Sucker-Punch (SPOILERS BITCHES)

[Nathan]

That looks fantastic.

[Captain Russ]

They've incepted mah dreams.

[gravedigger]

New trailer

http://www.collider.com/2010/11/03/s...ng/#more-58181

Awesome. And awesome use of When The Levee Breaks as well.

I didn't see Spike Lee in there at all.

Anyway, this looks amazing. I didn't realize it was a Pan's Labyrinth/Inception type of deal.

[Martin]

HOW THE FUCK DID I MISS THIS TRAILER??????

[BMichaelKrol]

Did anyone check this movie out? What did you guys think?

[FilmNerdJamie]

What did you guys think?

Bad. Very bad.

[BMichaelKrol]

Yeah, that's sort of what I thought. But there's still a niggling part in the back of my brain trying to convince me that I liked it. I'm a sucker for self-empowerment and realization stories, so the ending is tweaking me in the right places (and really, I'm an easy mark for most movies). Then again, the story was so ineptly handled at a basic level it's hard for me to say I like it.

ETA: Many of the ideas and themes that Synder dealt with were better handled by Grant Morrison in the Invisibles. Recognizing that Synder is going for a lot of the same concepts and notes might be altering my judgement.

[Ed Hocken]

So my original claim was right. This was like anime in that it was all style and no substance.

[BMichaelKrol]

You didn't check it out? It's at least worth a matinee, guy.

[Ed Hocken]

Nahhhh, I'll wait for dvd.

Besides, Source Code is coming out this Friday.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Everything just comes outta nowhere. Not to blow Nolan (as great a filmmaker I do think he is), but there was a reality and set of rules for the dreams (and dreams within those dreams, and dreams within those dreams...you get the idea!) to have everything that happens make sense.

Everything here though is so Goddamn random. For as great a dancer Baby-Doll is supposed to be, the immature part of me was expecting them to cut back to her "dancing" and it just being her jerking-off or something.

[BMichaelKrol]

Everything just comes outta nowhere. Not to blow Nolan (as great a filmmaker I do think he is), but there was a reality and set of rules for the dreams (and dreams within those dreams, and dreams within those dreams...you get the idea!) to have everything that happens make sense.

Everything here though is so Goddamn random. For as great a dancer Baby-Doll is supposed to be, the immature part of me was expecting them to cut back to her "dancing" and it just being her jerking-off or something.

That's one of the reasons I thought it failed on a story level. Every story has rules, and when you're creating a new reality, introducing the audience to those rules is important.

One thing that irritated me was Scott Glenn's reveal at the end. Everything in Browning's dreams was referenced in some form or another in the real world -- except Glenn. Does that mean that nothing happened? The question wasn't clear in the movie (like how it was, say in Total Recall where the nature of reality was a major idea), and it wasn't muted enough where it could a be legitimate interpretation (like in Inception).

As far as her dancing goes, maybe instead of her dancing, a snake came out of her ass and undulated. That would mesmerize everyone watching.

Snark aside, I'm glad that Synder was a good enough filmmaker that he didn't show her dancing. That worked, I thought.

[Ari]

I watched it and was pretty angry with it. I thought the ending really sealed the deal with the film being a waste. Then I gave it a day and thought about it for a while, and now I kinda find myself liking it more.

BEWARE: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

So I was first very pissed the the movie ended with Baby Doll getting lobotomized and the chick I could have cared less about escaping. I was also thoroughly annoyed with the whole film being told from a "fake" perspective. I wanted to see the horrors of the mental institution, not some fucking perverted dance club.

Then I realized something; throughout the entire film Baby Doll was being raped, and she let the men rape her so the other girls could get the items they need to escape. There never was any dancing; we see the entire film through Baby Dolls eyes, and she views the horrible events in a different fashion. She doesn't want to think that she has been allowing herself to be raped for 5 days, so she sees it as "dancing". It makes it more tolerable for her. Each time she is actually being raped, her mind goes into the fantasy world where she is fully in control and able to beat the hell out of whatever protagonist her mind tosses at her.

So by the end of the film, she has been raped by three men (maybe more) AND she accidentally took the life of her sister. Being lobotomized was a blessing for her. She had helped one of the girls escape, and the assholes of the institution were caught by the police, so she had accomplished something.

I still find the film to be heavily flawed, but it's not even the worse film I've seen this year.

[Matt]

she's lobotomized??????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[BMichaelKrol]

I watched it and was pretty angry with it. I thought the ending really sealed the deal with the film being a waste. Then I gave it a day and thought about it for a while, and now I kinda find myself liking it more.

BEWARE: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

So I was first very pissed the the movie ended with Baby Doll getting lobotomized and the chick I could have cared less about escaping. I was also thoroughly annoyed with the whole film being told from a "fake" perspective. I wanted to see the horrors of the mental institution, not some fucking perverted dance club.

Then I realized something; throughout the entire film Baby Doll was being raped, and she let the men rape her so the other girls could get the items they need to escape. There never was any dancing; we see the entire film through Baby Dolls eyes, and she views the horrible events in a different fashion. She doesn't want to think that she has been allowing herself to be raped for 5 days, so she sees it as "dancing". It makes it more tolerable for her. Each time she is actually being raped, her mind goes into the fantasy world where she is fully in control and able to beat the hell out of whatever protagonist her mind tosses at her.

So by the end of the film, she has been raped by three men (maybe more) AND she accidentally took the life of her sister. Being lobotomized was a blessing for her. She had helped one of the girls escape, and the assholes of the institution were caught by the police, so she had accomplished something.

I still find the film to be heavily flawed, but it's not even the worse film I've seen this year.

That's an interesting angle. There was a sequence of her dancing when Browning's eyes looked very haunted, and I thought that Synder was trying to make a point about exploitation and the toll it takes on the exploited. It was one of the very few parts where I got any emotional connection to the characters and I was bummed that Synder didn't follow it up with anything.

There are a lot of good ideas in this movie but they were so ineptly handled it's hard to say Suckerpunch succeeded. But you're right: it wasn't the worst movie I've seen this year. That would have to be Battle:Los Angeles.