Escape to the Movies: Sucker Punch

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Great to hear, Bob! I thought the movie looked terrific and I am now even more excited to see it. I don't think anyone out there can complain about an action movie twisting to become thought provoking and more than a mere cry for attention towards adolescent boys. To hear that the women of the film are not treated as such is especially relieving to me as I am the type who often finds sexuality cobbled together in a vain attempt to attract movie goers while (1) Offering NOTHING beyond sex and (2) distracting from the actual movie in terms of story and general action pacing.

 

[Hatchet90]

I can't trust MovieBob anymore. I saw a prescreening of this, and it was absolutely horrible. Every minute I was wondering what the hell was going on. And not in an interesting Christopher Nolan kind of way, more of a what the fuck were they thinking when writing this kind of way. It's just a bunch of women on a green screen going hoo ha. Also it's PG-13, thus removing any sort of HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOMELY VIOLENT moments.

 

[pearcinator]

Didnt like Watchmen (in fact the blue dude is probably the character I hate the most from ANYTHING)

Will I like this? Does it have any 'Dr Manhattans' in it?

 

[FaithorFire]

No Moviebob, no! I cannot disagree more with your review of this movie. It is not deep, spiritual, OR intelligent. The line between reality and dreaming NEVER blurs. The characters are shallow, 1-dimensional, and I did not have enough time to develop any care for them. The unnesesary 1-liners that provide faux-deepness came off as REALLY annoying. See-> "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" It comes from no where, for no reason. The action is totally detached since none of it is real, so there is zero tension. Moviebob, did we even watch the same movie? This is the nerd version of the expendables. Stupid, empty and boring.

edit: you know what? Lets go watch moviebob's expendables review but imagine that it's this movie instead. I think THAT review hits this movie far better.

YES! you nailed it. I can think of two explanations for moviebob's glowing review of this thing: He is more of a Zac Snyder fanboy then he's admitting, or Bob's bleeding-heart sensibilities were so entranced by the idea of FEMALE characters fighting shallow MALE caricatures that he failed to identify what was really just a highly-stylized "Expendables for nerds".

 

[Delusibeta]

@ all Scott Pilgrim haters: Don't watch Shaun of the Dead. Or Hot Fuzz. You'll hate them. Hell, you'll probably dislike Spaced and Paul as well.

 

[13lackfriday]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BADASS, OVER-THE-TOP FEMINISM!!!

Looks like Duke Nukem just met his match.

 

[infernovolver]

Movie seemed interesting, somewhat more interested after MovieBob's review-- then I checked Spill's audio review [http://www.spill.com/Audio/AudioPost.aspx?audioId=522] of it. And they fucking SLAM the shit out of it, and not just them either! Other critics have been coming down really hard on it, and at this point, I'm somewhat convinced it's not all that great of a movie. I'm still going to see it, but my expectations are significantly lowered now. Also I noticed that MovieBob used numerous phrases to praise Suckerpunch that Spill spoke negatively of, like Snyder being compared to Nolan, or the movie being empowering to women, or it being deep or anything. Almost as if Bob wanted his review to strongly conflict with theirs.

 

[Xenetethrae]

Watched Sucker Punch hours ago and I still don't know what to say about it. The action was awesome, but the plot definitely took a very unexpected turn.

Would I see it again? Hell yes.

Bob is spot on with this one.

 

[Vanbael]

Compairing a film to Scott Pilgrim, uh heard of. *scratches chin* Though, from what I see it does look good as far as action. And now, the action has been justified by this review. I will say yes, do want to see.

 

[whycantibelinus]

I'm sorry, I just can't take this movie seriously. I know Bob SAYS that it's intelligent and deep and "refreshingly" centered on women, but if that's the case, then the marketing was a MASSIVE failure because to me it still looks like nothing more than another boring, flashy, pandering mess. Seriously, how many times throughout the course of the movie can they jump off a tall thing and land in a crouch with one arm thrown back before dramatically snapping their heads up? Even if it IS smarter than it appears, I don't think it's the audience's fault for not going to see it based on the way it IS presented.

Maybe on Netflix. I don't care about the scantily clad parts. It just looks like another boring, overly special-effect'd action flick trying to cram as many popular pieces of fantasy/sci-fi as it can into its running time. I just can't be bothered to sit through another spectacle.

My thoughts exactly. This movie looks incredibly boring and it doesn't really seem like anything I didn't see while watching after school cartoons while growing up.

 

[Darks63]

Sorry Bob but between the visuals, the stupid looking steam punk meets WW1 against the not-nazis, and the girl power(while in skimpy outfits) crap I honestly can't justify spending money on this.

 

[samus17]

No Moviebob, no! I cannot disagree more with your review of this movie. It is not deep, spiritual, OR intelligent. The line between reality and dreaming NEVER blurs. The characters are shallow, 1-dimensional, and I did not have enough time to develop any care for them. The unnesesary 1-liners that provide faux-deepness came off as REALLY annoying. See-> "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" It comes from no where, for no reason. The action is totally detached since none of it is real, so there is zero tension. Moviebob, did we even watch the same movie? This is the nerd version of the expendables. Stupid, empty and boring.

edit: you know what? Lets go watch moviebob's expendables review but imagine that it's this movie instead. I think THAT review hits this movie far better.

YES! you nailed it. I can think of two explanations for moviebob's glowing review of this thing: He is more of a Zac Snyder fanboy then he's admitting, or Bob's bleeding-heart sensibilities were so entranced by the idea of FEMALE characters fighting shallow MALE caricatures that he failed to identify what was really just a highly-stylized "Expendables for nerds".

You know what? There are plenty of GOOD action movies with female leads (Kill Bill & Aliens to name 2), that I can't even let the bleeding-heart "oh my God finally a female lead in an action movie" excuse go. Snyder makes awesome visuals, but characters and writing, no bueno from what I've seen. I am dumbstruck at Moviebob's opinion of this. Like/Dislike, I couldn't care, but ignoring such blatant flaws is just weird. But since I am never one to complain with no solution, here is what could have saved this movie:
MAKE IT A TWO-PART MOVIE! (Kill Bill anyone?) Give it time to develop characters and villains and STORY! If kill bill was a 1 part movie, WITH all the fight scenes kept, it woulda sucked just as bad as this.

 

[Verlander]

No matter how empowering it is for women, or how girl centric it is, it's never going to attract many with those ridiculous promos, trailers and adverts.

I understand that scantily dressed girls is a great attraction for men, but if the message is for girls, and no girls have their curiosity piqued by the promotional material, then that message or theme is wasted.

As a female, I'd like to point out my interest was definitely piqued by the trailers. The use of Led Zepplin was just.. spot on, imo. Especially when you add steampunk robot dinosaur ninja samurai on top of that.

Will this movie attract every female? Probably not. But, I'm willing to bet there's decent amount of chicks out there that see the advertising for this movie, and think, "Wow. I'm going to go and spend $9 to see this skimpily dressed chick stab giant samurai with the rest of the Pussycat Dolls, on a giant screen, while I munch on overpriced popcorn... And it's going to be awesome!"

Judging by your use of the dollar sign, and time of typing this, I assume you're American? I'm British, and it definitely wasn't marketed with Led Zep here. It was marketed a a dull yet gratuitous, action-by-numbers film. Which is a shame.

A lot of the women I know won't go and see it, or don't want to, especially gamers or comic fans. They were particularly put off, because the UK marketing made it look like it is Hollywood "cash in on nerd culture" tripe, that's trying to sell itself by having hot girls in skimpy clothes. Some of them read this site, so hopefully will stumble across this review and think again, but the advertising definitely left a lot to be desired over here.

Whoever distributes Snyders films have been guilty of this before (assuming it's the same company), as both 300 and Watchmen were also poorly advertised, with no real build up to the releases. Obviously comic fans were well informed via the internet, but as this is an original movie there hasn't been the same anticipation, and some good marketing could easily make a difference in the films reception. When this sort of thing is done well, we love it over here. Our trailers look like it's been done terribly, unfortunately.

 

[Adam Waddell]

Bob, you described this movie better than I ever could. I have no idea why it is at a 20 on rotten tomatoes. It made me so happy watching it. I enjoyed every frame. Zach Snyder is the only director today that has any semblance of knowledge of cinematography. He makes every frame poster worthy. Why are all the critics hating on this movie? I dont get their critiques. I am convinced that if this movie had quentin tarantino or robert rodriguez or guillermo del toro name on it, they would be sucking at the teet of this movie. Its a fantastic movie, and go and see it now. If you think you will like it, you will.

 

[Jamous]

The crowd seems so split I shall reserve my judgement on this till I see it, which I will. Hopefully I'll come out on Bob's side. Always a good thing in this sort of case.

 

[Verlander]

Edit: Yikes. It is getting destroyed by critics.

About half of good movies do.

Seeing it tonight with the buddies, should be awesome.

That is just not true. Half? Really? Can you name like 10 critically panned movies that were actually good? I don't mean mixed reviews I mean panned.

Yes professionals USED to have a problem judging a film based on its intentions, but critics these days as a whole are fantastic compared to the late 90's.

I am sure critics looked at this movie expecting a thrill ride and if it got a bad score it is probably because the movie is awful...which it is.

A film I find that gets a load of critical abuse is Oldboy, yet it's easily one of the best I've seen. I know this has little to do with your point, but your first sentence made me try to think of an example. That's obviously avoiding all of the "so bad they're good" films

 

[Alexnader]

Looking at this thread all I can do is paraphrase bob "This movie will be incredibly polarising".

Bob wins yet again.

 

[Eremiel]

Despite being exactly the audience that this movie is aiming for and enjoying it, I must say I've lost some respect for you after seeing this review, Bob.

This is essentially The Expendables, only targetted at geeks. Almost everything negative you said in that review can be mirrored in this movie. For you to so completely and utterly slag that and praise this, I am seriously starting to doubt your objectivity as a critic.

And FYI, I liked this movie and disliked Expendables. But I realise that this is only because of my own personal tastes. They're both the same kind of movie, just catered to different audiences.