The Youth Counselor:

Yes this excactly.

It's sad when a critic will tell the audience to go see this movie, as if it was command. THe movie like all other style over substance flicks will make a killing in the box office regardless. There are smaller more overlooked works of cinema that he could be instead directing us to.

It's not wrong to recommend others to a mainstream film. But when he HIMSELF admits that a movie will be polarizing and divisive, he should caution his recommendation with maybe: "If you REALLY loved Snyder's work, then you'll LOVE this" or "If you're not into Snyder's work, maybe you should catch it as a matinée or rental".

I am still on board for this movie, but I have to ask: Moviebob said that drawing comparisons to "Brazil" wouldn't be an accident. I just have to ask, is Sucker Punch only in vague comparison to Brazil because of the dreamscape ideal or because the movie is a random mishmash of various vignettes strung together to resemble a movie?

I.E - This isn't Brazil with Guns, is it?

I didn't really care for that movie, and if S.P is simply Brazil with a sex change, nazis, dragons and guns, I might be more inclined to miss it. Sorry for offending anybody who loves that movie, but it was not my cup of tea. The Dream parts were, but everything else, not so much.

Notashrimp09:
Urgh...I feel like I just lost the raging debate I've been having with my friends over whether or not this was a male fetish movie.

Same....*sigh* I'm still going to wait to see it on DVD. Sorry, but the whole Scantily clad women thing turned me off despite how much action there is.
IDC what Bob's view on that is, but I could stand for some Heroic Gender Diversity for the love of F*ck all!! Honestly at first glance (and not inspection) this seems like a female empowerment movie and if I wanted to see something Burlesque then I'll go see "Burlesque" (great movie by the way). It's just that I feel a bit misled with this movie. I'm torn between the hardcore action and revealing outfits. I just can't do it.

So put me on team NO.

Have at me whoever wants to, but I am not changing my stance on this movie.

Seeing it next week in imax when it's released in the uk! Can't freaking wait!

qbanknight:
No Bob, this is not an example of a young director expressing his artistic talent in a positive way. This film is to Snyder as "Lady in the Water" was to M. Night. It's Snyder's own personal world that only makes sense to him and him alone.

The script is utterly insipid. The first 15 minutes have no dialogue and all we are treated to is a remix version of 80s songs that dealt with dreams. Now "Up" had a beginning that had no dialogue and was so emotionally resounding that it was amazing to see people NOT cry in the beginning. But nothing interesting is going on here, just Snyder's "unique" artistic style. And by "unique", I mean slowing down and speeding up every goddamn frame to make mundane activities seem interesting: close up on a key, stop, quick cut to face slow-mo, quick cut to lock speed up, etc. It's absolutely pointless and it's nothing interesting.

The characters are bland and uninteresting. I cannot fathom how you saw ANY character in these girls. These girls were just archetypes: the shy but free-spirit, the hard-knock life chick, the flirt, the screw up, and the...I don't know what to call Vanessa Hudgens since she has less than 15 lines in the whole damn movie. Joe Hamm is totally wasted, he is constantly demonized as the "High Roller" throughout the movie but he doesn't say a word of dialogue until the last 5 minutes in the movie. The "Wise Man" giving the girls instructions says so many off-the-wall-completely-unrelated quips (like "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything") that my audience was laughing in the screening we got. They would make a fortune cookie say, "what the hell are you talking about?!"

This is style over substance and yes, pandering, Bob. You are claiming critics are dismissing it as such. And they are totally right, because there is nothing empowering about these girls fighting when we are treated to so many crotch shots of their panties when they fight.

People, rent this movie. Don't bother catching this theaters. That way, you can at least fast forward to the cool sequences and stop it all when the last dream is done.

Now I'm looking to Superman with a sad, sad face.

THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! Someone sees this movie is definitely pandering for the sex appeal and is what turned me away from this movie. Now as Character development goes, I can take your word for it considering I know my archetypes. The least they could have done would be to make them less scantily clad in their dream world considering in reality they have to dress as such in a brothel and dressing appropriately for said situation might be a dream come true for some. That's just speculation mind you, but you sir, you are an inspiration.

Thank you kindly.

I'm interested to see this movie, but the fact that 70% of critics didn't like it I'm torn. Maybe I'll check it out on cheap tuesdays.

Hm, I did like Watchmen and thought the concept and design was interesting. I might see this tonight if I can get some friends together.

Gxas:
SON OF A BITCH!!!

I was going to see this movie tonight. We had everything planned. Then what happens? My friend sees its score on metacritic and "won't pay for a shitty movie" so now we're seeing Paul...

I WANT TO SEE THIS FUCKING MOVIE!!!!!!!

Hopefully I can persuade him otherwise...

Just show him this review...

I'll have to see it. Can't be bad. Though I wish it wasn't so spit in face.

Thank you Bob for finally making a decent review. It's been a long while, and your Paul review was pretty weak, and had troll baiting in it with Battle for LA, but this one? You gave a compelling enough review for me to go and see it.

Please, keep this up.

Sorry Bob, even if you told me that it deserves watching, I won't pay money for this kind of movies, Zack Snyder has only directed 1 good movie, that Legend of the Guardians, the other are just lackluster and didn't appeal to me.

This one actually looks way too silly, and if you enjoyed or others enjoyed it, fine, more power to you, but to me, Zack Snyder is a director that never really knows how to tell a story, in a movie, story comes first then visuals second, if the visuals are good and the story is bad then is' a bad movie.

thanks for reminding me its out today! gonna go see it after work.

And yes long pants don't work on Wonder Woman :P

Hithlain:
It's interesting how hollywood has been exploring dreams as of late... or concepts of reality. I wonder if that says anything about the current climate with the recession and all. Perhaps we all wish we could escape into our heads?

Anyway, sweet review. I will be seeing this :P

Its also a play upon the current generation. We've all grown up with a weird sense of reality. From video games providing other planes of existence to wars we can't really feel but can only see, we question our reality constantly.

And there is also the desire to escape shitty economic conditions as well no doubt.

Speaking on the movie I think its going to be all that Mr. Bob claims and more. I'm hopefully going to see it with one of my bros this weekend. But he won't be going for the reasons I am. He just wants to see chicks in short skirts kill shit up.

I've been waiting for this film for about 9 months now and am SO excited! Zach Snyder is possibly my favorite director of this generation

I'm going to see this movie, but I disagree with MovieBob (and I usually don't) because in a way I always get the feeling that the "chick" factor of a Movie overpowers his senses... Or maybe it's just my imagination but I still can't forget Salt for example (Both his review and the movie :S :P >:( )

But maybe it's me. Also I really tried to like Scott Pilgrim, especially since I loved the comic/graphical novel... But the movie was just dumb... My then girlfriend and me had a shared moment of embarrasement in the concert/fight scene between the yeti and the dragons... It was just bad.

Still, I think I will see this movie to support Zack Snyder (I really liked Watchmen and some parts of 300) and I want him to suceed (Superman)... Also any movie with a Giant metal Samurai wielding a mini gun has a couple of stars in my book.

I remember first seeing the trailer for this. Just before it, I saw a trailer for some action thriller starring The Rock. I was thinking "Wow, this looks so...generic. I'm not interested at all. I wonder if I'm just getting jaded and picky. Maybe unimpressive action trailers of the past haven't been too bad, and I'm just hating them because I expect them to be bad. Can I even think of an action movie trailer that has impressed me...?"

...and before I could finish that thought process, the Sucker Punch trailer showed up. Holy hell, did I get excited. I can't wait to see this, and I'm glad to hear good things. I just hope this doesn't end up being one of those cases where my opinion extremely differs from MovieBob's.

Scars Unseen:

DearFilm:
Pro Tip: If you want a movie to be successful, don't compare it favorably to Scott Pilgrim.

I liked Scott Pilgrim. I imagine I'm going to enjoy Sucker Punch immensely.

One pattern that I've picked up on... If Movie Bob gives a recommendation, even if it goes against the general consensus of other film critics, I'll usually like what the movie has to offer. It's when he pans a movie (especially if he invokes the Rant of Bob) that I usually ignore him. This holds even more true with his opinions on video games.

Get out of my head!!

I'm was going to check out hobo with a shotgun first then see sucker punch it might surprise like sherlock homes did.

2 things that sold it for me.

Pro female outlook

Comparison to Scott Pilgrim

Lucky I've got free tickets then I guess :D

I cannot wait to see this movie it looks awesome

Since MovieBob's opinion of every other Snyder film seems 100% wrong to me (i.e., 300 was barely watchable and Watchmen didn't even meet that low bar), I'm pretty sure this movie won't work for me either. Seems like definite Netflix streaming material.

And really, it's kind of sad how you can predict these reviews with a mathematical formula based on skirt length and cup size.

Well I must say the only reason why I would want to watch this movie is to see samurai with chainguns. And that's the only reason. A bit sad isn't it?

Now they should had the samurai with the chaingun actually killing the protagonist and have the story picked up from his side of view. That would be pretty interesting. Not to mention it would be a take that for boring invincible protagonists. :P

So this is pretty much a rent for me. :P

After hearing it had been universally panned- I was very upset. I harbored a flame for this movie since the first trailers, and your review has reignited my intrigue.

Yes, I will see it.

Gxas:
SON OF A BITCH!!!

I was going to see this movie tonight. We had everything planned. Then what happens? My friend sees its score on metacritic and "won't pay for a shitty movie" so now we're seeing Paul...

The same thing happened to me! Only it was my roommate. Screw it, I'll just find other people to go with.

I don't expect it to be a "rich" movie full of interesting dialogue and meaningful characters.I want to see it because it has Guns, Babes, Explosions, Samurai, WW1, Dragons, etc. It has almost everything I like =D

emily browning...*drool*

im DEFINITELY seeing this!

castlewise:
I think Bob and I have different taste....

You're not the only one, metacritic had it at 37/100 this morning and 35/100 now (17 points lower than 'Never say Never')...god knows what it'll be down to by Monday...

As always, a big YMMV --

I posted my review a couple hours ago. It's a review, but also talks about takeaway lessons for storytellers.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/03/25/sucker-punch-lessons-learned/

I am a big Snyder fanboy, but while SUCKER PUNCH has some good things going for it, the action sequences were, for me, actually kinda dull.

Again, YMMV.

-- c.

Zach Snyder is a horrible director.

His only good work was 300 and that succeeded more in pure machismo and one-liners than in actual directing prowess.

Bob your blind love of his work has truly gone over the top here.

This movie is without a doubt male pandering. Sure you can argue that this is an example of the post-femisint movement at its finest, but it is not. Simply pure eye candy.

Also referring to Zach Snyder as the brightest mind of directing while calling Frank Miller drivel is laughable.

This movie may do will in theaters, but it will go down as another failed Zach Snyder project and ultimately just be referred to "oh, that movie the 300 guy made...heard it sucked".

He needs to learn that slow-mo, flash, and overstimulation does not make a good movie.

I have just really been disagreeing with your reviews Bob, but I still love Big Picture...so keep that up.