There hasn’t been much to post about until Sucker Punch came out. Yet has there ever been a more polarizing reaction (at least among my circle of acquaintances) to a contemporary film (probably since Watchmen, and not 300 which, along with its fans, should rot in hell)? So it follows that nearly everyone is talking about how this film rocked or how awful it was, therefore I should thank this film for making everyday conversation a little more interesting and easier to follow - well at least for me.

Suffice to say, Sucker Punch is a bad film. Its stupid, it has atrocious cover songs, its sexist (but so are the Transformers and Fast and Furious series, (500) Days of Summer, and 90% of what Hollywood puts out), and it is total opposite of “female empowerment” which this film is supposed to represent (SPOILER ALERT: lobotomy as liberation? physical repression doubled by imaginary repression for some sort of sacrificial catharsis? SPOILERS END). But hey I enjoyed it. The director’s penchant for comic book and anime imagery reaches an apotheosis, and it is a visual spectacle from start to finish (haters may hate, but look at what the director does with a dissolving ring of cigar smoke in the film!!!). Plus, this film may be bad, but it ain’t mediocre. What I mean is it’s a bad film that is still wholly interesting, unlike some bad films which are just awful (Battle: Los Angeles) or good films which are just OK or just good and nothing more (The King’s Speech).  And I’d honestly take Sucker Punch over those films or a dozen self righteous James Cameron flicks thank you very much. It may be a stupid film, but like the racist, every daughter’s fantasy film Taken, one can actually get something from its stupidity. Because of Sucker Punch, one knows what a sexist film really is and hopefully through the knowledge of that film one can actually sense sexism in the least expected of films. The film may be full of incredible images, but the director never knows the consequences of those images. And seriously who can’t be pleased with Emily Browning (this girl’s got a silent film star’s presence) or Abbie Cornish (the next great mainstream actress?)? Yeah, I’m not a woman so I take pleasure in these kinds of things. Ah, if only more films like Sucker Punch were on the big screen, the world would be talking only about movies, it’s a world where I wouldn’t sound so shallow….

@2 years ago with 1 note