I didn't think it was great, but I also didn't think it was terrible. I actually think the premise and ideas were pretty high-concept for Hollywood, but as is typical they failed on execution. I think the movie had some traits of Primer and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, just not nearly as well-done. The biggest thing I struggle with in discussing this movie is that there are a huge variety of different ways people viewed it, and before I can discuss it with someone I have to grok which perspective they are coming from.
Some people (like the friend I saw the movie with) were expecting an action movie with hot girls and didn't even understand the "first-level" dream sequence.
Some people grok'd that it was a dream (and the dream within a dream) but still took a lot of the movie quite literally. I didn't take the movie that way, but they seem to think that the "real world" for this movie was basically a secret mental hospital rape prison which they found intensely hateable.
Some people were just pissed off at one or more aspects of the ending. Some people couldn't stand that it's not happily-ever-after. Some were offended by the narrator's final commentary on the audience. Others were pissed that the movie made fun of the audience for falling for the trick (my friend).
And there are a few more, probably infinitely many if you sift through the fine grains of it.
My take on the whole thing might not be accurate (I actually wouldn't mind seeing the director's commentary to see if my interpretations were at-all right), but here's what I thought was going on:
The real world stuff is all literal. So the doctors are both good people just trying to help, though possibly misguided by their 1950s understanding of medicine and psychology/psychotherapy. The villains are all bad people. Some of the girls probably have real problems, though the movie doesn't dwell on that.
The first-level dream is a metaphor. Most people seem to get that the second-level dream was a metaphor, but took the first-level dream as a prettied up version of reality (mental hospital rape-prison to brothel). I actually don't think that's accurate, there were little clues that it wasn't so literal. Specifically, the female doctor who was subservient to "blue" in the dream, but clearly in-charge in reality. The doctor also tried to "teach the girls how to dance". In the very beginning of the movie she was performing psychotherapy trying to get girls to role-play out some things to deal with their problems to music. This is what I think the "dancing" was actually a metaphor for. I believe that there are hints in the story for as-much. Similarly the dream-within-a-dream that occured when the lead danced was ultraviolent... which I think implied that when the lead danced - it meant she was acting out yelling/screaming/fighting with people in the real world. My big clue-in that this was right was when they called for blue when she started dancing... I think they actually meant they were calling the head security-guard guy to stop the girl going nuts.
So when I watched the movie, I was constantly trying to solve the puzzle of what was "really" going on, and that's what I walked away with. The ending with the commentary about the audience I thought was completely apt, though not necessarily well-done. And the comment about who the "story was about" was pretty poor, since the movie did a bad job with it. It wasn't great, but it had steampunk zombies and it kept my brain a little busy as I was watching one movie while thinking about one (or two) additional stories at the same time. Of course, this is all probably predicated on whether you wanted to like it or wanted to hate it at a particular point in time... I filled in the "blanks" (the real world when in the first dream, both the real world and the first dream within the second) with what I wanted to think was going on... and I could be totally wrong.
Long post is long... and this is the short version. Funny, I don't think the movie even deserves the amount of words I've written about it.
You should know, Li, that ScoJo is infamous for watching anything, even if everyone else thinks it's terrible. "Terrible ScoJo Movie" is like a thing in our crew.
You should know, Li, that ScoJo is infamous for watching anything, even if everyone else thinks it's terrible. "Terrible ScoJo Movie" is like a thing in our crew.
I have a tendency to love terrible movies as well. I just fully acknowledge that they are awful and continue watching them because they are incredibly entertaining to watch the spectacular failure that they are.
However, Sucker Punch does not fall into that. I actually liked the movie and while I acknowledge the complaints of the movie I generally agree with Creamsteaks view of it.
Comments
Some people (like the friend I saw the movie with) were expecting an action movie with hot girls and didn't even understand the "first-level" dream sequence.
Some people grok'd that it was a dream (and the dream within a dream) but still took a lot of the movie quite literally. I didn't take the movie that way, but they seem to think that the "real world" for this movie was basically a secret mental hospital rape prison which they found intensely hateable.
Some people were just pissed off at one or more aspects of the ending. Some people couldn't stand that it's not happily-ever-after. Some were offended by the narrator's final commentary on the audience. Others were pissed that the movie made fun of the audience for falling for the trick (my friend).
And there are a few more, probably infinitely many if you sift through the fine grains of it.
My take on the whole thing might not be accurate (I actually wouldn't mind seeing the director's commentary to see if my interpretations were at-all right), but here's what I thought was going on:
The real world stuff is all literal. So the doctors are both good people just trying to help, though possibly misguided by their 1950s understanding of medicine and psychology/psychotherapy. The villains are all bad people. Some of the girls probably have real problems, though the movie doesn't dwell on that.
The first-level dream is a metaphor. Most people seem to get that the second-level dream was a metaphor, but took the first-level dream as a prettied up version of reality (mental hospital rape-prison to brothel). I actually don't think that's accurate, there were little clues that it wasn't so literal. Specifically, the female doctor who was subservient to "blue" in the dream, but clearly in-charge in reality. The doctor also tried to "teach the girls how to dance". In the very beginning of the movie she was performing psychotherapy trying to get girls to role-play out some things to deal with their problems to music. This is what I think the "dancing" was actually a metaphor for. I believe that there are hints in the story for as-much. Similarly the dream-within-a-dream that occured when the lead danced was ultraviolent... which I think implied that when the lead danced - it meant she was acting out yelling/screaming/fighting with people in the real world. My big clue-in that this was right was when they called for blue when she started dancing... I think they actually meant they were calling the head security-guard guy to stop the girl going nuts.
So when I watched the movie, I was constantly trying to solve the puzzle of what was "really" going on, and that's what I walked away with. The ending with the commentary about the audience I thought was completely apt, though not necessarily well-done. And the comment about who the "story was about" was pretty poor, since the movie did a bad job with it. It wasn't great, but it had steampunk zombies and it kept my brain a little busy as I was watching one movie while thinking about one (or two) additional stories at the same time. Of course, this is all probably predicated on whether you wanted to like it or wanted to hate it at a particular point in time... I filled in the "blanks" (the real world when in the first dream, both the real world and the first dream within the second) with what I wanted to think was going on... and I could be totally wrong.
Long post is long... and this is the short version. Funny, I don't think the movie even deserves the amount of words I've written about it.