ThisIsAMsg

It doesn't take a genius to write a better screenplay than Sucker Punch's. It is trite and whimsical, and is overloaded with video-game-like CGI, Halloween costumes, and cheesy lines. The actress playing the central character looks clueless in some scenes, maybe because of bad direction or her bad acting; anyhow the audience was laughing at her and in moments of the movie which should have been dramatic, if not tragic. I understand Snyder was going for the 'anime' type of action-fantasy movie, but the way he directed and wrote this movie just doesn't flow. Maybe Anime belongs to the world of... animation exclusively (that's for another debate), nevertheless Sucker Punch was a dreadful movie experience. Even today's video games have better original storyline, plots, characters and concepts. Overall Sucker Punch is a mere pastiche and plagiarism of many great previous movies: in SP, you suddenly find yourself watching a Samurai-fighting scene (borrowed from some Anime), robots and girls in skirts fighting in sets imported from 'Path of Glory'(??!), in other scenes you find ogres and sets from 'Lord of the Rings'... The soundtrack makes it even worse and is just wrong, plagiarizing classic pop songs that it uses. One can only conclude that Snyder has little imagination and questionable storytelling skills, and that the reason why 300 and Watchmen were decent movies can be attributed to that fact that he simply copied the comic books/novels, frame for frame, word for word; while in the case of Sucker Punch, since it's his own original writing and idea, this one fails.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Without being trite and redundant, it explores timeless and universal themes such as finding one's destiny and freedom, life choices, love, and jealousy, put in an interesting setting, that is the circus world -- the early 1900s when the US prohibition and depression were taking place -- which is nicely recreated on screen (by production designer Jack Fisk who's mostly known for his work with Terence Malick and David Lynch). Based on Sara Gruen's novel, this very original story is beautifully told, uses classical film-making techniques -- its camera moves, staging, lighting, pacing, usage of 'live' animals, stunts and special effects -- and well acted -- Robert Pattison comes across as a decent lead actor and not just a pretty face; Reese Witherspoon, very convincing as the star circus girl, doing some of her own stunts; however Christoph Waltz's performance stands out the most as he maintains the dynamic among all the main characters and fuels the drama. It's nice and refreshing to see a classically-made-and-looking film coming out of Hollywood.