lordofthenight said:
I haven't seen Sucker Punch yet myself, but all of my friends who have said it was great, and I know Bob gave it a good review too. Why all the hate on it?
I've seen a lot of movies at the Cinema, some good, some bad. I remember watching "Matrix Revolutions" and "Lord Of the Rings 1" and having FUN. I felt sad at the end of those movies, going back outside into the cruel boring world. Money well spent for a few hours of escapism. Well, for me at least, Suckerpunch was even better. I'm a geek, so I'll never ever have fun watching movies like "Fast and the Furious" or "Machete". Cars, butts, tits, latino music. Having fun yet? There's so much crap being shoved in our brains that we begin taking them for real. Think beer commercials for a second. Beer sucks, it has a nasty taste, gives you gas and headaches, makes you do ugly things and lands you in prison for those things. But you like beer, right? We all do. 20 years ago nobody around me drank beer. It stank of piss and it still does. But so many commercials with hot women and yachts have been shoved down our throats that more and more people began to think it's all good. And we just followed along. Hot outside? Hell, I sure could use a beer. Makes me feel like a MAAAN!. Sorry, went off-road for a second. Back to movies.
Right now, the movie going crowd mainly falls into 3 groups. Those that still watch Adam Sandler movies, those that enjoy pretty much everything and, finally, those that don't actually go to the Cinema, because all Ingmar Bergman's movies are already on DVD's. The problem is that most GOOD, sorry, PERFECT movies, that used to be in the third category, don't sell. They had to be dumbed down to move to the second cat. Some very few ones remained smart and deep but easily tempted less complex minds with explosions and fight scenes. "Matrix" is a great example of such movies. And being exposed to such movies, idiots began to feel smart. Take "Shutter Island" and "Inception" starring the same actor and being released almost at the same time. For me, "Shutter Island" is a masterpiece, not particularly complex, but a great example of what can be achieved in movies. To actually be caught in the madness of a nut-job, to feel his feelings and think his thoughts, wow, felt more like role-playing than watching a movie. "Inception" on the other hand, again for me, was a boring slow-mo special effects snore session. And yet, guess which one everybody liked more. "Inception" was a silly little idea, simple enough for the masses to understand, yet complex enough for them to feel special at cracking it. And quite a few movies make the same mistake: making the dumb feel smart. Why? Well, it's like chess: if I let you beat me, you won't learn, will you? Even worse, you might actually think that your strategy is good, and play like that in other matches. Sorry, I'm a big chess fan.
So give them the slightest glimpse of a complex under-layer in a movie and the dumb will start cracking at it, using their limited thinking and pathetic experience. They'll be so thrilled at their new-found brain power that they'll start using it everywhere, even when there's actually no problem at all. Tell them straight "This is what I want you to do" and they'll start thinking "Hmm, he said that in a weird straightforward way. Maybe he wants me to do something else entirely". And, when their efforts will eventually end in utter failure, they'll blame your movie, your script, your idea. Ever beat a newbie at chess and heard the famous words "this game sucks"? Well, this is what happened to Suckerpunch. This movie did indeed have a deep, very deep message, for those smart enough to listen. But it also had action, girls, weapons, you name it. The masses should've loved it. Why did it fail? Because the moment that asylum turned into a brothel (minor spoiler, sorry), everybody thought "INCEPTION!!! I know this! Layered consciousness, yeah! I'm so smart. What, girls? Action? I'm too smart to enjoy such trivial stuff now".
Suckerpunch is a one-time experiment. It failed at the box-office and I doubt that we'll ever see such a splendid experiment ever again. So, I'm thankful that I actually got to see it, I'm glad it was actually made. It worked for me, it told me what mattered and I got the message. Look, don't even listen to Bob's review. It isn't about feminism. It isn't about turning the tough guy action movies on their head. Nope...
Here's what I got from the movie: "Hi, I'm Zack Snyder. I'm a director. I am really good at making nice slow-mo action scenes. I can also put some awesome music in my movies. Now, I know life can be shitty sometimes, evil stuff going on everywhere, we all feel pretty hopeless about it. It's like, no matter what we try, we're stuck in this shithole, right?. But hey, we all got to live, so why dwell on the ugly parts? Why not concentrate on what we like and on what we can do well? Maybe we can even lie to ourselves it that helps even a little. Otherwise, we might not leave our homes, afraid of being raped or killed. I know it's hard to keep a smile. But we have to try. Look, I'm good at movies, maybe I can show you an example of how I try to make the world enjoy life a bit better. Here, take this girl, I'm gonna put her in a really ugly ugly situation.. ready? She's raped by her father, accidentally kills her sister while trying to save her from the monster dad, is thrown into an asylum where she's gonna be lobotomized and used as a sex toy by the guards. Ugly stuff, right? Who'd want to go to such a movie? Why ruin a perfect afternoon? If I can turn that into a Cinema thrill for you, if I can somehow make you feel GOOD while watching such a crazy sad story, that means we could all try to bring some magic into our lives. I'll make it easy for you. Who'd like to see crazy girls in an asylum throwing shit at the walls? I don't. How about I turn it into a sexy french brothel? Dress the girls nice, but still keep the sexual pressure and the violent situation in the scene. Ok so this girl is really messed up, who'd blame her? You can imagine her screaming like a witch in an asylum. Ugly image. But hey, it's her weapon, if she doesn't use it, she'll be raped or whatever. At least acting crazy keeps the guards from thinking she's sexy. But I can't show that. No... hmm, how about... well... what would YOU like to see? I mean, yeah, there's something ugly going on in the "real world" but, what would you rather see? How about schoolgirl fighting mecha samurais? Or a Dragon? With a minigun! Yeah... I'll do that. What? Sounds geeky? So what, if you enjoy something, no need to feel ashamed. If you like something, just do it, enjoy life man!"
Sounds crazy? Well, it's unique, I'll give you that. But what I know is that I went to a movie about a molested girl in an asylum, and had a BLAST. I can't remember ever having such a good time at the cinema. For 2 entire hours, I had a huge smile on my face. For days I couldn't get over the awesome fight scenes. Did I ONCE stop and analyse the movie? No need. I've never seen such a straight-forward idea and movie. So my advice is: watch it. Sit down, shut up, don't think, just WATCH it. Even if the message doesn't get to you, enjoy the awesomeness. But if, as in my case, you do get the message, it might change the way you think about life in general and how you react to other people's strange joys. I haven't seen many movies with such a useful and brilliantly proven tactic to living your life. Sure, movies like "The Seventh Seal" can PROPOSE questions, but movies that actually ANSWER questions are rare. Go back to what I wrote in the beginning, ranting about beer and shitty movies. Well, the moral of the story is that I actually enjoy ranting, much more than I actually dislike any of the above mentioned. It's my greatest weapon. And, if by using it I actually disproof my own theories, so what? I can go back to drinking beer on a hot day and rant about beer in the colder evening
