Sucker Punch (2011)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  After reading a handful of reviews in the morning I plopped down into my theater seat with about maybe a dozen other males. Yep the target audience via the trailers but I think after several viewings of this people may think twice about the ridiculously low scores, reviews, ratings… More
  After reading a handful of reviews in the morning I plopped down into my theater seat with about maybe a dozen other males. Yep the target audience via the trailers but I think after several viewings of this people may think twice about the ridiculously low scores, reviews, ratings they are giving this movie. So for two hours I was treated or tortured by Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. First off it is Zack Snyder, If you have seen 300, Watchmen or Legend of the Guardians you know what I mean, cue the slo-mo. Also on the bad, if the idea was to take theater speakers and break them with a classic rock soundtrack on steroids, mission successful. At moments I have to admit I felt like I was watching a two hour music video. But I kept watching and while I was expecting a incoherent jumble of a plot I got well a incoherent jumble of apblot that was subtle and nuanced. The reviews you are going to read are going to say this was just a Maxim eye candy fest or some other nonsense about the women being dressed skimpy and that is that. That is not it. The movie is about them fighting for their survival. The plot I admit if one doesn)t pay attention is hard to grasp at times but I kept watching for the little bits of this or that, that brought the movie together for me. I feel many other viewers will be overblown by the movies over the top action. And it is indeed over the top action at its finest. The action sequences in this movie are some of the best ive seen in a long time. There is no doubt that Snyder can film action. The movie has a very stylized look to it just like 300 and Watchmen. You can tell this is a Snyder film. Many reviews will talk about the comic book feel the bad dialogue etc. For Snyder this is his first film based on his own material and it shows. The acting when they talk is not the best, but to me the actors seemed more like chess pieces being moved around the board to the end. I did not really need much talk. The movie did a good job of telling itself to me. Sitting here trying to put this into words, if 300 was about good looking men destroying the enemy, well Sucker Punch is all about good looking women laying it all on the line for their survival and kicking ass along the way.

• Emily A

  
  *bang! bang! bang!* Oh god, what the hell went wrong here? This movie suuuucked. Really hard. I found that I am especially wrathful toward movies I thought I would really like, which is what this was supposed to be, damnit! How is it that a movie about a girl who retreats into an… More
  *bang! bang! bang!* Oh god, what the hell went wrong here? This movie suuuucked. Really hard. I found that I am especially wrathful toward movies I thought I would really like, which is what this was supposed to be, damnit! How is it that a movie about a girl who retreats into an ass-kicking fantasy world to escape the grim reality of her life in the mental hospital be this crummy? Here's what annoyed me: all of the characters were in one-dimensional, cartoonish and in no way endearing, the good guy/bad guy line was drawn really hard according to gender, the biggest action set pieces were unconnected to the plot and so unbelievable that they were barely any fun to watch and the movie is infuriatingly, hypocritically antifeminist. The girls in this film are only allowed to express themselves - define themselves, actually - through thier sexuality. Not even real, healthy sexuality, but through a cartoonish perverted sad male fantasy version. Mental patients become strippers/ prostitutes and there therapy consists of sexualized writhing for an audience. And the sickest little joke of the bunch is that, as important as the dances are to the characters, as much as their movements articulates the cores of thier beings, you never even get to see them onscreen. Ttthbbtthtbthtbpthpp. I don't understand how they can make a movie where, in a scene where schoolgirls murder a baby dragon for a gemstone, the grieving and enraged mother dragon is the bad guy. The real story is buried in three layers of self-delusion and illusion, and the ending doesn't even make any sense. We already saw what didn't happen, so what the hell did? I wish I had watched Heavenly Creatures instead of this. Sucker Punch is crummy.

• Cynthia S

  
  Haaaaaaated it!!! Seriously? Was there a point to this movie?

• paul o

  
  Trash! How can you strip dance to a land of dragons and robots...it just doesn't work like that!! The acting is lame and the only appeal was Snyder's slow mo hd camera shots. I would probably screen this at a loud party where this film is playing in the corner of the room.… More
  Trash! How can you strip dance to a land of dragons and robots...it just doesn't work like that!! The acting is lame and the only appeal was Snyder's slow mo hd camera shots. I would probably screen this at a loud party where this film is playing in the corner of the room. Its honestly garbage and coming from the director of Watchmen and Dawn of The Dead just makes this film more a tragedy thinking about it.

• Mario L M

  
  One of the more uncomfortable feelings a film goer can experience is suddenly becoming aware that you've been thrown into the deep waters of a director's sexual fetishes. The feeling can be lessened if you share a filmmaker's predilections like Michael Bay's… More
  One of the more uncomfortable feelings a film goer can experience is suddenly becoming aware that you've been thrown into the deep waters of a director's sexual fetishes. The feeling can be lessened if you share a filmmaker's predilections like Michael Bay's fascination with vacant asexual sexpots or David Lynch's damaged porcelain angels but it is nevertheless odd to realize that what you're seeing isn't a director's vision of the innate heroism of a Peterbilt semi, but rather the intimate details of what gets a complete stranger off. To varying degrees all filmmakers infuse their productions with their own sensibilities but with the auteurs, those filmmakers whose unique style is evident from mere frames of their work, the individual's sexual preferences come through loud and clear. In the case of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, those preferences are so disturbing and obvious, they take the viewer completely out of the film. The film follows a young woman called Baby Doll (Emily Browning) who is interned at gothic mental asylum by her abusive step-father after accidentally killing her young sister. Once Baby is banished, she begins to imagine her surroundings as brothel/nightclub casino where she is also an unwilling captive and within that fantasy, a superhero tasked with retrieving four objects that will allow her along her fellow sex slaves (Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung) freedom in all realities. She is opposed by the drab mental institution supervisor/dapper pimp Blue (Oscar Issac) and psychiatrist/madame Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino). Sucker Punch's Inception style plot reads more complexly than it plays out. If you've played Silent Hill or American McGee's Alice its structure will be immediately familiar to you. Snyder, who also co-wrote the film, knows his audience well enough to play to their interests as well as his own. The broader pop culture referencing in the film, the Brazil sampling samurai gun fight and the Lord of the Rings style medieval castle siege work well. They're modular scenes that mostly eschew the skeevy sexual politics of the rest of the film and showcase Snyder's talent as a filmmaker who can craft compelling images, if not satisfying. The film looks amazing and more expensive than a film with twice its budget. Sucker Punch occasionally falters when Snyder leans too heavily on his music cues or lets a slo-mo shot extend longer than it needs to but the film is never less than engaging. And Snyder makes an excellent case for himself as a musical director in a scene added in the extended cut of the film where Issac and Gugino cover the hell out of Roxy Music's "Love is the Drug." In the realm of Baby Doll's fantasies, the film has an exhilaration and scope that found little competition in 2011's oddly reserved action films. But the film falls apart outside of the hyper-reality of imagination. Browning, who is an unstoppable force of nature in her 21st century alt-culture mega mix vision sequences, is a depressed, crushingly unempowered non-entity who finds herself and her fellow dream time Amazons are the victims of causal menacing and sexual abuse. Malone's character is nearly raped early in the film and its inferred that the women of brothel are made to perform fetishistic "scenes" to the amusement of their grotesque Johns before and after servicing them. And the this life of unremitting misery and brutality is supposed to be the escape fantasy of the main character. Now, one could explain away this bleak fantasy as the concoction of a mind warped by the guilt that comes from killing a family member but that's crap. That would be some elaborate and titillating self hatred for an emotionally scarred 20-year-old to have. The truth of the matter is that these images of skimpily attired subjugation come wholly from Snyder's pop scarred psyche. This is made undeniable in the director's cut of the film which adds something like 18 minutes to the film's running time and little to its substance save for an extended ending for Baby Doll. In the scene, Baby finally encounters the High Roller (Jon Hamm), a John of great influence and wealth who's come to Blue's casino to claim her virginity, a corollary to the surgeon who's coming to asylum to lobotomize her. But when the fateful moment comes, Baby Doll, beaten and emotionally broken by the hilarious supporting character slaughterhouse that is the beginning of the third act, is carefully laid out in front of the suprisingly handsome and gentle John. It turns out the well heeled Roller doesn't want to take Baby by force, he wants her to willingly submit to his advances after which he will "free" her. Amazingly, she consents, giving into the handsome stranger in a way that reads as more of a final act of victimization rather than "total victory" that the film claims it is. Snyder takes pains to ensure that the horror of this visual metaphor isn't lost on anyone. I can see why this scene was deleted from the theatrical cut of the film. The monstrous implications of it make it undeniable what Snyder's intentions are; to use and abuse beautiful women until their completely corrupted and broken which is when they can be disposed of as cavalierly as possible. Sucker Punch is interesting film and a successful one in that it's designed to excite and titillate those in the 18-34 demographic who have an abiding love for cult cinema, anime and video games but it's a failure as a female action film in that it objectifies and destroys its heroine, who is ultimately a failure with a glee and precision that crosses over into the obscene. Snyder portrays women in a way that at first seems empowering but on closer examination betrays a deep misogyny. In Snyder's worldview women can be powerful and actively sexual but only after their power is forcefully taken from them and all the impressive CGI and narrative shell games in the world can't hide that kernel of contempt.

• Dean !

  
  A good all out OTT comic book action blaster. The visual style and SFX are incredibly good, during the surreal "dances". By creating a fantasy world to set out the aims of their objectives to break out of a brutal orphanage, a group of girls become a deadly team taking on… More
  A good all out OTT comic book action blaster. The visual style and SFX are incredibly good, during the surreal "dances". By creating a fantasy world to set out the aims of their objectives to break out of a brutal orphanage, a group of girls become a deadly team taking on anyone and everyone to complete their goal. While the main story might be fairly plain, the action scenes and fantasy dream world are very entertaining. Well worth checking out!

• Jameson W

  
  Surprisingly awesome! I originally had no desire to see this film, but I'm glad I did. Stunning action sequences, beautiful cinematography, perfect soundtrack....Sucker Punch is the most fun I have had at the theater in a while. I loved the concept. The reality vs. action scenes… More
  Surprisingly awesome! I originally had no desire to see this film, but I'm glad I did. Stunning action sequences, beautiful cinematography, perfect soundtrack....Sucker Punch is the most fun I have had at the theater in a while. I loved the concept. The reality vs. action scenes were unique and kept me interested the whole time. The cinematography was absolutely stunning; it's definitely one of the best things about the film. The action/fighting scenes were unbelievable! The first major action sequence is as thrilling as the average movie climax. Just when you think the action can't get any more intense, the next scene arrives and delivers again. The thing I liked about the action was that none of the scenes were alike. So many films contain battle sequences that are basically identical, but Sucker Punch contains multiple scenes, all intense for different reasons. Overall, the acting is only okay, as I expected, but there were a few performances that really surprised me. Jena Malone gives a great great performance as Rocket. She steals every scene she's in...too bad she had very little substance to work with. Abbie Cornish also gives a good performance. In the beginning I wasn't impressed, but towards the second half of the film she really delivers. Oscar Isaac though gives the best performance as the villian, Blue. I completely disagree with the critics on this one, I'm not quite sure what they were looking for when they were watching this. This film is recieving alot of criticism that it doesn't deserve. Personally, I found the film to be intriging, intense, and completely original. I loved it! Check this film out, I recommend it to everyone.

• Anthony L

  
  sucker punch n 1. a sudden surprise punch, esp from behind 2. a sudden unexpected defeat or setback Well, Sucker Punch the film was certainly a surprise. I didn't really know what to expect, as I had no idea what the story was about, only that a group of girls shoot… More
  sucker punch n 1. a sudden surprise punch, esp from behind 2. a sudden unexpected defeat or setback Well, Sucker Punch the film was certainly a surprise. I didn't really know what to expect, as I had no idea what the story was about, only that a group of girls shoot stuff up and kick bottom. It was much better than that though, and much better then I'd heard it was as I've heard nothing but bad things about it. It was quite ambitious of Zack Snyder, a director who I'm warming to quite a lot, he did really well but didn't quite tick all the boxes. I liked the story, the escape into one world and then into another but it also felt a bit cheap, what with all the scantily clad girls running about amid the undertones of sexual abuse. That didn't sit too well for me even though it did feel like a modern exploitation film, although I'm not sure if that was its intention. I just wish Snyder would concentrate on his adult audience a little more and his 13 year old boy audience a little less. I was still pretty impressed and entertained, it just could have been a whole lot better considering the original idea.

• Unknown H

  
  I suppose this is going to be another one of the those movies that very few people liked that I absolutely loved, and there seem to be more and more of those kind of movies kicking out on my screen lately. I thought the acting was good, the dialogue haunting and the rest of the movie,… More
  I suppose this is going to be another one of the those movies that very few people liked that I absolutely loved, and there seem to be more and more of those kind of movies kicking out on my screen lately. I thought the acting was good, the dialogue haunting and the rest of the movie, well then there is the rest of the movie. Some of the best visual displays of cinematic glory I can recall in recent years, a killer soundtrack, deep, deep rooted imagination and that most sumptuous of magnets to keep your eyes glued to the screen and your ears pricked and ready - utter confusion. Whatever you want to say about Sucker Punch, you cannot say its ever been done before. I value originality and imagination above most other components of a movie like this and Sucker Punch DEFINES originality.

• Matthew R

  
  Zack Snyder has hit some great marks with films like the Dawn of the Dead remake and Watchmen. His latest major effects-heavy film Sucker Punch is what I would define as visually stunning, creatively enthralling, enjoyably clichéd and lacking a story to flesh out its bare-bones… More
  Zack Snyder has hit some great marks with films like the Dawn of the Dead remake and Watchmen. His latest major effects-heavy film Sucker Punch is what I would define as visually stunning, creatively enthralling, enjoyably clichéd and lacking a story to flesh out its bare-bones plotline. The effects are just outstanding, and something far outstretching what I had expected (and I had expected a lot in the first place, having gone to see it in IMAX). The imagination behind this film is apparent in every frame of action to its genuinely creepy atmosphere. The soundtrack and original score are fantastic, supplying every scene with the music or ambience needed to achieve the desired mood. However, these positive notes are somewhat halted by generally cliché acting and the bare screenplay. As opposed to Antione Fuqua's film Brooklyn's Finest, where the great acting and great directing are enough to hold the film, but it doesn't go far enough, Sucker Punch has great cinematography, very imaginative direction, but the dialogue and acting were not enough to supply me with a completely fulfilling film. Oscar Isaac (Blue), Jena Malone (Rocket) and Carla Gugino (Madam Gorski) were actually very competent actors and periodically throughout the film gave some really great scene performances. And even though Scott Glenn's character Wiseman is enjoyable in a comically "shaman-esque" sort of way, the acting by the majority of the cast was just too flat to be believable. This in due to two things, the screenplay and the choice of actresses, which I believe were more the pursuit of beautiful women than talented actresses. They weren't horrible, but they weren't anything special either. The screenplay was bare. Meaning, it was a run-of-the-mill action "fight for freedom" action film put together in a bizarre and creative fashion, but that is all the screenplay boiled down to be, there wasn't much in the way of character development (vast or subtle) and the story really doesn't move beyond the stasis and as the film ends at another opposing stasis, there wasn't enough given in the film to really execute that shift. A bare bones plot with no elaborated story to flesh out the characters or the world in which the film takes place. I left the theater entertained, greatly impressed by the visuals and the concept, but overall the film met my expectations.

• MisterYoda ?

  
  three stars

• Chris W

  
  No one will ever accuse Zack Snyder of not being imaginative and creative, or having films that lack style, stunning visuals, and pleasing aesthetics. This much pretty much a feature length version of all of that. That doesn't mean it's good though. The plot concerns a… More
  No one will ever accuse Zack Snyder of not being imaginative and creative, or having films that lack style, stunning visuals, and pleasing aesthetics. This much pretty much a feature length version of all of that. That doesn't mean it's good though. The plot concerns a beautiful young woman who goes by Baby Doll who is unjustly put into a mental institution by her corrupt and lecherous father. To deal with her situation, Baby Doll imagines herself in a fantasy world where the institution is a brothel owned by a gangster (the institution's chief caretaker). From there, she and 4 other girls an together in a plot to escape before Baby Doll is scheduled to be prematurely lobotomized. To do this, they go into even more fantasy worlds to retrieve various items needed to help them escape. It all sounds really odd yet sorta cool, but the way it plays out ends up being an incoherent jumbled mess filled with all sorts of crazy sets, visuals, and tons of shots of young women in scanty clothes. As James Berardinelli put it, "it's' as if Snyder saw Inception while high or drunk and immediately sat down to write Sucker Punch". At least I can saw that this film is interesting at the most basic level since it's Snyder's first time making a movie that's not a remake or an adaptation. Here's the thing: it is great to look at, and I enjoyed a lot of the music (though I prefer the original versions of a lot of the featured songs), ut the film makes no damn sense, and there's no real logic to how it all works. Brazil had all sorts of odd fantasy too, yet it worked because it had stronger writing and better development. This just feels like several stylish music videos strng together and slapped with the label of action fantasy. I would have gotten into this far more had Snyder dialed it down and not tried to do so much. For one thing, it's not necessary to have multiple levels of fantasy unless you have a plot that can support them. This is basically a simple story of escape, and hell, playing it straight would have made for a better movie, though not one suited to Snyder's style. Also, even though his "owl movie" was not R, I understand why it wasn't. This one is also not R, and I'm not sure why. Given the director and the material, an R was to be expected, and it could have helped. Maybe. Here's another kicker: I wasn't totally bored by the film, but I wasn't really engaged or totally captivated either. And I didn't even really care. That shouldn't be. Hell, this has giant samurai, dragons, steam powered WWI German soldiers (who are zombies) and enough material to keep fetishists happy for years. It's all show, and very shallow, and, despite some good stuff here and there, I really don't feel right giving this more than a "gentleman's C".

• Nani V

  
  Confusing, but what I did thought was cool was when she "danced" and it turned into the fighting scenes. Other than that, I don't care for it.

• James A

  
  This is the longest Hentai inspired video game cut scene that I've ever seen.

• Michael E

  
  This is a film that nobody under 13 should watch, and I think It deserves an R rating rather than a PG-13.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn Director: Zack Snyder Summary: In this mind-warping action thriller, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a girl slated for lobotomy in a 1950s-era asylum,… More
  Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn Director: Zack Snyder Summary: In this mind-warping action thriller, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a girl slated for lobotomy in a 1950s-era asylum, leads a group of young female inmates in an attempt to escape both their mental fantasy worlds and the actual institution where they are prisoners. To accomplish her plan, Baby Doll must steal five objects -- but is the man who's trying to stop her real, or a figment of her imagination? My Thoughts: "I only have a couple likes about this film. Obviously the film is visually fantastic. So that and just a couple of the girls stood out for me. That being Abbie Cornish and a favorite of mine, Jena Malone. The film for me was quite a mess. You have these girls who are in skimpy outfits who are in an insane asylum but then posing as strippers/prostitutes, that then turn into a kick-ass foursome thrown into combat. What? Just too far-fetched for me. There wasn't enough character development which made me not care for what happened to the character's. Then there is all the slow motion scenes that were unnecessary and got to be very annoying. Half the film is in slow motion. Was it really needed that much? I just found it to be not very interesting and a little bit of a bore for me. I'm sure there will be many who agree and disagree with my thoughts on the film. To each their own."

• Conner R

  
  Hidden from the public upon initial release, the true and only worthwhile cut of Sucker Punch is now available on home video. In an almost Blade Runner fashion, this has gone from being a convoluted piece of crap into a fun movie that actually has something worth saying. Sure, the… More
  Hidden from the public upon initial release, the true and only worthwhile cut of Sucker Punch is now available on home video. In an almost Blade Runner fashion, this has gone from being a convoluted piece of crap into a fun movie that actually has something worth saying. Sure, the obvious focus of this movie is the action sequences featuring unbelievably hot chicks with big guns and special effects galore, but ultimately this movie has a decent storyline and the large mass of symbolism is interesting to pick apart. While there is very little dialogue from the main characters themselves, the over-the-top diabolical monologues from Blue are priceless as is Carla Gugino's outrageous German accent. However, it's Jon Hamm's final speech, consisting of almost ten minutes that gives the entire movie a meaning, purpose and an actual soul. Without it, you basically have an empty shell of action and slow motion music video sequences. This extended/director's cut really does convey the meaning of the word, it's a completely different experience from start to finish. What has been added isn't a bunch of extended scenes, but an entire message and what I feel the movie was intended to be about. Had this been released in theaters the way it is now, I feel that there would be a huge change in opinion because the dumb action movie no longer exists. Don't get me wrong, it's not a visionary masterpiece, but it's more of the movie I expected before I saw it. A lot of the goofy elements are so easy to take in, mostly because they're so well put together and feature so many bizarre things. And I'll admit it, the skimpy outfits on unbelievably hot women is hard not to enjoy. It's a pleasurethat I will never feel guilty about. While I guess you could consider this movie complete eye candy at times, it isn't as worthless and hollow as you might think and I'd definitely urge people who saw this the first time around to see what this movie should be. Sometimes a director's cut really does completely change a movie and this is one of those cases. It's just insanity to me that a movie could be so poorly put together in the final stages before release and cheated of being seen for what it really is. Sucker Punch may borrow a lot from other movies and definitely isn't flawless, but it's undeniably interesting and a fun experience.

• Brad W

  
  Okay, it was hard to review this movie because of the pros and cons. A girl named Baby Doll (Emily Blunt) is considered insane by her abusive father, and is taken to a insane asylum. She enters a fantasy world in her mind where she can be free and her and her friends have to find… More
  Okay, it was hard to review this movie because of the pros and cons. A girl named Baby Doll (Emily Blunt) is considered insane by her abusive father, and is taken to a insane asylum. She enters a fantasy world in her mind where she can be free and her and her friends have to find five items in her mind to escape this place. Zack Snyder is a great director to me (beside Dawn of the Dead). He made Watchmen witch is one of my favs, and here he does not succeed in making another masterpiece. What he does succeed at is making a beautifully visionary film, with great action scenes, and some great music.. What he fails at however is getting the actresses to show their potential, to give us a compelling and original story, and to live up to films such as 300 and Watchmen. In the end I said to my brother "eh, it was just okay."

• Ken S

  
  Very silly and gorgeously shot.

• Dead A

  
  Weird story. The special effects was the only attraction in this movie. Loved the songs in it.

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