Sucker Punch

I had a tough time knowing what was real and what wasn’t at times. The camera work is spectacular. It was a perfect blend of static, handheld, and everything in between. The camera work combined with audio and visual effects helped make the film flow like a real story. It had the perfect pace. It wasn’t like EXPLOSIONS calm EXPLOSIONS etc. It flowed from peace to battle seamlessly, all due to the audio, visual, and camera effects.

Speaking of battles, the battles are so stylistic it’s hard to compare this to real life. Not to spoil stuff, but I doubt we’ll be seeing steam powered zombies in a trench warfare setting with blimps bigger than the Empire State Building exploding. Just saying. Seriously here’s an example. A guy is hanging on a ladder on a blimp, which explodes, and rather than the dude exploding with it, it sends him flying into a wall, and he doesn’t even get the breath knocked out of him. There is one battle, however, where the enemies actually bleed, and one gets ripped apart after flying into a propeller. The reason for this is they were launched from a catapult. Oh, and they look like orcs from LOTR, so no human deaths in this fashion.

When humans actually died, there was hardly any blood, but this also made it that much more intense. One character is stabbed, and two more are shot, but the camera cuts to something else right before it happens, implying everything.

I know the girls are dressed like strippers, but here is why. Without revealing too much (no pun intended), the girls are forced to work in a burlesque theater, or are threatened to be lobotomized. Also, several girls in the film complain about the way they have to be dressed. Which leads me to the girls. Rather than have just the cliché hot chicks with guns, Snyder instead depicts 5 realistic women that have looks, and people use that to take advantage of them, and they have to learn to adapt and use it against people.

As far as language goes, no F bombs here, but there were at least 2 GD, 5 S***, and several smaller words. There is also one reference to someone not being a virgin.

Now for the symbolism. A lot of people seem to take offense to the trailer saying how you can use your imagination as a weapon, and also at the end of the film when it says, “You have all the weapons you need. Now fight.” It is true that this can be translated as “You don’t need God”. However, this is only true if you didn’t pay attention to the last two hours you watched. The context this is set in isn’t that you don’t need God. It’s more so in the context of “Your weapons are your will and your knowledge. You aren’t completely helpless and you can make a difference to help others,” which I believe is what every Christian is—someone with God given gifts to help others who need it and to stop the Kingdom of Satan from progressing any further and fight to destroy his kingdom and make it “On Earth as it is in Heaven” (that’s from the Bible in case you didn’t remember).

So really, it boils down to a matter of opinion, and my opinion is Zack Snyder has made another masterpiece that makes you sit down and think. Sure he brings up non PC things, but never does he glorify them, unless it’s bringing down evil. Overall, I say it’s 2nd to “Inception,” and check it out.

I got this beyond epic movie that just sent me into this euphoric satisfaction.

Usually, when I watch a movie, I look for a message, not a theme, a biblical message. Usually, it is difficult to find, since most films are, usually, done for fame, money, and fun, but this movie was different. In the movie there ***SPOILER*** is a man that guides the pseudo main character throughout the movie, he is, ***END SPOILER*** in my mind, the driving force: God’s Plan. ***SPOILER*** “You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!” This is a line repeated at least twice throughout the movie, I felt slightly provoked, since it was referring to you as an individual, as in “you control your own fate.” but after thinking about it, careful thinking. I decided that the “…weapons you need…” is referring to the Bible, as in the weapon you need is the Bible, scripture, and now fight Satan. ***END SPOILER***

My final thoughts on this movie are just blank- blank- blank. It is really difficult to describe this movie with words and give it justice. I recommend watching this movie, if you are not easily offended, it’s actually pretty clean, but sin is sin and it only takes one to go to hell.

and making yourself comfy on it’s couch for two hours. Bad idea. That said, for the rest of us- I believe this movie was a perfect visual of Ephesians 6:12… “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” As profound, was the fact that the battle took place IN HER MIND. Sound familiar?

Had the girls been dressed modestly, and had their guide been Jesus, instead of the “spirit guide” type character played by Scott Glenn, we would all be having Bible studies based on this movie, and for good reason! In fact, I might anyway! All in all, although dark-I would recommend this movie to any FEMALE wanting to spur themselves on to remember to fight. We are in a war. Satan wants our minds, hearts, bodies, children, marriages, churches, and even our countries. Nowhere have I seen spiritual warfare depicted so perfectly in film.

The human villains in this movie are all also seen as demonic monsters with weapons of warfare, and the main character Baby Doll is given an all powerful sword to try to defeat them… see the symbolism here? Intended or not, it’s there. Grab your Bible, your notebook and your Jesus loving girlfriends and have a Saturday movie night with “Sucker Punch,” followed by a Sunday morning worship service with new found passion in your weapons of praise and prayer. I say Amen to “Sucker Punch”!

it’s mostly in the visuals and sound, unless you are fortunate enough to have a mega screen TV and surround sound system. That’s the only way, I think, to really enjoy viewing this film.

I heard people say it was terribly boring. I guess I can see how it could be, but, personally, it kept me entertained from start to finish. I should mention that from viewing the trailer, you are left unaware that the girls in the mental hospital are sex slaves. Quite frankly, I think part of the reason for that part of the plot is so the leading ladies can run around without much for clothes on. I mean, you could pull off the great “I’m a mentally disturbed person who retreats to an alternate universe to help me cope with what I did” storyline without having the girls run around half-naked.

Every moment of this movie has sexual undertones to it, but, on the other hand, it portrays the evils of the sex slave trade, something people usually shrug off as a thing of the past, even though it’s still existent today.

They kept it as clean as they could, under the intensity of the sexual material that the story required. There are multiple scenes of implied or attempted rape, but no nudity is shown. It’s implied that “clients” love watching Baby Doll dance, but because she’s in her other reality when she’s dancing, you never see her actually performing.

It’s borderline of an “R” rating. I read that they cut from the film just enough to make it PG-13, mostly language. There is many a “SH**!,” but only one F-bomb, said by none other than Vanessa Hudgens (I think that a different character should have pulled that trigger, since it sounded pretty cheesy with Hudgens” teeny little voice. Leave it to a person with a bigger voice, at least!). Even with what they cut, it’s still pushing it.

Overall, it was a joy to view. The moviemaking quality was excellent. It’s a neat flick to watch, but there are some extreme themes involved. I wouldn’t say anyone under 16 should view.

The level of sophistication is not there, as far as the story goes. A movie is one part moving pictures, yes, and Zach Snyder blows the competition out there, but it’s, also, one part story. He fails with a capital “F” in this dept. “Sucker Punch” is a cornucopia of over bloated action sequences, visual fx out the ying yang, and sloppy greenscreening, all of which are hallmarks of director Zach Snyder’s appetite.

I guarantee that’s what came first, and then a wimpy, half-hearted story to connect his dots came second. Though, I gotta hand it to Zach. He was the man for “Watchmen”. He has this neo-noir style of directing, which in and of itself doesn’t have a rigid set of rules, but that’s exactly why he fits in so well. Its framework is fluid, but it’s noirish, and a story like “Watchmen” deserves an eccentric like Snyder.

But with “Sucker Punch”? Well, it’s evident he’ll never join the ranks of the Coen Bros. or the Nolan Bros, but he does bring something to the table, however sordid it may be this time around. Snyder’s still a fan of slow-mo (“300” is on his resume), and he still loves contrasting dark elements with bland textiles and surfaces. Coloring and lighting are his babies. But he’s no storyteller.

Note: this is his first original story. Adapting Frank Miller’s “300” into a working screenplay with 50 other cohorts does not count.

My brothers, avoid this film. A few artful takes here and there from a director with budding talent does not merit a viewing. Apart from the seedy content, it’s like any ESPN highlight reel on Monday. You really don’t care about a Chiefs/Redskins game, so you won’t watch it, but a recap with Chris Berman narrating might be cool. To that end, it’s a good thing we got Youtube these days. Wait for the samurai fight to post there, and spend your hard-earned $8 bucks elsewhere, like Subway.

I have repeatedly enjoyed films made from video games, albeit I do not like video games. This is one of those rare films that I would have left the movie early out of simple boredom. The only recent film that comes close to this one in the boredom stakes is George Clooney’s “The American,” which was so boring, they put in it nude models and sex in a brothel.

This one is so boring, it has been set in a make-believe brothel. The reason I watched this movie through was I had a dinner date scheduled for shortly after it and I decided that there were worse places to wait than in an air-conditioned cinema—see I am happy to watch movies alone. The girls are pretty. Their clothes are revealing—too revealing. The acting—having regard to the poverty of the script—is great.

But nothing can make up for the mind numbingly boring script. It is like watching paint dry. It is the closest thing I can remember to a school detention. The principal reviewer is correct about the unChristian character of the theme of the movie, which is reinforced at the end with an express voiceover on just that theme. This film resembles a poorly written mish mash of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Shutter Island” with the dormitory scenes in “Dead Poets Society” converted from boys to girls.

This is the first film that I have commented on here, which I cannot understand how it got any positive reviews. For me, it fails completely even as unChristian secular entertainment. I would rather take the trash out than watch this film. I think that there would have been extreme raunchiness, but for the fact that the demographic for this film is female. Give this film a very wide berth!