If you're explicitly looking for it throughout the film, Sucker Punch has a huge amount of subtext about video gaming, from all types of perspectives: how the film is constructed, the camera angles and filmography, even dialogue that gets at the philosophical issues in the relationship between player and avatar. On a certain level, this was a really good film about making video games and living in video game culture -- perhaps on the same level that Scott Pilgrim is about video games.
Interesting take. I can't wait to watch it with this in mind.
If you're explicitly looking for it throughout the film, Sucker Punch has a huge amount of subtext about video gaming, from all types of perspectives: how the film is constructed, the camera angles and filmography, even dialogue that gets at the philosophical issues in the relationship between player and avatar. On a certain level, this was a really good film about making video games and living in video game culture -- perhaps on the same level that Scott Pilgrim is about video games.
Interesting take. I can't wait to watch it with this in mind.
I wanted to write a lengthy blog post on A Close Reading of Sucker Punch explaining all of this, but I seriously needed the film in front of me, because it comes down literally to second-long camera movements and very short pieces of dialogue.
I really would have liked to play a video game where by the end you realize the game's story isn't centered on the player but is really about one of the side characters.
There's been a couple. You could argue that the story elements of World of Warcraft have you playing a side character in someone else's story. Halo ODST and Reach kind of end up like this as well. That Lord of the Rings jrpg that EA released is another one.
I really would have liked to play a video game where by the end you realize the game's story isn't centered on the player but is really about one of the side characters.
There's been a couple. You could argue that the story elements of World of Warcraft have you playing a side character in someone else's story. Halo ODST and Reach kind of end up like this as well. That Lord of the Rings jrpg that EA released is another one.
Well, to be more precise, a game where you have to kill yourself because the NPC's story is more important than your own.
Yeah, that's true. Still, I never spent more than 2 hours on the Reach campaign, and I sat through all of Sucker Punch. $60 for Reach vs. $10. There you have it.
Granted, I played a lot of Firefight and Slayer, but there's no story there.
Well, to be more precise, a game where you have to kill yourself because the NPC's story is more important than your own.
This is a fucking weird-ass criteria. "The NPC's story is more important than your own" sounds like a really circuitous, intellectually masturbatory way of saving 'noble sacrifice.' Your phrasing is awkward as shit, and it's not nearly as rare as you're making it out to be. There's plenty of games where the main character sacrifices themselves for the greater good (or can, down to player choice). Chrono Trigger (he might not even come back!), Blood Omen, Halo: Reach, as mentioned.
It's exceptionally difficult and arguably pointless to make something where you THINK someone's a main character BUT OOPS IT'S ACTUALLY THIS GUY. I haven't seen Sucker Punch, but I've read about thirty thousand summaries of it in this thread and it sounds less like OMG CREATIVE FILM and more like shitty-ass writing. A protagonist is, by definition, the main actor in the story. I'm not saying you can't shake things up, Zach Synder just sure as shit ain't the one to do it. Sucker Punch doesn't sound like the masterful hoodwink of killing the chick in Psycho after spending a half an hour thinking she's the main character.
Sucker Punch sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT SHYLOCK BUT ACTUALLY IT'S ABOUT THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO. And then the Prince of Morocco is like 'hi' and the curtain drops.
This is a fucking weird-ass criteria. "The NPC's story is more important than your own" sounds like a really circuitous, intellectually masturbatory way of saving 'noble sacrifice.' Your phrasing is awkward as shit, and it's not nearly as rare as you're making it out to be. There's plenty of games where the main character sacrifices themselves for the greater good (or can, down to player choice). Chrono Trigger (he might not even come back!), Blood Omen, Halo: Reach, as mentioned.
It's exceptionally difficult and arguably pointless to make something where you THINK someone's a main character BUT OOPS IT'S ACTUALLY THIS GUY. I haven't seen Sucker Punch, but I've read about thirty thousand summaries of it in this thread and it sounds less like OMG CREATIVE FILM and more like shitty-ass writing. A protagonist is, by definition, the main actor in the story. I'm not saying you can't shake things up, Zach Synder just sure as shit ain't the one to do it. Sucker Punch doesn't sound like the masterful hoodwink of killing the chick in Psycho after spending a half an hour thinking she's the main character.
Sucker Punch sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT SHYLOCK BUT ACTUALLY IT'S ABOUT THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO. And then the Prince of Morocco is like 'hi' and the curtain drops.
I saw Sucker Punch last night and I was pretty disappointed; the action was incomprehensible half the time, every sound seemed either too quiet or too loud, the soundtrack seemed to have been selected by an angsty teenager from the mid-90's and the story was completely nonsensical. Basically it seemed like the plot was half-assed and to compensate, Zack Snyder used far too many asses (both literal and figurative) in the visual style and the action to compensate.
That's pretty much the impression I got from the trailer. I won't be seeing this movie, especially now that I've read this thread.
Evangelion sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT SHYLOCK BUT ACTUALLY IT'S ABOUT the fact that YOU, THE VIEWER are just as pathetic as Shinji due to your human frailties. And then Hideaki Ano is like 'u mad?' and the curtain drops.
Evangelion sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT SHYLOCK BUT ACTUALLY IT'S ABOUT the fact that YOU, THE VIEWER are just as pathetic as Shinji due to your human frailties. And then Hideaki Ano is like 'u mad?' and the curtain drops.
Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT LESBIANS AND WANTING TO SEE LESBIAN SEX. And then Kunihiko Ikuhara is like 'NAKED CARS' and the curtain drops.
So I enjoyed Sucker Punch. It didn't have a great story or dialog but it was eye candy. Wait that is not a accurate discription. It was eye crack. I enjoyed it simply because of the sheer craziness of it. It felt like a cheesy B movie with A-list cg and grade A hotties. However I have enjoyed watching what her dances looked like to the crowd.
Sucker Punch was the best video game I ever watched as a movie. I actually really enjoyed it. I'll have to read the criticisms again when I'm less tired.
I was incapable of high level thought for about a day after I saw that movie. I'm a sucker for WW1 visuals and this film's steampunk bit just blew up my brain in that regard the first time I watched it.
The second time, I was mostly struck by how a film could dress up it's female characters the way it did and still pull off presenting them in a mostly non-sexual manner, forcing the viewer to extrapolate the fanservice and then making them feel bad about it. Geek culture is hella sexist and I dig a director trying to make people feel bad for attempting to enjoy the movie from that angle; the film literately is a suckerpunch to people trying to watch the movie for the "hawt chicks".
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Granted, I played a lot of Firefight and Slayer, but there's no story there.
It's exceptionally difficult and arguably pointless to make something where you THINK someone's a main character BUT OOPS IT'S ACTUALLY THIS GUY. I haven't seen Sucker Punch, but I've read about thirty thousand summaries of it in this thread and it sounds less like OMG CREATIVE FILM and more like shitty-ass writing. A protagonist is, by definition, the main actor in the story. I'm not saying you can't shake things up, Zach Synder just sure as shit ain't the one to do it. Sucker Punch doesn't sound like the masterful hoodwink of killing the chick in Psycho after spending a half an hour thinking she's the main character.
Sucker Punch sounds more like we got to the end of Merchant of Venice and Shakespeare goes YOU THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT SHYLOCK BUT ACTUALLY IT'S ABOUT THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO. And then the Prince of Morocco is like 'hi' and the curtain drops.
Great story.
The second time, I was mostly struck by how a film could dress up it's female characters the way it did and still pull off presenting them in a mostly non-sexual manner, forcing the viewer to extrapolate the fanservice and then making them feel bad about it. Geek culture is hella sexist and I dig a director trying to make people feel bad for attempting to enjoy the movie from that angle; the film literately is a suckerpunch to people trying to watch the movie for the "hawt chicks".
And goddamn, that WW1 sequence.