Your one stop site for slightly confused rants and half-assed reviews.
Updates whenever I have both the desire to write and a good idea.
Also, we have always been at war with Oceania.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

No seriously, there will be spoilers

While it's fresh in my mind, I'm going to discuss (laughably implying that you the reader have some degree of input) the movie Sucker Punch, which I only just saw.
Now while it should always be assumed that there are going to be spoilers I would like to stress this point more than usual, as in my usual egotistical style I'm going to talk about what bothered me and how it could have been fixed. After all who else knows what's objectively the best choices for a film than a 22 year old with no experience at anything commercially creative?

Don't answer that.

One of the things I liked about the first third or so was the ambiguity of it all. As the reality shifted I was initially unsure of what was happening exactly and so was forming various theories. At the time of the samurai fight I was wondering if every major event would shift to a different locale/style and maybe by the end everything would just suddenly fall neatly into place and be awesome in retrospect (like what Darker than Black did for me).
But then we go back to the brothel and you see the three layers and where they fit. So then I was hoping for something surreal to happen, that would throw a spanner in theory by being outside of the previously established rules. Hell, Total Recall had me less sure than SP.
Also I'm not counting the angel at the end, that was established in the opening monologue.

And then there's the end message. Having been denied some twist at around the lobotomy scene, I was hoping for some clever meaning behind everything. Instead SP ended with the conflicting message of 'you have what you need so fight' and the last two girls not having what they need so one has to be sacrificed.
Now one could argue that the point is that ultimately Babydoll will be happier this way, retreating into fantasy (maybe) from a world where everyone she loves is dead. But that's docilely accepting one's fate; fighting would be more of carving a new better place in the world. Instead Sweet Pea escapes because apparently she was the protagonist all along.

That's another point that really pisses me off. It's just so pretentious to be like 'haha you idiot viewers thought Babydoll was the protagonist, shows what you know, isn't this film clever and deep'. Regardless of what the film may claim, she is the protagonist. The plot follows her and her personal problems, the realities are fabricated by around her, and she is the one who gets the plan from the freaking angel.

I'm getting tired now so I'll wrap things up with the last main point I can think of. The action needs some work in my mind. The girls are an unstoppable fighting force, which is perfectly acceptable it's a fantasy, but that also means that there's no tension in the scene.
As the scenes are abstractions there is also a lack of emotion to the scenes (your mileage may vary). Except for that one time, there aren't any hardships or personal triumphs or whatever because it's not really happening, and only Babydoll is privy to them anyway.
So what's left is just spectacle. Don't get me wrong, it's good spectacle, but without any threat to the characters or emotional weight it losses a lot.

And that's an incomprehensive post about what I didn't like about Sucker Punch.

PS: Too much slow motion while overly loud music plays.