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Don't read this thread if you don't want to know about spoilers!
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I liked it but I wasn't sold on it. This isn't a review but things that occurred to me after seeing it.
The set-up is really contrived I think. We are expected to absorb 3 layers of sympathy for Baby Doll. Her Mother dies. Her Stepfather is a greedy, money-grubbing murderer/molester,(?), who is left out of the will-but knows how to fix that and her sister is killed. Why? This is to make her a triple underdog? She's placed in an asylum with a crooked Doctor as well. So not only do we know she doesn't belong there but if that didn't make us root for her escape the Doctor was thrown in to cinch it. I think it could have done without the framework. Why couldn't this have been a time travel story? Or a real fantasy film or Alternate History/Adventure? Plus I really love how the Creepy Doctor/pimp has a solo song/dance during the end credits. Well, he's perverse, dishonest and cruel but can he really be that bad if he has a song in his heart? LOL!
The Fantasy sequences are damn good but they don't add up except for the fact that Scott Glen's character said Baby Doll had to retrieve the 5 specific items. Each time she imagines herself in a mix of pseudo-wartime eras w/fantasy elements. When I took film class I was told this is called Post-Modernism. I never really bought the theory of Post-Modernism and I usually reject it when directors use it.
What is really astounding is Sucker Punch is is a period film and takes place in the 1950's. That means Baby doll imagines Robotech battle-suits and futuristic assault army weapons before they were ever created, (I can't blame her for the Robots or jet packs because they were a huge Sci-Fi staple in SF books). I have to ask why aren't they using lasers or ray guns? Probably because you can't film spent cartridges falling out of the weapon in slo-mo.
Many times I get the feeling Zach Snyder is trying to remake the Matrix. The scene in the Temple and in the Trenches really impressed that upon me. Baby Doll cartwheeling so bullets don't hit her. Gravity defying leaps and jumps. So many bullet casings doing slo-mo ballet-like dances. Some from the same angles the Wachowski Bros. used in the first Matrix film too! What a homage!
Maybe Sandy can answer me this: if the lights on set keep getting reflected in the lens shouldn't the Director or the DP do something about it? In one angle-no reflection. When we flip to the other angle-relfected! Are they leaving it in just for style? Does it make a more powerful statement when we only get the reflection from one angle? Or is it really like all the atmosphereric flare lighting J.J.Abrams used in Star Trek 2009-only more subtle?
Things in the fantasy are mirrored in real life. Rocket really died because the fat butcher filled with rage caught her stealing a knife, (no stereotype there, eh?). But does that mean Amber and Blondie were killed too? In the fantasy world if they are dead, Sweet Pea is sent to the time-out room and the Doctor is going to rape Baby Doll; who is left to dance on stage for the audience? The show is about to start.
In the end Sweet Pea turns out to be the narrator and escapes. Why? Baby Doll has more of a connection with Rocket for having saved her. Why not Rocket? The kid in the trenches: is he the guardian angel? I though Scott Glen was? Or was the early appearance of the kid a clue that it wasn't Baby-Doll's story but Sweet Pea's?
I dunno. I think the film has some good parts but like The Hitchhiker's Guide Film or like the film Magnolia, it's still a mess.
************************************************** *****
I liked it but I wasn't sold on it. This isn't a review but things that occurred to me after seeing it.
The set-up is really contrived I think. We are expected to absorb 3 layers of sympathy for Baby Doll. Her Mother dies. Her Stepfather is a greedy, money-grubbing murderer/molester,(?), who is left out of the will-but knows how to fix that and her sister is killed. Why? This is to make her a triple underdog? She's placed in an asylum with a crooked Doctor as well. So not only do we know she doesn't belong there but if that didn't make us root for her escape the Doctor was thrown in to cinch it. I think it could have done without the framework. Why couldn't this have been a time travel story? Or a real fantasy film or Alternate History/Adventure? Plus I really love how the Creepy Doctor/pimp has a solo song/dance during the end credits. Well, he's perverse, dishonest and cruel but can he really be that bad if he has a song in his heart? LOL!
The Fantasy sequences are damn good but they don't add up except for the fact that Scott Glen's character said Baby Doll had to retrieve the 5 specific items. Each time she imagines herself in a mix of pseudo-wartime eras w/fantasy elements. When I took film class I was told this is called Post-Modernism. I never really bought the theory of Post-Modernism and I usually reject it when directors use it.
What is really astounding is Sucker Punch is is a period film and takes place in the 1950's. That means Baby doll imagines Robotech battle-suits and futuristic assault army weapons before they were ever created, (I can't blame her for the Robots or jet packs because they were a huge Sci-Fi staple in SF books). I have to ask why aren't they using lasers or ray guns? Probably because you can't film spent cartridges falling out of the weapon in slo-mo.
Many times I get the feeling Zach Snyder is trying to remake the Matrix. The scene in the Temple and in the Trenches really impressed that upon me. Baby Doll cartwheeling so bullets don't hit her. Gravity defying leaps and jumps. So many bullet casings doing slo-mo ballet-like dances. Some from the same angles the Wachowski Bros. used in the first Matrix film too! What a homage!
Maybe Sandy can answer me this: if the lights on set keep getting reflected in the lens shouldn't the Director or the DP do something about it? In one angle-no reflection. When we flip to the other angle-relfected! Are they leaving it in just for style? Does it make a more powerful statement when we only get the reflection from one angle? Or is it really like all the atmosphereric flare lighting J.J.Abrams used in Star Trek 2009-only more subtle?
Things in the fantasy are mirrored in real life. Rocket really died because the fat butcher filled with rage caught her stealing a knife, (no stereotype there, eh?). But does that mean Amber and Blondie were killed too? In the fantasy world if they are dead, Sweet Pea is sent to the time-out room and the Doctor is going to rape Baby Doll; who is left to dance on stage for the audience? The show is about to start.
In the end Sweet Pea turns out to be the narrator and escapes. Why? Baby Doll has more of a connection with Rocket for having saved her. Why not Rocket? The kid in the trenches: is he the guardian angel? I though Scott Glen was? Or was the early appearance of the kid a clue that it wasn't Baby-Doll's story but Sweet Pea's?
I dunno. I think the film has some good parts but like The Hitchhiker's Guide Film or like the film Magnolia, it's still a mess.
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