Yes, Sucker Punch. The movie men want to see because there are hot chicks with machine guns, and the movie women want to see because we finally get a break from hollywood’s homosocial trend of the past 5 yes and get some GIRL POWER. WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now make me a sandwich.
The reason I wanted to see this movie so badly was because it reminded me of an anime…. Oh and Zach Snyder has been one of the best directors of the past decade. So my fellow ISSSer Eye Sedso and myself went down to the theater to catch it.
Now pay special note to the headline there “You will be unprepared.” Because the first scene of this movie will slap you in the face, wake you up, and say “Hey, dickhole. This is NOT some mindless action movie for you to fantasize about. THIS SHIT IS REAL.”
In the open scene of the movie, we find the main character, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), in her house. Her parents are dead (cause: unknown) and her stepfather seems rather happy about it. Some time later, the stepfather is trying to rape Babydoll’s younger sister, so she gets a gun and tries to shoot him. Instead, she misses and kills her younger sister. This causes the stepfather to drag Babydoll to the “Lennox House for the Mentally Insane.”
Oh and by the way, the entire first scene has this haunting cover playing the whole time:
Typical Zach Snyder opening scene awesomeness. ALSO. You may notice that Emily Browning sings that song. Not only was she the main character, she sings like 3 or 4 songs on the soundtrack. Which makes me like her even more.
Now, when Babydoll first enters the Asylum, the orderly tells her stepfather that a doctor (Jon Hamm) will be coming do perform lobotomy’s in 5 days, and the Stepfather bribes the orderly with money to get Babydoll one. There is a short montage in which basically the whole movie plot it shown up to Babydoll about to get a lobotomy. But right at this point we flash back 5 days to when she arrives at the institute, and this time, we see that Babydoll has retreated into a fantasy world where she has arrived as a virgin at a brothel owned by the mob.
Two talking points here:
1. HOW FUCKED UP IS A LOBOTOMY?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY??? The fact that this was EVER allowed as a legitimate medical procedure is absolutely fucked up.
2. If I were to compare this movie to anything. I would say this is what you get if you take Pan’s Labyrinth (a girl creating a fantasy world to escape reality) and Inception (multiple levels of fantasy) and have it directed by Zach Snyder (think of how awesome Watchmen and 300 were).
Now, you may be asking “OBALLER, where is all the crazy awesome action that I keep seeing in trailers???.”
Oh I’ll feed you baby birds. While in this fantasy, all of the girls in the brothel are forced to dance (duh) for their clients. The first time Babydoll is forced to dance is for practice in front of all the other girls and their dance instructor (Carla Gugino, who is also the main doctor in real life). Instead of showing Babydoll dance, we go into her mind and into the fantasy she has created to cope with this. In this first fantasy, we meet the Wise Man, who gives her weapons and tells her that she needs 5 items in order to escape. For the rest of the movie, Babydoll is forced to dance to distract people in order to get one of the items, and during the dance we see another awesome action/fantasy sequence.
3 Things I liked:
1. The acting: These girls can ACT. Each of them played their part perfectly, and Carla Gugino was fantastic yet AGAIN. She really needs to be in more movies.
2. Story telling: This is a very simple story at it’s core. However, it is told in the most exciting possible way. Well done Zach Snyder (oh and his directing was AMAZING as per usual).
3. THE SOUNDTRACK: This may be my favorite part of this film. I went home after and Immediately downloaded it. My favorite song? This cover of “White Rabbit”:
Honestly, a song about Alice in Wonderland fits this movie PERFECTLY, nevermind how awesome they made it. And it fits into one of the action/fantasy sequences AWESOMELY.
3 Things I didn’t Like:
1. Amber was pretty much a useless character. All she did was fly or drive stuff in the fantasies, which made me bored with her.
2. I understand this is a girl power movie…. HOWEVER. The only hot guy in the film, Jon Hamm, was only in it for like 5 minutes. Zach Snyder apparently said “300 had enough male eye candy for 2 movies of mine put together.”
3. Sucker Punch was beaten in the box office by “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” I am completely offended by this.
Final Thoughts/Grade:
CLEARLY, I loved this movie. Which is not surprising, because I pretty much only see movies in the theaters unless I know I’m gonna like it. Shit is getting expensive. However, there is something in this movie for everyone. Kick ass action, great soundtrack, and a compelling story with good actors.
Overall, I give this movie an 8/10. Very enjoying.
Until Next Time, OBALLER.
I don’t think that Babydoll accidentally killed her sister. I think she was already killed by the stepfather and here is why:
Babydoll fires off one shot, which hits the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. This lightbulb is much taller in height than the sister, who is short. I assumed that the stepfather killed the daughter, and then just blamed everything on Babydoll.
I love how you watch the sweet dreams cover on youtube and the only song on the side “related videos” thingy is that shitty Friday song.
Lobotomies always turn me off in movies. I hate everything about them. I’d say it was the only thing I didn’t really like about the movie.
Too bad you don’t really watch anime. This is the perfect combined trailer you have NO idea.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COgLKqqhbh0&w=640&h=390
Also, I think it was terribly obvious that the 5th item was going to be self sacrifice. I assumed that she was going to end up self sacrificing before I even stepped in the theater.
this is why i hate watching movies ONCE then doing a review… because i always forget shit. HOWEVER. The thing i do remember is that the stepfather blames the death on Babydoll… and I’m pretty sure at that point she is so fucked up that she thinks she killed her sister too.
Lobotomies are completely FUCKED.
It was pretty obvious that the fifth item was “me” but that didn’t take everything away from the ending. Even though that was predictable, the movie was not.
Also that ALMOST… I mean ALMOST makes me want to watch that anime.
It’s always possible that the bullet she shot ricocheted off of something and slammed into her sister’s skull, but that kind of happening would be a long shot at best…EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS STANDING IN A CLOSE VICINITY!
FUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFU!!!!
I’ve never seen a movie so polarizing since “Twilight.” People either love it or hate. What I do like though, is that every single person seems to have their own interpretation of the movie.
Sucker Punch is a movie with A LOT of symbolism disguised as a mindless action film.
Also, I have read a lot of reviews on this film and a lot of people who hate it don’t seem to get the point. Or at least get why people like it. I dont know how to describe it…. lets see…… they are focusing on the wrong parts of the movie. Like a critic in my local newspaper said that “during action sequences the girls hair were perfect and their make up was unrealistic.” like DUH.. its a fantasy sequence.
Whatever I think that its people who think one way like it, and people who think a different was will not.
Also… I FUCKING HATE TWILIGHT.
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