Monday, March 28, 2011

Sucker Punch Was Made For Girls

Sucker Punch is pretty bad. But it's bad in a MAGNIFICENT way, and it actually has a lot of good things going on.

We have seen over and over again from Snyder that he can do big, exciting, and beautiful. Up to now, he's dealt with some pretty awesome source material; as his first project from an original source, I expected Sucker Punch to live up to his visual style and maybe offer something intriguing in the way of story - but to be totally honest, I never really cared about the story Sucker Punch was trying to tell. The trailers, through their ambiguity, encouraged you not to ask too many questions. Which made it pretty shocking when I realized that there was actually a story of some depth going on, it just wasn't happening to our "main" character and it wasn't the forefront of the action (more on this later). The rest of the ride is a sensory overload. Sucker Punch shines on two wavelengths: the over-the-top, visually and aurally rich action sequences, and the subtle undercurrent of Sweet Pea's (Abbie Cornish) story.

I want to talk about Sweet Pea here, but since almost everything I want to say is a spoiler I've decided the best course for this is to do a second entry with a big fat SPOILER ALERT tag that people can read if they've seen the film or if they don't care. This review, then, is spoiler free.

There are three levels of reality being dealt with here, and the one in which the film spends the most time on (the secondary level, dressed up like a burlesque house/prostitution ring) is the least interesting. I thought we could have benefited from spending more time in reality, the quasi-60's insane asylum for troubled teenage girls, but the important bit is that Snyder doesn't skimp on his third level, Babydoll's high-octane war zone. This is where the good stuff is: shrieking planes, zombie robot Germans, orcs, catapults, a fire-breathing dragon. Amber (Jamie Chung) pilots a gun bunny mech. There's a train with a bomb on it. It's good times. And these sequences are permeated with Snyder's typical bullet-time slow-downs, but it works here. You can really see the action (I HATE the speed-shaky action cam that makes it impossible to tell who's hitting whom), and you can see where the girls pull their own stunts (all five of our heroines went through extensive physical training for this flick, and it shows).

The other signature trait Snyder brings to these scenes is his color palette. The whole movie is shot in a gray tone, but the action sequences are highlighted with pops of color: gunfire, regular fire, the pink on Amber's mech, the gold in Rocket's (Jena Malone) hair. It plays into the overall fantasy effect, but it also makes the scenes beautiful in an interesting way (like the ever-falling snow). The snow, in fact, gives it a decidedly shojo feel, which I like. It gives the very masculine backdrops a feminine feel, reminding the audience that we are watching a girl's (and a young girl, at that) fantasy play out, rather than a boy's video game dream.

The soundtrack is brilliant, and would have saved the movie for me even if I hadn't had as much fun watching it as I did. Emily Browning covers two of the tracks and her voice is thin, a little reedy, very sweet, and completely haunting as it plays over the rain-soaked gray dreariness of the hospital. Especially in the opening sequence, where we see the circumstances through which Babydoll finds herself at the hospital, and there's no dialogue except Browning's rendition of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." It's beautiful. Also, whether by accident or design, almost all of the music is sung by women. I don't care what the reviewers are saying, this movie was made for girls.

That's the good, now for the bad: in a cast of about 10 characters, there are three really good performances. Emily Browning is a blank doll of a character, never showing more emotion than a small smile or glazed-over look. Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung are never required to do more than smile secretively and fire really big guns, but the film suffers for never asking more of them (although neither actress convinces me that they could have given more - Hudgens is all doe eyes and crocodile tears, and Chung is most emotive when she sucks on her lollipop). Carla Gugino, who I know is better than this, hides behind her absurd Germussion accent. John Hamm might have been effective, but he was onscreen for maybe two minutes - there was supposedly a scene between Hamm and Browning that got cut to keep the PG-13 rating, and I'm interested to see it just to see Hamm actually work a little.

Cornish and Malone together are rapturous. As sisters (supposedly, in the whorehouse reality), they are best when acting off each other. For getting surprisingly little space to actually act, they become the girls we care about and get invested in. The real winner, though, is Oscar Isaac as Blue, the orderly-cum-pimp: he is sleazy, smarmy, and, like a car wreck, impossible to turn away from on the screen. He's a fabulous villain, and he really owns the "Baby, why you gotta make me hit you?" abusive attitude in a shameless way.

Undoubtedly, Sucker Punch would have benefited from Snyder going all in and embracing the R-rating it so desperately wants; there are places he obviously pulled his punches to keep the PG-13, and the quality of the film suffers for it. However, I find it hard to disagree totally with his decision: this movie was made for adolescent girls. I know, the fetishist clothing and extraneous guns might disagree with me, but this is a movie about girls trying to take back their own lives and their own bodies. And I can't really blame Snyder for wanting the movie to reach the largest audience possible in the teen girl demographic.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Let's Talk About Sucker Punch Some More

Brad Brevet of the wonderful website Rope of Silicone posted a brief article today entitled “There’s Something Dirty About ‘Sucker Punch.’” In it, he describes going through about 50 movie stills (two of which he includes) and feeling vaguely disturbed; his impression, on viewing photos of our team of girls in various costumes, is that “screenings of Sucker Punch will be filled with dirty old men, sitting in the back row pulling a Paul Reubens.” He expresses dismay that the women, though all over the age of 18, are typically (at least in the stills he has viewed) half-naked; in one of the images he includes in his article, Emily Browning is clad in a pale pink camisole, in another, Vanessa Hudgeons sports a brown corset and fishnets.

It seems to be the mix of innocence with the harder elements of the film that have troubled Brevit. When describing the stills, he says “The image of an innocent Emily Browning in her pink tank top above. Appearing as a porcelain doll, trapped behind bars on her bed. The image of Vanessa Hudgens below in a bustier and fishnet stockings with her big doe eyes and pouty appearance.” Flipping through the gallery, I have to agree – there is certainly a lot of exposed flesh, doe eyes, and pigtails. Snyder seems to be working with two very distinct pallets and tones: soft pinks, browns, and ivory for the “real” world, and black, metal, gunsmoke and fire for the girls’ collective “other world.” The two scenes do contrast pretty sharply, and highlight the youth of the girls; their corsetry and leather is shocking after the lingerie-type looks they sport.

Is it objectifying to have these incredibly attractive, nubile young women in outfits that vary from fishnets as pants to belted corsets and altered school girl uniforms? Probably. But I don’t have a problem with it, for three reasons. And I don’t think, as Brevet does, that the juxtaposition of the super-adult and the childish looks will appeal first and foremost to dirty old men. In more blunt language: I do not think that Snyder has struck a pedophiliac chord.

First, the trailer does not make it a secret that these girls are hard core. Babydoll (Emily Browning) wields not only a handgun in her starring poster, but a katana; Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) is shown punching the living daylights out of a hideous ogre, while and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) poses, fists raised, in front of a roaring explosion. These are not passive girls; they are hard, bitter, badass women fighting a horrible situation with a hail of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat. Hot ladies doing badass things in minimal clothing have been a central image in media since Wonder Woman (and probably before) – strong women wear strong looks. That’s ok with me.

Second, this movie is about a fantasy, but it’s not a fantasy that belongs to the audience. It’s about the dream that comes from complete despair, and it belongs completely to the girls. As Rocket (Jena Malone) says in a broken, defeated voice (that still has a vein of steel), “We’re already dead.” These girls have literally no hope except for what they can dredge up for themselves, and they live in a world of horrible prison uniforms and bars on the window. Whether or not that parallel universe is real or not, it is their escape from everything else. Let me tell you, if I had to wear those awful pinky orange uniforms like Babydoll does, I’d picture myself in badass flight goggles and tight black pants, too.

Snyder is also clearly playing with two ideas of what femininity looks like. As I said above, these girls are tough; they play rough, fire guns, punch and kick bad guys, and wear leather than allows for ease of movement when kicking said bad guys in the face. They also wear satin and (it looks like) hang out in dance studios. They are both super tough and badass, and hyper-feminine (occasionally at the same time, as illustrated by Babydoll's school girl uniform and pigtails). Without having seen the film, I'm obviously making assumptions, but it seems to me that Snyder has assembled a cast of iron-willed women intent on carving a better world for themselves with their bare hands.

And if they happen to look awesome while doing so, that's just another plus.

(All stills taken from Rope of Silicone.)

Friday, March 11, 2011

50 Contentious Titles

I really wanted to do a Trailer Talk for the new international Water for Elephants trailer, but due to work and paper writing I haven't had time. But! Here are two lists you might find interesting (or enraging, whatev). I’ve based these on ratings found at IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and the popular opinions of my friends. It’s a very technical system. (No it’s not.) I also ganked the idea from my friend Adam, author of Cinematically Yours (also my banner!).

25 Movies I Liked that No One Else Does
1. Hidalgo
2. The Golden Compass
3. King Arthur
4. Wanted
5. Contact
6. Final Destination
7. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
8. Saw
9. National Treasure
10. Elektra
11. Jennifer’s Body
12. Gone in 60 Seconds
13. Night at the Museum
14. 50 First Dates
15. The Fast and the Furious (1-3)
16. The Thief and the Cobbler
17. What Dreams May Come
18. Superman Returns
19. Deep Blue Sea
20. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
21. X-Men: The Last Stand
22. Waiting
23. Speed Racer (2008)
24. Iron Man 2
25. The Wolfman (2010)


25 Movies The Rest of the World Likes and I Don't
1. Sin City
2. Crash
3. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Swedish)
4. Mystic River
5. Million Dollar Baby
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Adaptation
8. The Wizard of Oz
9. When Harry Met Sally
10. The Empire Strikes Back
11. Lust/Caution
12. Paprika
13. Junebug
14. Crank
15. The Triplets of Belleville
16. Waking Life
17. Memento
18. Donnie Darko
19. Corpse Bride
20. Sweeney Todd (2007)
21. Pretty Woman
22. Cloverfield
23. Blade Runner
24. Munich
25. 21 Grams

Thursday, March 3, 2011

My Summer Movie Schedule

I have a new banner! It is courtesy of my friend Adam, who also writes a movie blog that you should read! It's called Cinematically Yours, and you can find it over there in my sidebar.

Summer movie season is almost upon us, and I can safely say that big budget, high action popcorn flicks are my favorite part of summer (as if you couldn't tell). Invariably, I don't get to see as many of these as I want to (having a full time job really cuts into my movie watching, you guys. But without it, I couldn't afford the tickets. Conundrum!), but I get excited about them, nonetheless.

Let's see what I'm particularly looking forward to!

May 6th: Thor

Apparently my birthday or thereabouts (May 8) is the unofficial start of summer movie season, and it really couldn't make me happier. Speed Racer (2008), Iron Man (2009) and Iron Man 2 (2010) were all released on my birthday, and all of which I loved, so it's hard NOT to be excited about Thor, even though I was never attached to him as a comic character.

May 20: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
I am afraid of this movie. On the one hand, I remember how EXCELLENT the first one was... and then my other hand slaps me a little and reminds me how terrible the second two were. But we're starting over, kinda, with a new story and new characters. And it'll be big, and pretty, and tropical, and there will probably be rum jokes. So I'll be there.

May 26: Kung Fu Panda 2
GARY OLDMAN. IS AN EVIL PEACOCK. I CAN'T be the only one excited about this, can I? I mean, look how far Dreamworks has stepped their game up with How To Train Your Dragon. It'll be fun, right?

May 30: Hangover 2
Ennh. I'm concerned. But the first one was so, surprisingly hilarious that I have hope.

June 3: X-Men: First Class
You can see from my trailer writeup that I cannot WAIT for this one. X-Men is my comic specialty, and the Hellfire Club has always been one of my favorite villainous organizations. Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw? Yes please.

July 1: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Michael Bay calls this one "more sinister and frightening" without the "dorky humor" of Revenge of the Fallen. Which I can only take to mean the Nitwit Twins will not be featured, which I take to mean AWESOME. Also I got to watch them film bots on Wacker Drive, and let me tell you, the ravaged streets of Chicago will look fantastic in this. And let's be honest: this could look half as good and I'd still be salivating about it. I loved the first one just that much.

July 15: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
WAR IS COMING TO HOGWARTS AND I AM SO READY. I will probably cry all the tears, though.

July 22: Captain America
The Avengers franchise hinges on how good this one will be, and I think it looks super promising. My trailer impressions are over in my Super Bowl entry, but to sum up: visually it looks like they've struck just the right combination between a period piece and a superhero flick. Bring it ON.

July 29: Cowboys & Aliens
Is...is this based on a graphic novel? I just found an image (here) that leads me to believe that, and if so, I would like to read it. Probably not until after I see the movie, though. I've gotten weird about the order in which I expose myself to stories. But! Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, the wild west, and alien spacecraft. It's like Wild Wild West, only it looks actually good (I'm sorry, Kevin Kline. I love you, I really do).

August 12: Mr. Popper's Penguins
I never read the book, but Jim Carrey looks charming and I really do love penguins.

(Release dates provided by a combination of teaser-trailer.com and apple.com/trailers. All trailers provided by apple.com/trailers. Also note that this is not a comprehensive list of films being released this summer - just the ones I want to see.)