt Amanda Seyfried would have done any better.
My favorite characters were Jena Malone as Rocket and Abbie Cornish as Sweet Pea. I'm a Jena fan from way back and was glad to see her in a big-budget action film. Never seen Abbie before, just knew she had dated Ryan Phillipe. She was gorgeous and added a bit more weight than the shallow material deserved (I said a bit). Scott Glenn and Carla Gugino were postively wasted here. The plot was so underdeveloped that I'd love to meet the exec who greenlit this script without demanding heavy revisions. The segue from patients in an asylum to captive women in an imaginary dance hall serves no purpose in the theatrical cut other than to get the girls in their skivvies (not that I'm complaining). Then to have the fantasy within the fantasy with all the video game levels was so convoluted that I stopped trying to understand things.
Such lazy writing, you'd think this thing was rushed into production to avoid a writer's strike. But what I found most amusing were all the guys leaving the theater saying, "That was AMAZING!", or "Man, I fucking loved it! That's a damn classic right there." Maybe those dudes saw something I was missing, but I kinda doubt it. All the chatter coming out of my showing was generally positive, much to my confoundment. Still, I'll probably pick up the Director's Cut BD when it's $8 or less. Since big chunks of the movie felt like a music video anyway, I'm sure putting the musical numbers back in will only help validate the style Snyder was going for.
Side note: If my theater was anything to go by, this movie is going to be crushed by "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2". I've never seen a matinee sell out, but that lobby was FLOODED with kids.
My favorite characters were Jena Malone as Rocket and Abbie Cornish as Sweet Pea. I'm a Jena fan from way back and was glad to see her in a big-budget action film. Never seen Abbie before, just knew she had dated Ryan Phillipe. She was gorgeous and added a bit more weight than the shallow material deserved (I said a bit). Scott Glenn and Carla Gugino were postively wasted here. The plot was so underdeveloped that I'd love to meet the exec who greenlit this script without demanding heavy revisions. The segue from patients in an asylum to captive women in an imaginary dance hall serves no purpose in the theatrical cut other than to get the girls in their skivvies (not that I'm complaining). Then to have the fantasy within the fantasy with all the video game levels was so convoluted that I stopped trying to understand things.
Spoiler:
Side note: If my theater was anything to go by, this movie is going to be crushed by "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2". I've never seen a matinee sell out, but that lobby was FLOODED with kids.
Last edited by joe_b; 03-27-11 at 12:37 AM.
#419
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re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
well if you had stayed longer - you would noted that the 'nothing' had a purpose and resolution, so yes, an hour of footage might seem like nothing, but Synder's not a total tool in making the connections between the visuals and the plot - sure it was not a complete assertation of the movie on the whole, but there's a partial assumption that it didn't make sense, when it ultimately did. Synder had the common sense to have a beginning, middle and end, unlike 'Battle Los Angeles' that had a beginning, a middle and nothing resembling an ending - now that's sloppy filmmaking and shows how incompetent a director can be. The number of people slagging this film and Snyder specifically is just befuddling, sure the movie is not great, but good grief, I'd sure like to know what those people's other movies they consider as being 'trash'.
not at you, but I had a similiar disgust at few people who up and left half way through 'Limitless' this afternoon - who had the gual to bad mouth the movie as they left - that ignorance and attitude just pissed me off - so sorry some of that rubbed me off in the wrong way as well, so some of my reaction was pushed onto you - so sorry there.
not at you, but I had a similiar disgust at few people who up and left half way through 'Limitless' this afternoon - who had the gual to bad mouth the movie as they left - that ignorance and attitude just pissed me off - so sorry some of that rubbed me off in the wrong way as well, so some of my reaction was pushed onto you - so sorry there.
#420
DVD Talk Legend
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
I honestly felt as though the action scenes in this movie would have fit more in a modified version of MTV's Liquid Television and presented as a five part mini-series to itself . They really had that kind of vibe I remember from that program.
#422
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re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
This movie was really soul crushing. I've been a big fan of Snyder since Dawn of the Dead and have been counting down the days to Sucker Punch since he started talking about it on the Watchmen junkets... the marketing is correct with the tagline "You will be unprepared"...because I was unprepared for how awful the result would be.
The movie has some great visuals but the action is hollow/pointless. There was no "fun" to be had in any of the sequences because there were ZERO stakes - add in the weird "emotional" scenes that they blend in, all of which I couldn't care less about, and I was sitting bored most of the time. It's too bad because I think you can take this idea and these action sequences and just frame them differently (narrative wise) and string together a pretty kick ass movie - but it's almost like people were afraid to say "NO" to Snyder or tell him the script needed another pass.
The whole bit with the brothel/magical dancing was pretty brutal and really took me out of the flick. I did think Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish were decent and there is eye candy here, but with all the talent behind the camera, I was expecting a lot more and the fact that nearly none of it works is a travesty and more disappointing then recent turds I Am Number Four and Battle Los Angeles. I hold Snyder to a higher standard... although if every director needs to do a faceplant from time to time, I'm glad he got it out of his system BEFORE Superman, rather than WITH Superman.
The movie has some great visuals but the action is hollow/pointless. There was no "fun" to be had in any of the sequences because there were ZERO stakes - add in the weird "emotional" scenes that they blend in, all of which I couldn't care less about, and I was sitting bored most of the time. It's too bad because I think you can take this idea and these action sequences and just frame them differently (narrative wise) and string together a pretty kick ass movie - but it's almost like people were afraid to say "NO" to Snyder or tell him the script needed another pass.
The whole bit with the brothel/magical dancing was pretty brutal and really took me out of the flick. I did think Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish were decent and there is eye candy here, but with all the talent behind the camera, I was expecting a lot more and the fact that nearly none of it works is a travesty and more disappointing then recent turds I Am Number Four and Battle Los Angeles. I hold Snyder to a higher standard... although if every director needs to do a faceplant from time to time, I'm glad he got it out of his system BEFORE Superman, rather than WITH Superman.
#423
DVD Talk Legend
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
how exactly does a "review embargo" work? how can a studio stop you from talking about a movie you had nothing to do with if you see it? I don't really get that. I suppose there's the bully factor where they can be cut out of future screenings, but that's pretty stupid. it's clear they didn't want any reviews out because they know it's a fucking mess of a film that is going to disappear after the first weekend. why assist them in conning people to go see it by not publishing a review?
#424
DVD Talk Godfather
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
how exactly does a "review embargo" work? how can a studio stop you from talking about a movie you had nothing to do with if you see it? I don't really get that. I suppose there's the bully factor where they can be cut out of future screenings, but that's pretty stupid. it's clear they didn't want any reviews out because they know it's a fucking mess of a film that is going to disappear after the first weekend. why assist them in conning people to go see it by not publishing a review?
#425
Senior Member
re: Sucker Punch -- Zack Snyder
Sucker Punch definitely has major problems, but in the end I liked the action and aesthetic enough to say I enjoyed the movie. Not the best movie I have seen this year by a long shot, but not the worst either. Maybe my expectations were lowered enough due to the bad reviews.
The story and dialogue probably should render this film as a rental at best, but the problem is it's main draw is the very catchy visuals. So I would bump it as a film you should see on cheap night/matinee rather then paying full price for it.
The story and dialogue probably should render this film as a rental at best, but the problem is it's main draw is the very catchy visuals. So I would bump it as a film you should see on cheap night/matinee rather then paying full price for it.