Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch hit theaters in March earlier this year, but it’s road to theaters felt like watching a train hit the emergency break. The year before it came out, the film wowed comic-con audiences, and Warner Brothers had set visits – Snyder was still seen as a wonder boy, even if Watchmen didn’t take it home. But by the week of release, Warners couldn’t hold it in the bag: Sucker Punch is a weird movie that doesn’t totally work for a number of reasons.
It’s one of the great “I made a big hit movie, I’m going to go make my art” films that fails in interesting ways. And now there’s a director’s cut, which hopes to solve some of those problems. Emily Browning plays Babydoll, a girl with a traumatic past who’s put in an insane asylum with a bunch of other girls, and leads a fantasy life that transposes her inmates and doctors into dancers and pimps. My review of the Blu-ray and director’s cut of Sucker Punch follow after the jump.
The film opens with a proscenium arch and a silent sequence where Browning does a cover version of “Sweet Dreams” – a song that loses its creepy cool when the creep factor is played up. This is over the top, but in both cuts, there is hope that the film is something of a musical. Or if nothing else, that Snyder knows where he’s going with this. Babydoll is put in an insane asylum with a bunch of girls, with Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) Pea’s sister Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). The group of girls are defined mostly by their looks, which plays into the film’s subject/object discussion about women in film, but the film hedges its bets. In the asylum Blue (Oscar Isaac) tells Babydoll’s guardian that he can get her lobotomized. Therein lies a ticking clock. But as a man (Jon Hamm) is about to give her the lobotomy, she flashes into her imagination, where she’s to be sold to the big spender (Hamm), and all the girls who were in the asylum are now dancers/prostitutes.
The lone female doctor is now the dance teacher (Carla Gugino), and she wants Babydoll to dance. But instead of showing Babydoll dancing, Snyder instead shows her fighting giant samurai. There are four of these sequences, and they are dreams within dreams, and here is where Snyder loses his own film. Though these sequences viewed on their own are immaculately put together, their connective tissue to the main narrative feels forced, and the film would have been better served by actual musical numbers. The fact that these third level dreams keep happening doesn’t enhance the central narrative, but creates a large section of eye candy, which – others have noted looks – like it would be rad as van art.
It’s fair to say that Zack Snyder was wrestling with a number of interesting themes, and perhaps he wanted to do his spin on something like David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., but either he doesn’t have the intellectual weight, or the narrative was too compromised by making a studio picture (I’ll give him some wiggle room for attempting something this audacious) to fully form all the ideas that are apparent here. And now that the film has flopped, watching it again there is a certain sympathy for what he was doing, and the actions sequences are spectacular. But it’s still a really mixed bag.
There was hope that the director’s cut would solve some of these problems, but what it does is move the musical number that was in the credits into the film – which sadly confuses the point more. The number is done between Blue (Isaac) and Dr. Vera Gorski’s dream version (Gugino), and the problem with having your villain do a song and dance number is that it makes you like him more. Had the rest of the film had more dance numbers, this might be forgivable, but perhaps the whole thing was doomed to be half-ingenious ideas from one of the great visual filmmakers of our time.
And there is so much here to like, but I wish more of it worked in context. And the one thing I would have hoped for is more context of the girls before we enter the dream world, so the idea that the dream characters relate to the surface world would have more resonance, but… nope, which makes the ending a mess in both cuts. The musical number is the biggest addition, the other big one is more with Jon Hamm in the dream world. It’s a good scene, but the problem (something that isn’t fixed on repeated viewing) is mapping out the narrative grid. What makes Inception work is that the multiple levels don’t really reflect on the narrative so much as create a more complex location for the story to take place. You’re not trying to keep track of what things mean, because they mean the same on each level, and you can interpret the film as you see fit – but the film works whether or not you think the main character was asleep or not the whole time. Christopher Nolan has his cake and eats it, for sure, but the audience isn’t cheated. Here, in either cut, you keep feeling like you’re playing catch up with a film that keeps wanting to skip two steps ahead. Which gives the film a sense of weightlessness. Again, there’s so much talent here, that I wish it all came together. But it didn’t and it doesn’t. Still, it’s fun to sift through.
Warner Brother’s Blu-ray edition comes with the film in the theatrical cut, and the Director’s cut. The theatrical runs 110 minutes, the director’s cut 127. Both are presented in immaculate widescreen (2.35:1) and in DTS-HD 5.1 surround. On the theatrical cut are four animated shorts (11 min.) that expanded the third level dream world stuff. They look great, but – again – a dream within a dream. There’s also a promo for the soundtrack (3 min.) and bonus trailers. The director’s cut offers Maximum movie mode, where Zack Snyder hosts clips and looks at the making of the film, and his thoughts on some of the ideas behind it. Mostly he just talks about the making of the movie. The set also comes with a DVD and digital copy, but only of the theatrical cut.
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Why everybody in America likes inception. The dark knight was good but inception is bad, lacks of imagination, and the only function of the characters are trying to explain what happen in the movie. Dialog +dialog + dialog = no cinema. Kubrick was good because he not understimed his audience. And yes and i dont know english
common too many Nolan haters here… go fuck ur self bitches !!!
Inception is a masterpiece !! its 1000x better than Tom Hooper’s King’s Dick !!!
Inception was a modern day masterpiece that raked in nearly 1 billion at the box office. Dialogue driven? Yes. Story driven?HELL TO THE FUCKING YES!!!
So if you’re knuckles drag on the concrete then Inception wasn’t for you. But there is Michael Bay’s shitfest called Transformers.
Bon appetite!
Amen…and your english is fine.
Unfortunately, I don’t think any amount of ‘added footage’ would save this film. Was just awful…
It’s true that “there’s so much talent here”, unfortunately it’s misplaced. If the writing/story/narrative side of things had half as much talent as the visual/production/effects side then we might have a decent movie here.
Instead, this guy who fails time and again to show any indication he can put together visuals, narrative and a good script/story to make a complete film is in charge of Superman…
I trust Nolan, I do, but Goyer is hit and miss, Snyder has made one of the worst films of all time and Nolan has to have a ‘miss’ soon… right?
I hope to god it all comes together, but I just don’t think Snyder is capable of much more than dressing the banal and boring into anything more than banal and boring with some cool shit to look at.
everyone in america likes inception because that movie fu*king ruled.
No and no.
You’re an idiot.
You call yourself Cali Kid for crying out loud. Your an idiot and gay.
Nolan is a superior film maker compared to Snyder, but Inception was mediocre at best. The whole first hour was exposition, there wasn’t any emotional investment in the characters, and if you thought the “dream within a dream within a dream” was clever, you’re just a simpleton. As an artist, Nolan is a fine engineer; he makes films with clockwork precision, but they are sterile, safe, and frankly, a little dull. He’s a fine film maker, but he’s a bit over-rated (yeah, I went there, fanboys, suck it up).
Snyder’s enthusiasm, on the other hand, is palpable in every frame. But his storytelling abilities are sorely lacking. Sucker Punch was all icing and no cake–granted, the icing was fetish hotties in fishnet, but when you order cake, you want cake. It was both ambitious and awful, a spectacular failure, a vivid display of Snyder’s limitations. But it most certainly wasn’t “safe”.
Inception is a great film, though i loathed it the first time i saw it, it got so much better with repeated viewings. Also, the scene where joseph gordon-levitt is fighting the guy in the hallway just as the car is rolling is one of the most brilliant action of the last decade or possibly ever.
I thought inception was such a dull movie. When i first saw it, i listened to all the hype and decided it was good. But on a repeated viewing i realised, it had nothing going for it but a good idea. The action was mediocre, with a hallway fight lasting all of 30 seconds in a 2 and a half hour movie! Nolan is good but beyond overrated.I mean, for me, Heath Ledger saved Dark knight from being just a “good” movie.
I also realised Leo diCaprio is not a very good actor. He plays himself in every movie and constantly tries to look grown up and intense. The whole thing was contrived, i didn’t give a shit about what happened to anyone the whole time. Its a film that isn’t half as clever as it thinks it is. A bit like Nolan.
DiCaprio not a good actor ? Well…Just watch him in “Gilbert Grape”
He is an excellent and gifted actor.
Yeah the only movie ive ever been impressed by him. That was 20 years ago. ive yet to see him do it again.
To be honest, I agree with the people above. I thought inception was dull and pretentious, The Prestige was boring. Nolan has a great storytelling ability, but he is sterile when it comes to visuals and his casting is hit n miss. (Ok, the Joker was brilliant) But as a long time Bat-fan, thats how the Joker should have been anyways. Same for his dark and gritty take/storylines etc for the Batfilms.
Read the Long Halloween/Dark victory and a number of other Bat comics, and you will see most of what we see in Begings and Dark Knight. People act like he re-invented the Bat.
He didn’t, he put together what was already there and rearranged it to make one coherrant story. (Which i AM gratefull for) As he saved us all from Shumacher Hell!
All in all, I’m glad Nolan is making these Batflicks, it has given Jo-public a new respect for the character. And I like his real take on it. (It does have its problems, ) And I can’t wait to see the 3rd film to see it all play out.) But the rewatchability of the Batflicks isnt great. I can watch them once a year at most… Not good coming from a lifelong Bat-Fan.
I like the films for what they are, And I appreciate Nolans efforts to bring the character back to life, but I actually cant wait for the innevitable Reboot.
That all off my chest.. Nolans supervision of character, Goyers story and Zachs visuals… Maybe SUPERMAN will be the Batman that I wanted to see. I just hope its an EPIC movie.
Forgot to mention.. To the reviewer of the film…
WELL DONE for reviewing it from the DIRECTORS CUT perspective of the movie. Great to hear about the differences between that and the theatrical cuts, and to see what is added etc.. I wish ALL reviews included this comparison. Nice one Andre Dellamorte !!
Now if only collider could get rid of this CAPTCHA nonsense just to comment…
i am getting this piece of krap only for the visuals, Znyder is Michael Bay vol2, I still have hope for the guy lets wait for his next movie!
I have said it before and I will say it again: Inception will be all but forgotten in ten years. It just doesn’t have the substance that people try to suggest is there.
The Matrix, on the other hand, and which I mention because Inception shamelessly ‘borrowed’ from it, is still highly regarded more than ten years later.
Time will prove the critics of Inception correct in this argument.
I’m sorry T, what movie what movie were you talking about?
Snyder is a horrendous filmmaker. sucker punch is just another bad nonsense delirium. He is just another Shyamalan.
Snyder is far from a hack.
You may not have loved the storyline in Watchmen, but Snyder did an unbelievable job bringing it to the screen (same with Dawn of the Dead and 300.)
The film wasn’t for everyone and couldn’t have possibly delivered huge box office because of the source material, but it was as faithful an adaptation as I have seen.
While I don’t disagree with everything being said, I think anyone saying Inception was mediocre really needs to see more movies. It may not have had much character development, but it was competently filmed, acted, and generally it made sense.
I think it is wise to remember that a film could be too intelligent for your average movie goer, so for big budget films you need big boxoffice, and that means “understandability” for the largest demographic possible.
A movie with “not much character development”, which is “competently filmed, acted,” and “generally made sense” IS a mediocre movie. Sure, it wasn’t that bad, I’ll give you that much. But it wasn’t that good either.
One could argue that “2001″ doesn’t have much character development yet it’s considered a classic. That’s not a knock against the film, just an observation. For that matter, neither do “Alien” or “The Thing.” I do like the characters in Inception, particularly Eames and I am invested in the DiCaprio character’s journey and do find the ending of the film extremely poignant.
I do like the dream within a dream concept but I’m not a simpleton like Fugly says. I’m also tired of the “not as clever as it thinks it is” meme. My God, what movie is “as clever as it thinks it is?” I’d love to hear an answer because it seems every movie with any kind of cleverness is dismissed as “not as clever as it thinks it is.” Nolan strikes me as an arrogant man when I see him in interviews so I never think of him of being pleased with his own cleverness. Maybe he is but I think a lot of people are pleased with their own feelings of cleverness.
I don’t really know why people always compare Sucker Punch to Inception (I mean concept wise, not rating wise, because i know most people wouldn’t even put Sucker Punch in the same category).
Inception was a dream within a dream. The dreams were more extensions to the story, in new locations.
In Sucker Punch, the action scenes were metaphors, NOT stylized versions of what was going on in the real world.
If anything, Sucker Punch is more related to Darren Aranofsky’s “The Fountain” then “Inception”.
Anyway, I think Sucker Punch is way underrated. And no, I am not one of those “action junkies”. I hated Battle LA, HATED with a passion Transformers 2, and am just “ehh” about the third one. I think Sucker Punch was really deep, and had a multi-layered story that you had to analyze not just watch and expect to understand everything. On top of that, it was obviously beautifully film.
It definitely didn’t deserve the 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes when Transformers 3 even had a higher rating. It should at least have somewhere between 60-80%, in my opinion.