I liked it! Sucker Punch is getting a lot of flack from movie critics and watchers alike, but I think it works.
It is not your traditional movie, it's stylized. Some are suggesting a new subgenre be proclaimed, such as video game style, or music video style or something. While it's unique, and could be a subgenre, I'm not shouting that from roof tops just yet.
I think the film suffered from it's PG-13 rating. I mean, you've got short skirts, fishnets and burlesque style, yet we're targeting a 13 and over crowd? I'm anticipating a director's cut to flesh out the dirty bits a bit more... maybe Snyder will add an extra hour of footage like he did with Watchmen.
Adding this footage might be a double edged sword. One of the elements that was prevalent throughout the movie is the musical score. If you look at Vampire Diaries, each episode essentially has a sound track for it. That's crazy, considering there could be 20 episodes or more to a season, but it's also a great way for an artist to get on the scene--if you pardon the pun. Now, Vampire Diaries is definately targeting teens, but probably has a cult following of housewives too. Sucker Punch, on the other hand, would have been much better without a teen-focus, if that was in fact Snyder's intent. We'll just have to wait for the extended cut to see for sure.
Call me voyeuristic if you must, but one of the key elements of the film is that the main character, Baby Doll, can dance hypnotically, and the ladies use this dance to provide a distraction while they get up to nefarious things. I would have liked to see that dance woven into the scenes where the ladies are up to no good. I figure in this day and age, there's enough choreography out here you could convince me that a dance is hypnotic with "all that gyrating."
I'm glad Sucker Punch managed to take thirty million from the box office. I think Zack Snyder has spectacular style, and his film making needs to be rewarded, however there's a very real risk of him falling off the deep end. I also have to wonder how much of a future a director has if he has to slash 30-50% of his entire film before it hits theatres. Watchmen had a theatrical runtime of 2 hours and 43 minutes, and through a Director's Cut, then finally the Ultimate Cut, Snyder managed to extend that to 3 hours and 35 minutes. That's a lot of his vision he has to remove before a theatrical release.
On the other hand, maybe Snyder is just capitalizing on the modern age. Release a movie that provides a polarizing experience into theatres, then capitalize on publicity and multiple releases through extended editions. Kudos to you Snyder, if that's your plan. Kudos also, if that's not your plan, but your vision is just so deep you're willing to lose 45 minutes of footage with each theatrical release! Kudos, either way.
Update (July 1, 2011): It's interesting, while I did enjoy this film, I wasn't head-over-heels for it. As mentioned above, I felt they could have expanded on some of the voyeuristic aspects of the film. Based on this, I wanted to see what people were thinking of the blog, and stumbled across this review: http://thehathorlegacy.com/sucker-punch/
The Hathor ladies kind of blew my mind. I completely did not see the rape alegory in the film, and they've hit the nail on the head. I'm now more interested in watching the extended edition of the movie, as Snyder said it's his favorite version, and if that's the case I can't help but wonder if some of the hidden meaning won't show further.
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