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Wraithlordmechanic wrote:

Moopy wrote: Never tell your audience to stop caring or you lose the tension for the rest of the film.

And I don't buy the theory that the other girls weren't real- why would rocket be introduced as sweet pea's sister if that were the case? If only Baby doll and Sweet Pea were real then that makes the movie even dumber because so much effort was put into trying to get you to care about the other characters (especially rocket).

*spoilers*

All 5 of the girls were real- we saw all of them in that opening scene when the real world "Blue" was getting step-dad to agree to the lobotomy. However, we don't know if Sweet-Pea and Rocket were sisters or if it was made up- there is no reference of them being sisters in the RL portion of the movie. It was possible that it made that way to try and make the characters more interesting, but we really don't know.

Wraithlordmechanic wrote: Before I get off my soap box why are so many movies going this way? Whatever happened to movies with an engaging story? To movies where you care about the character(s)? Or movies that make you think? Are writers really that lazy nowadays?

I work in the video game field and I've seen projects fall apart like this- a great idea that isn't properly followed up on. Some of it is egos- people who think they can tell a story and have too much power to be told, "NO!". Also people can fixated on an aspect of the film that they remember and want to make it incredibly cool. People remember fight scenes of the movie, so they want to make fight scenes, but forget that the 30 minutes of character development BEFORE the fight scene, MADE that fight scene really powerful. This is the reason Band of Brothers rocks and Sucker Punch does not.

I want the art book to Sucker Punch, but I'm not sure if I want to own the movie.

After it's all done the orderlies mention the deaths and fire. That's why the police come in iirc.

This movie was the first movie in a LONG TIME to make me cry. Why? Because Rocket looked too much like a very close friend of mine. I spent the first two acts of the movie setting her up that way, and when I was sickened.

This film looks absolutely fething appalling. Its the worst trailer I have seen in ten years, and Ive seen Catwoman with Halle Berry.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:After it's all done the orderlies mention the deaths and fire. That's why the police come in iirc.

*spoilers*

I only remember the stabbing, fire and escape being mentioned, but no deaths.

I'm still not sure what to make of Suckerpunch, but it was certainly exactly what I was expecting from a Zack Synder film.

Reminded me of 300 a whole lot in terms of the style, dialogue and focus on spectacle.

I really think he'd be better off as an art director or producer on movies rather than a writer/director. His talents are primarily visual and he could bring a lot more to the table if he just focused on that.

I kinda see him as the next Tim Burton, with brilliantly styled films, but total hit-or-miss when it comes to script.

Anyway, other things that came to my attention:

- Emily Browning is hot.
- Emily Browning is a pretty damn good singer too, considering that she sung a lot of the soundtrack (including the entire sweet dreams opening sequence).

I saw this about 2 weeks ago, and I'm still pretty conflicted about this.

+ There are a lot of great visuals
+ the action is well choreographed
+ the music is very good
+ the girls are very pretty

- the plot is, to be honest, not really there
- some of the dialogue is poor
- the ending is very poor
- sense, it makes none

It was cool to see a lot of the wild action scenes, but I wish they could have done better on the story and some of the character development. I guess there was supposed to be some kind of feminist, girl power type theme? Hard to see it when all the girls are dressed like hookers, with names like "babydoll". One of the critics described it as the fantasy of a hentai & video game obsessed 14 year old boy, and I guess that was pretty accurate. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it either. I think there were some threads of greatness that weren't coaxed into fruition.

scarletsquig wrote:
- Emily Browning is hot.

+99999 to this.

It's a pretty cool movie. Ymmv, though.

Come unprepared and it'll deliver.

To me, the dream/fight sequence in the WW1 setting almost felt like I was watching a live action W40K movie. The Germans with their steam thingies were pretty much Death Korps of Krieg soldiers fighting it out in some endless trenchwar. The Gothic cathedral helped I guess. They even had kind of a Dreadnought.

Just based on this sequence I'd love for Zack Snyder to make a live action 40k movie. With 300 and Watchmen he has shown he can stick to source material, so no issues there.

Basz002 wrote:To me, the dream/fight sequence in the WW1 setting almost felt like I was watching a live action W40K movie. The Germans with their steam thingies were pretty much Death Korps of Krieg soldiers fighting it out in some endless trenchwar. The Gothic cathedral helped I guess. They even had kind of a Dreadnought.

Just based on this sequence I'd love for Zack Snyder to make a live action 40k movie. With 300 and Watchmen he has shown he can stick to source material, so no issues there.

This, we can agree on. I just hope he'd get someone else to write the dialogue and story.

Watched it last night. Not great and a missed opportunity in my opinion. The first level of fantasy (the burlesque brothel) was just male wish fulfillment (I'm a male, I should know ) and the Baby Doll's dances that trigger the second level of fantasy were a stupid plot device that didn't work.

The best bit was the fight against the clockwork, steam powered zombie Nazis, but after that the action was very repetitive.

I saw it last night too and I loved it.

My only complaint is how much it was obviously toned down to get that pg rating but apparently the directors cut dvd will fix this.

I saw the movie yesterday, and I liked it. It's not a masterpiece, but no way it is the gak many people says.



Also, I don't think it's sexist at all. Looks like there is an issue with female characters in "male/teen oriented" movies. If they are in a kitchen, it's sexist. If they are in the first line of fire, it's sexist. If they are students, it's sexist. Anything they do, somebody will come up and say it's sexist. I don't understand it.

Agree with your reveiw and analysis.

I saw this one last week.

I didn't really care for it, but it had so much material in it that it pretty much overpowers your sense of disbelief.

On one hand, 80% of the movies going on in thier imagination, On the other, you have no stock in the characters, because its like one minute, we're talking about the main character, Babydoll or whatever her name is, then here come about four more out of left field.

If this thing reminded me of anything, it reminded me of a film version of Anime Tactics. They could have done one less by actually having a serious no !@#$ story about each one of those topics from the story, but they wanted to spin some sort of Naked Lunch sort of thing out of it, trying to internalize the story, then add in the other girls imaginations for some sort of group consciousness sort of thing.

Loved the music, though. This guy put together his style and added in something without any sort of basis to compare it to, which was original, compared to the flood of remakes.

Not my sort of movie, but those girls were doing some serious damage. Only wish that they could have done a whole movie sort of thing with that kind of action. I didn't know how to take the rest of the movie with the tear jerking and stuff. I didn't really relate to that part of the movie.

THIS is the stuff I related to.

Erasoketa wrote:I saw the movie yesterday, and I liked it. It's not a masterpiece, but no way it is the gak many people says.

Spoiler:

About the reality/imagination thing: Yes, everything happens in her imagination, but Baby Doll doesn't control everything. She is basing her fantasy in what she is seing. Maybe if a german soldier or an orc punches any of them it won't matter. But what about Rocket? She gets badly wounded in the reality, and the main character introduces that in the "dream". So they are in danger. In the real world. And about the brothel complaints: the girls do NOT dream or wish to be in a nicely decorated brothel. They are actually abused by the staff of the asylum. Babydoll imagines the brothel stuff to make it easier to manage.

The visual part is awesome, the music fits perfectly, the performances are good enough. The script has some gaps. Does the script make the movie deserve all the gakstorm it's getting? IMHO no, it doesn't.

It's not The Matrix, but it's FUN.

Also, I don't think it's sexist at all. Looks like there is an issue with female characters in "male/teen oriented" movies. If they are in a kitchen, it's sexist. If they are in the first line of fire, it's sexist. If they are students, it's sexist. Anything they do, somebody will come up and say it's sexist. I don't understand it.

This. Saw it last night and it was very entertaining.

Ouze wrote:I saw this about 2 weeks ago, and I'm still pretty conflicted about this.

+ There are a lot of great visuals
+ the action is well choreographed
+ the music is very good
+ the girls are very pretty

- the plot is, to be honest, not really there
- some of the dialogue is poor
- the ending is very poor
- sense, it makes none

It was cool to see a lot of the wild action scenes, but I wish they could have done better on the story and some of the character development. I guess there was supposed to be some kind of feminist, girl power type theme? Hard to see it when all the girls are dressed like hookers, with names like "babydoll". One of the critics described it as the fantasy of a hentai & video game obsessed 14 year old boy, and I guess that was pretty accurate. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it either. I think there were some threads of greatness that weren't coaxed into fruition.

how did you see it 2 weeks ago?

To answer your negative points:

- The plot is there, obviously you missed something major due to distractions?

- The dialogue is fine for its intended audience.

- The ending is spectacular... again, i believe you are going in with unreasonable expectations or believing this film to be of another genre if you did not enjoy it.

- It makes plenty of sense.

I saw it last night and was a little disappointed to be honest.

-The action sequences were great (and I loved the music) but after the first couple of minutes it got fairly repetitive.

-I felt no real attachment to the characters at all. Rocket was likeable,



-Things didn't always seem to mesh between reality and the fantasy. Either the fantasy should be seperate with the reality or should be connected, not haphazard.


-The ending came across as a bit cheap. I definitely had the impression that by that point the producers had gone 'Oh well, we've run out of action sequences to throw at the audience. Let's try and chuck something deep and meaningful together or someshite.'

I feel that it was a hit-and-miss. Definitely could have done a lot more with that.

Well as a visual director Zach Synder is amazing. But personally this movie was just stupid. And I had a friend told me that the action scenes were scenes that show her fighting her inner demons. Really? how does this help her find the objects if it is not the same reality? Inner Demons opposing what on her?? Does the movie point out that Babydoll feels she is being haunted by demons?? No! My Friend comes up with excuse after excuse to try to prove her point that this is a great movie. And I know she knows it doesn't make any sense as it did to me.

Warboss Narznok wrote:Well as a visual director Zach Synder is amazing. But personally this movie was just stupid. And I had a friend told me that the action scenes were scenes that show her fighting her inner demons. Really? how does this help her find the objects if it is not the same reality? Inner Demons opposing what on her?? Does the movie point out that Babydoll feels she is being haunted by demons?? No! My Friend comes up with excuse after excuse to try to prove her point that this is a great movie. And I know she knows it doesn't make any sense as it did to me.

Your 'friend's failure to convert you is not a substantial critique.

Neither are, "just stupid" or "doesnt make sense"... please convince us by expanding this.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie for what it represented to me.

Well I pretty much ranted on what didn't sense about it in earlier posts.

Erasoketa wrote:I saw the movie yesterday, and I liked it. It's not a masterpiece, but no way it is the gak many people says.

Spoiler:

About the reality/imagination thing: Yes, everything happens in her imagination, but Baby Doll doesn't control everything. She is basing her fantasy in what she is seeing. Maybe if a german soldier or an orc punches any of them it won't matter. But what about Rocket? She gets badly wounded in the reality, and the main character introduces that in the "dream". So they are in danger. In the real world. And about the brothel complaints: the girls do NOT dream or wish to be in a nicely decorated brothel. They are actually abused by the staff of the asylum. Babydoll imagines the brothel stuff to make it easier to manage.

The visual part is awesome, the music fits perfectly, the performances are good enough. The script has some gaps. Does the script make the movie deserve all the gakstorm it's getting? IMHO no, it doesn't.

It's not The Matrix, but it's FUN.

Also, I don't think it's sexist at all. Looks like there is an issue with female characters in "male/teen oriented" movies. If they are in a kitchen, it's sexist. If they are in the first line of fire, it's sexist. If they are students, it's sexist. Anything they do, somebody will come up and say it's sexist. I don't understand it.

I think you missed the point. Babydoll is very much aware of the sexual abuse and she uses it to her advantage. The brothel is Blues fantasy and the way he sees things.

When she first comes to the asylum she sees the things that can help her escape but has no way of getting them. When they get to the theater is when you first start to become aware of Blues abuse. He tells the father that the Dr. has the girls reenact past abuse on the stage as a form of treatment and this turns him on. In Blues alternate reality of the brothel these reenactments are what he calls dance auditions and it is how he picks the girls to "perform" ( the ones he sexually assaults).

When the other girls explain to Babydoll what goes on she figures out the weapon she can use to get the items to escape, her sexuality. Up until this point Blue had been abusing girls who didn't enjoy it, but when Babydoll has her "dance audition"(reenacts abuse for the Dr.) she acts like she enjoys it. In fact, after she finishes one of the girls says what was all that moaning and grinding about!

So in reality Babydoll is seducing the Asylum employees and acting like she enjoys it so the girls will have more time to steal the things they need. The fantasy combat scenes are how Babydoll emotionally disconnects herself from what she is doing. In the first battle when she is performing her "audition" the old man (guardian angle) tells her she must protect herself. This is her trying to mentally prepare herself for what she will have to do. The subsequent battles are her way of imagining fighting and conquering something that is disgusting to her(sleeping with the men).

That is just the beginning of the basic story arc. The underlying theme is that the movie is one big metaphor of the story of Catholicism

Babydoll is Jesus. The other girls are the disciples. Amber is Judas, Blue is the roman officials, and it all takes place in purgatory.

@Chainsword
That's my understanding of it too...except the catholic thing.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:@Chainsword
That's my understanding of it too...except the catholic thing.

See above, and all will become clear.

@Klawz Man I am Glad to see I was not the only one who saw that corolation.

Warboss Narznok wrote:Well I pretty much ranted on what didn't sense about it in earlier posts.

But your previous posts didnt make sense.