Sucker Punch

est comme une combinaison d'une comédie musicale décadente et d'une adaptation de jeu vidéo terne. Il repose sur une structure narrative se déroulant dans la "réalité", à partir de laquelle il s'échappe dans des numéros musicaux (niveaux de jeu vidéo). Cependant, la structure narrative ne fonctionne pas et elle est seulement là pour maintenir ensemble les sauts vers des évasions d'action fantastiques. Et ces évasions, dans lesquelles les héroïnes éliminent des nazis, des ninjas, des dragons et des orques du ou des robots de , ne fonctionnent pas plus de dix minutes, car elles ne sont qu'une exposition visuelle sans aucune innovation. Même avec le de Tarantino, il y a des similitudes dans la construction du scénario - mais Tarantino est tout simplement un "peu" meilleur scénariste que Snyder - sa structure narrative était plus solide et les épisodes individuels la développaient encore davantage. Ce dont est fait est auto-indulgent, sans signification et sans objet. Un amalgame de la culture pop qui devait déjà sentir l'échec sur papier. (24/03/2011)

Snyder is fantastic with visuals and music (anyone who has seen the brilliant but sadly underrated Watchmen knows this), but for God's sake, never, ever let him write his own scripts! If I were to rate only the composition of shots, the imaginative details, the spectacular slow motion (which, I don't know how Snyder does it, I don't mind it in his case) and the the soundtrack (“Army of Me” by Bjork made me foolishly believe I would love the film), it would be worth a full score. But the decadent pop-cultural, cringeworthy, scripted ballast, which also pretends to convey some higher message, was impossible to digest even with a full brain shutdown. Snyder is a great craftsman, but he needs a permanent whip over him and a humility within himself, which, on the other hand, was not lacking in his almost reverential adaptation of Moore's “Watchmen”. (02/04/2011)

I love Zack Snyder in Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead, but I don’t like him in the silly 300. Sucker Punch is much worse than 300, thanks God that I didn’t go to the cinema for it. This is just pointless teenage fantasy that pretends to have a meaning. I’m not able to argue why I think it only pretends so, because this time I couldn’t be bothered to look for it while watching it, and I just don’t want to think about this film any further. Even the action is not that exciting. A fail of biblical proportions. (18/06/2011)

Upon entering the movie theater, my Xbox controller was snatched from me and Snyder ended up playing instead. I did actually enjoy just watching it. This is a film I've (unconsciously) wanted since I was a kid. I’m going to install "Painkiller"... (31/03/2011)

A teenage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in robotic Ninja underpants. A stupid shooter with a bunch of affected chicks in suspenders, acting as if they are in a cheap American porno, framed by a kind of pseudo-spiritual chatter about the power of man. What really disappoints me is the fact that Zack's visual montages are bombastic, but they completely miss the point – I don't know if it's their non-originality or that they are terrible self-serving, but Sucker Punch seems to me to be a wasteful mess that obscures the complete absence of soul with excess effects. It just confirms that Snyder is an excellent short film maker (although Sucker Punch lags behind the rest of his work in this regard) and that he leads the actors very benevolently – as long as he has solid material in front of the camera, it disappears, but once those revived teenage fantasies ring out, the result is disastrous. One advantage of this nonsense is that Watchmen seems like an even bigger miracle to me. But that's it (I curse myself now that I gave 300 such a low score...). P.S. The unreliable narrator has never been as unreliable as in this film (which takes away all his credit and effect). (23/03/2011)

My dream is yours. Snyder's subversion against everything and everyone is only marred by the superfluous (aka all) action scenes and the obvious (and therefore twist-less) twist, which also unnecessarily undermines itself when revealed by the subsequent action. ♫ OST song rating: 3/5 (04/04/2011)

It's you.. Nazis, zombies, robots, dragons, samurais and a group of beautiful girls against them. In other words, six reasons why Sucker Punch couldn't succeed globally. It has everything you can imagine when you want a big, opulent, bombastic blockbuster and the world couldn't handle such an explosion, because having all those hits in one movie is just too much. Snyder clearly fulfills many fantasies and despite a few reservations, I have to cheer for him. I could do without the somewhat forced contrast between painted fantasies and depressive reality (which ironically, I actually liked more), but in the end, it's because of where the story is heading that the ending almost knocked me off my feet. I won't see such a specific ride not only this year, but never again. And now, grab a katana and Baby Doll can start dancing. (18/06/2011)

The action scenes were all over the place to me, but I wasn't going to talk about that. It was more about how I absolutely loathed the way they alternated between a Hollywood-esque triumph over evil (or when Amber et al. were fighting) with scenes that were shockingly cruel, dirty, and "real". It didn't make me feel good, and considering that this was happening throughout the entire movie, I didn't have a lot of fun. But for the other sex, there are plenty of babes here, each different, so maybe you can even pick one to watch. Plus, the babes here carry guns too: every teenager's dream... and the second star is for the soundtrack. (30/05/2011)

Perfect action sequences in a story about girl power that is only held together by the main protagonists’ makeup. Snyder shouldn’t write screenplays. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I won’t put up with this type of video game anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I always used to want to see scenes like where the dragon is chasing the airplane with the medieval battle raging beneath them or where the Nazi cyborgs are fighting in the trenches against a gang of scantily dressed young ladies (and that machine gun really suits Abbie Cornish). But since then, my movie priorities have changed. (18/06/2011)

An incredibly crazy film, full of parodies, references, and captivating visuals. It’s a film made only for film enthusiasts and lovers of “fantasy” action. For bores and rational scientists, it will be a completely wasted hour and a half, followed by a feeling of WTF. Zack Snyder does whatever he wants and in his own way, it's also charming. (09/07/2011)

A very action-packed spectacle full of (almost) everything. The soundtrack was a bit too loud for my taste and it was composed of music that I am not very impressed with, but I have to admit that it was a perfect match for the images that Snyder conjured up. The relatively simple story is not worth criticizing, because with a more complicated plot Sucker Punch would probably not have been as impressive. The girls and women were very good, many scenes were not lacking in unexpectedly believable emotions, and I will probably watch the part inside the speeding train many times. Four and a half stars, and I'd love to see the director's cut. (20/10/2012)

Un film situé entre deux extrêmes. À un moment donné, c'est une aventure parfaitement huilée, follement divertissante, pleine d'action et presque géniale, pleine d'énergie et de plans spectaculaires, à un autre moment, c'est un spectacle guindé, ennuyeux et stupide, fait de dialogues dénués de sens. Et les séquences où le spectateur s'amuse et s'ennuie se succèdent régulièrement. Chaque fois que quelqu'un commençait à parler, j'essayais de regarder par terre et de ne pas écouter. Horrible. En revanche, quand ça commençait à tirer, je ne pouvais pas détacher les yeux de l'écran. Des mondes fantastiques parfaits, ça vaut le coup de voir le film juste pour les zombies soldats allemands de la Première Guerre mondiale propulsés par une machine à vapeur avec des montres. Génial. Mais toutes ces paillettes sont enveloppées dans une histoire ennuyeuse se déroulant dans un asile, totalement inutile et sans intérêt. Sucker Punch est comme un très beau tableau, mais placé dans un cadre vraiment hideux. Moyen donc. (26/03/2011)

Un film visuellement réussi avec une piste musicale qui arrache. Les scènes d’action m’ont moins emballé que le reste, par contraste avec le dénouement final qui m’a intrigué au plus haut point – j’ai été totalement bluffé par la proposition du réalisateur. Je mettrais quelque part entre trois et quatre étoiles, mais pour l’univers fantastique, les idées et la musique jouissive, je vais arrondir vers le haut. (24/05/2014)

I was prepared. A bunch of abused madwomen systematically dismantle the domination of disgusting and filthy men. At least they have the by now surely impotent Scott Glenn as a magical grandfather with a sniper rifle to help them. Sucker Punch is an awesome ideological counterpoint to Trier's Antichrist. PS: I felt like crying with delight at times during the action scenes... PPS: I'd love to lend Jena Malone a towel some morning at home. (12/05/2023)

I must say that the first screening at the movie theater in 2011 didn't impress me at all, and I was rather annoyed by the film. However, three years later, I feel like I was unnecessarily harsh on it. The action is unnecessarily cool and could be more brutal, but somehow it fits with the visual style of the movie. Overall, the story isn't bad, and it works as a tragedy as well. It's just that some of the characters are a bit one-dimensional. Yeah, I enjoyed it much more the second time around. (21/08/2014)

Zack, if I leave Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole out of the comparison, this is quite a leap from Watchmen then, honestly speaking! Sucker Punch is, aside from the stunning visuals, the direct opposite of Watchmen. Indeed, Watchmen wasn't primarily made as a visual bastion, but was meant to (and did) function as a worthy retelling of Alan Moore's comic book, which both didn't neglect and indeed managed to bring to the forefront a good number of existential, social, and political issues. Sucker Punch may not be a comic book adaptation, but many of the techniques and motifs used here smack of comics. From this perspective, Zack Snyder's latest film so far is a spectacular and appealing blend of action, long video game sequences, and bombastic visual orgies that work perfectly with an eighty million dollar budget. Sucker Punch is certainly not an epic, lyrical, or lyric/epic work. It's a digital carnage with a script that's as leaky as a sieve. (But what can you do when it's royally entertaining and amazing to watch?) [seen in EXTENDED CUT] (05/07/2011)