Sucker Punch - Extended Cut [Blu-ray]

Love this movie, absolute visual feast (minds out the gutters folks, I’m talking about the action and effects and whole concept of it).Top class special effects and a surreal plot make it one you can watch several times even if you do realise it’s where Snyder left genius behind and began chasing “pretentious” instead

A lot of reviewers have simply dismissed this as misogynistic or garbled and they are all wrong.Firstly I will address the idea that it is misogynistic;The fact is this film celebrates the strength and courage of its central character and shows women can be strong, serious and still embrace their sexuality. Sounds like a cop out?Consider, Snyder had many, many opportunities to show gratuitous "sexy" images of these women, but even in the brothel/club scenes, there were no sexy dances, no pouting come ons and throughout the whole film there was only one "money shot" focusing on the thighs of one protagonist and, as I will explain there was a very clear reason for that.In the brothel-come-club, the women tended to wear what you would expect dancers, in the sixties, to wear when rehearsing. Since, ostensibly, dancing was a main focus of their job this can hardly be deemed gratuitous, especially when comparing those costumes to modern day "dance" costumes. No lingerie, no thongs and no white panties, these were work clothes. As I pointed out, not one sexy dance was shown here, not even in the background.We are shown the action sequences instead of dances. Dances which, we are lead to believe, are so sexual and enthralling that it renders men watching helpless and open to manipulation. Another avoidance of easy gratuitous sex.In those action scenes five women feature, but only one of them, "BabyDoll" is treated in an "over the top" sexual manner, which we will come to in a moment. The costumes of all the other women, while overtly sexual, showing cleavage and legs are not typical exploitative designs. They are mostly dark, no shiny nor glittery surfaces, and quite substantial, not flimsy. No lace, no dominatrix accoutrements. These, like a dark reflection of the dance clothes are somewhat revealing, but never-the-less, work clothes. Neither are the women presented as weak in any way, these are often bone-crunching fights, at least two women taking solid punches and shaking them off to keep fighting. Quite simply they are presented as the female equivalent of the all-male Spartan fighters in 300, except with less revealing clothing and more modern weapons.Then we come to BabyDoll in these actions scenes. Is it a coincidence that Snyder puts the tiniest member of the cast in a very revealing sexy, Japanese-style school-girl uniform, complete with blonde bangs, and then gives her the only "money shot", a close-up on her thighs, in the whole film? Though she goes on to show that she is just as, if not more, kick-arse than the other women, this image is so "over-the-top" as to be an obvious ploy by Snyder. He wants the male viewer to feel uncomfortable. There is no denying that Emily Browning is an attractive young woman, 23 at the time of filming, but by dressing her up to look like an helpless little girl he asks the question; "If you find her sexy looking like this, then what is the difference between you and the creepy step-Father?" It is an emotion trap for the male viewer.At no other point in the film are there any other "money shots". No shots, close up or otherwise, focusing on cleavage, legs or backsides and no pouting come ons. On the surface the film is open to being interpreted as sexist, but a closer look shows it is quite the opposite.Secondly; I'll deal with the idea of the "garbled plot". I have to admit, the first viewing did leave me with some questions, but not thinking that the plot was bungled in any way. Here's my take, after some thought. I've tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.The whole film takes place in a characters imagination, it is the story of her recovery from the loss of her sanity. Right from the start we open on a stage set, indicating that what we are seeing is not the "real world". This is a motif that is repeated throughout the film. In this first scene we are shown the cause of her insanity, from here we are taken to an asylum. Clearly this is a nightmare vision of an asylum and not real. This is possibly the part of the film that is closest to reality, but everything here is is not just run-down it is decaying. This fantasy, in my opinion, represents the central characters admittance to herself that she has mental problems. The first step on the road to recovery. At a crucial point in the asylum, when one of the characters is about to be lost, we are transported to the brothel reality, which in many ways physically reflects the asylum. This delays the loss of this character and can be seen as representing the sexual abuse of the main character by her step-Father. From here we are again transported, on several occasions, to the worlds where the action takes place. These scenes simply represent the main character, literally, fighting her demons. In other words they could well be therapy sessions. After several "fights" the main character is brought to a point where she can "escape". How better to escape an asylum than regaining your sanity? And then we are shown the ending, with "still some way to go" along the road to full recovery.Plot sorted.All in all, a film with depth, mixed in with over the top, CGI, kick-arse action. What more could you want?Do yourself a favour, buy this now!

Punched 'me' in the gut at the end.Sad, cruel, and also pertinently excellent. Painful moments, not for everyone I suppose, but a resolve that leaves you thinking about it.The effects of the action scenes were brilliant. They all had an element of gothic style which was right up my street. How the storyline tied with the action scenes was seriously cool.I read a few reviews after watching, and many mentioned that the film was panned by critics. Hence it must not have had widespread exposure. I certainly had never heard of it before I saw it on Amazon Prime Video. For that reason I was dubious about watching it for a long time.The trailer was brilliant, and from that I should have given it a watch ages ago. Noting it was leaving Prime Video soon, I was in the mood, so gave it a go. Am still emotionally with it now.

Despite it's critical mauling and audience apathy, the world created by Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is something truly special, uniquely beautiful and, though flawed, it stands as a good example of the ongoing trend of big name directors gambling on films that offer something different to the same old story, same old set pieces and same old sequel friendly endings.I'm biased. I admit, this film could easily have been made just for me: I am a white male in my 30's who loves video games, fantastical fiction and beautiful women kicking ass in skimpy costumes.That said, I like artistic depth and bold choices in my cinema and despite Sucker Punch's lurid façade and apparent lack of characterisation, it is a film of considerable profundity which belies a high level of attention to detail and artistry.Dealing as it does with a brooding 1950's nightmare of loss and domestic dysfunction, giving way to a young woman's incarceration in a mental asylum; in turn snapping to a fevered vision of a glamorous yet resolutely abusive brothel which holds young, vulnerable women hostage in order to `entertain' various n'er do wells. From there we are dragged deeper into a series of microcosmic worlds populated by monsters, robots and steam-powered zombies, in which our protagonists re-materialise as an elite team of ludicrously sexy and infinitely cool warrior women. I think it's fair to say that I can't think of another film that does visually beautiful, surreal, action-packed and amazingly choreographed to such a mad degree. But yet, never does it feel gratuitous, pondering, as it does, matters of guilt, regret, atonement and self sacrifice throughout.Much has been made of the films lack of character development and reliance on music video style to tell it's story and, to be honest this is true. However, rather than a weakness, this is simply how Snyder has chosen to tell the tale. On first viewing, it is perhaps less than effective. The story is not thrilling. It is something different: like a visual poem, it whispers to you, drawing you into the luxurious veils of chocolate brown, copper blue and red wine that seduce the eye. I must confess that initially, it was only the outward glamour that held my attention and only upon reaching the end, contemplating the sparse dialogue and the portent glowing symbols which spring from the screen, did I think about it all and realise just what an unusual and magical film it was. The next day I watched it again. The day after, I watched the extended edition. Now, despite it's flaws it is one of my favourite films.Regarding said extended edition. Yes, it is required viewing if the original version cast as much of a spell over you as it did me, but as a standalone work, it is inferior to the theatrical version.A couple of the scenes blatantly should have made the final cut: Baby Doll's conversation with the High Roller at the end is absolutely beautiful to watch and listen to, gives huge credit to both actors and backs up the Doctor's apparent compassion towards the asylum inmates. Equally, there are a few bits and bobs in the phenomenal `trenches' sequence that should have stayed.On the other hand a couple of bits, ultimately should have remained on the cutting room floor. We didn't need to see Sweet Pea stealing the clothes from the washing line at the end. It only served to undermine the dignity and beauty of this wonderful character, so tenderly played by Abbie Cornish. Equally, the stylised gunplay in the `dragon' sequence was a bit of a bridge to far. While elsewhere, the weapon handling is quite convincing and does credit to the film's military advisors; here things get slightly ridiculous. Also Sweet Pea's swordplay in this scene looks a little weaker than Baby Doll's.Lastly, things I am on the fence about: The extra musical number in the brothel. Yes, it's great to watch if you are already familiar with the film. But perhaps it lightened the mood just a shade too much, showing a playful side to Blue and giving too much of an identity to the other girls in the brothel, who, for the remainder of the film, remain as indistinct beauties in the background.Zack Snyder apparently commented somewhere that the film was not completely finished. Indeed you can imagine the big money behind the project getting jittery about how abstract it was, tapping their watches and ripping the incomplete product from his hands. Indeed, this lack of completeness does resonate somewhat in the film. The ending in particular is fairly cerebral and downbeat. It is possible that on first viewing you might not even pick up that Sweet Pea is the narrator and that both Baby Doll and the Wise Man are `Angels'.It is a flawed piece, no doubt. But as mainstream Hollywood films go, it is among the most interesting, thought provoking and downright stunning films of it's generation.You have the weapons... now use them!

Thought I was having flash backs when I first saw this film but I love it, really did not get it first time around but watched quite a few times now and it is a fantastic film.The music is what makes it in my opinion.Hard to describe without a very lengthy description, suffice to say it is a perfect saturday night movie, big and loud with great visuals and sound.Awesome!