Movie-Review: SUCKER PUNCH (Directed by Zack Snyder)
[I twitpic'd and twittered the image above, and stand by it]
From the moment Bjork's "Army Of Me" blared surprisingly out of the music player in the film, I knew I was "home", that the geek-doors to my life had opened and embraced me like a little manwhore ~ with it's every grit and textured-grime ~ fist pumping silently within my heart, a huge hiphiphurrah to director Zack Snyder (he of "300" - which everyone brags abut, and "Watchmen" - which everyone ignores on promos - all comicbook properties, no?), thanking him for being a geek, or at least knows what gets us geeks going, and blood chug-pumping.
Not that the opening sequence was a wasted trip, mind you, it was just that slightly 5 months ago I was downed with Stroke, and had not imagined then to be stepping into a darkened cinema, as I did today (my first after my Stroke), and it took a while for all the imagery and colors to soak into me - courtesy of "Sweet Dreams" by Emily Browning (who plays "Baby Doll" in the film) echoing in the background - and appreciate the deft story-telling shortcuts in a few key sequences without a word uttered. In a way, the "ending" of which perhaps explains the treatment of the opening sequence somewhat, but I am getting ahead of myself …
Here are my thoughts about the movie SUCKER PUNCH - watched on March 24th @ 12:45pm Singapore-time (right after my rehab this morning LOL) at Cathay cinemas in EHub, Pasir Ris (my fav place to watch flicks actually, you can't beat 15mins away by bus, yo).
I cannot say "you will either love or hate it", as that would be too simple a cop-out clause. Simply put, this film is not made for naysayers of the genre, or of being against Zack's filmmaking-style ~ I personally dig it to effin-bits, and hope to geek along with folks who do too.
Do note that this review-post does include SPOILERS, but are white-out via HTML-code, and you can use your cursor to highlight and read (Look for them where the images are, in-between the *asterisks*). Mild spoilers, mind you - as the film needs to be seen to believe, for the naysayers - but spoilers nevertheless :)
["Bosses" to kill, just like in the video-games, Wirework on overdrive!
SPOILER: *They are not regular sized warriors as the trailers and teasers have you believe tho!*]
The illusionary aspect of the show, was such a simple ruse, which mindfcuked you till near the film's end, when things which seemed not what they had seemed to be, actually ringed true with an echo of faded cathedral bells, and what a surprising sense of triumphant that seemed. Without giving away any story clues, remember the opening voice-over narration (can't remember the words tho, in fact, I wasn't even listening too hard LOL) and the end would be such a sweet recap, if and when you recognize it, and of reognizing the voice which spoke it. Cliched story-telling? Without a single shred of doubt. Cheesy plot-happenings? Who did not expect it? A slice of brilliance for 2 hours? A sure bet.
The end resolution IS the "sucker punch", as cliched as it may seem, but we don't care as much, because getting there, was quite the awesome-trip, IMHO. But hey, if the end credit sequence was THE "sucker punch"? Hell, I'll be infuriated actually! LOL
[SPOILER: *The sequence prior to this is both hilarious and ultimately "D'oh! Why You Wake The Mummy?"*]
Do not be expecting to find the answers to the Universe with this popcorn-flick (make that three boxes please! With butter!), and do not even think the story and plot will astound and awe you. Just go along for the celluloid-ride and choose to be manipulated into thinking and imagining what the film wants you to do (and believe you me, you do imagine quite a lot ~ along with BabyDoll, of course) and let the plot-endings take a little of your breathe away, and even leave you grimacing and smirking (it did me). But it was all worth it. Well, except for the end credit sequence, and the cheesy montage sequence and music - to which a small sum of promos have been teasing, to which you'll find it "WTF? This is it?". Yes, I did too.
[Sam mentioned on my Flickr, of this particular image:
"Really looks like one of the Hellghast from Killzone" ~ And perhaps it is meant to be, because
SPOILER:: *this sequence as well looked like a videogame sequence - point and shoot, kick and kill!*]
Hot girls in skimpy clothing (real and imaginary). Blarring ammo with cases of bullet liken a traveling vacation of waterfall. Blade action a slice of paradise clean and quiet. In-you-face-punches (not kungfu chop-socky too!) CG-fest to test your attention-endurance and geek-tolerance, and a signature by now of Snyder's - the ridiculously inspired and awesome song / music choices, which has little to nothing to emote with with the visuals you see before you, but hella rocks your world! (Check out the soundtrack blogged here). Yes, even his slow-motion-action was done with restrained-pizzazz and panache, which delighted me more than it irritated me.
[David on my Facebook asked me: "Did they sing during the film?" ~ The answer is...
SPOILER: *They don't sing at all. But a couple of actors do! And we only see them dance / perform only in the end roller credit sequence of the film! Via image montage too!*]
A road movie with an imaginary path, mashed-up with a heist movie, all within the space of the locale in this story, and in your mind. This may not be brilliant, but this sure is excellent. I loved it when I read that Zack Snyder referred to Sucker Punch as his version of a "Heavy Metal" movie (the adult graphic novel series, not the audio genre / Read more on ComingSoon.net) and this is exactly what it was, infused skin-deep with kawaii anime tradition, and the honest-to-goodness concept of first-person videogame sensibilities. This is a movie for this generation of youths and pop culture-addicts. Not, let me rephrase that, this is one of THE movies to watch, and be vindicated of all your years of geekdom, silent or otherwise celebrated.
And in that respect, the B-52 Bombers, the bi-planes and exploding zepplins, the dragons, ogres and medieval knights, the robots, the giant samurai-styled warriors, the mechanized exo-armor-suit = all made perfect sense. and what a guilty-pleasure they were indeed!
[The tactics and precision in which they performed while armed, puts loads of cursory
whambam guns-on-show-flicks to shame. These girls rock with the automatics, yo!]
Will I watch it again? Hell yes. Will I buy the DVD? Count on it. I've covered it at length on TOYSREVIL, and as well relished and appreciated the promo animated shorts (swell promo-concept btw), and I've even reviewed the "Art Of The Film" book. Now I am aching to have the figures and whatever numbchuck products and memorabilia they might throw at me (but doubt this will ever happen, and perhaps my attention may fade as well when I wake up from my dreams, so do not going counting my words as concrete LOL), because like the "NOW" generation we live and breathe in, it may well be forgotten as soon as the next big thing arrives, but the echoes ring deep for this one, for this one is a keeper, if you can remember it, that is.
Oh, and one other thing…..
Not all will survive, and one will be set free.
[SPOILER: *The Opening Sequence in the trailer above is the opening segment for the film*]
ADDITIONAL-LINKS:
- Spoiler-Free Review on Popcorn-X (all the same without the white-outs :p)
- The Sounds Of Sucker Punch = youtube-embeds of the movie's soundtrack.
(Text from the top-image reads) TOYSREVIL-SAYS: There is simply no other way to put it, Sucker Punch rocked my geekoid world drenched in awesomeness and drizzled in abject brilliance of a first-person videogame of my mindspace. Yes , the girls are hawt too. I am entertained. I am sated. I am in awe. I LOVE.
