Forum Members' Discussion of SUCKER PUNCH...

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia The characters were not developed AT ALL. In fact, all five main characters are forgetable and might as well be interchangable. Seriously, let's run them down, shall we: Baby Doll: the leader ... that's about it. Rocket and Sweet Pea: sisters who look out for each other ... again, that's it. Amber: handles all the machines, steals the cigar lighter ... that's it. Blondie: just there for the sake of it, rats out the other girls ... that's it. Those are not examples of developed characters. Again, bad writing on Snyder's part. I'll give the movie its due for being visually stunning, but there's nothing else to it.

Originally posted by moviewizguy Well, the reason why they aren't all well developed is because the story isn't about all of them. Take Inception, for example. Leo's character is the only character that is well developed. Everyone else is oh-so forgettable. Seriously, what do we know about these people? Absolutely nothing. In Sucker Punch, the story was about the sisters and they are pretty well developed. They aren't just "sisters who look out for each other." If you simplify characters that way, you make them sound simplistic. As for the other girls, they are sympathetic enough for the audience to want them to survive because these girls don't deserve the treatment they're getting.

Honestly, I find the old "only the main character needs to be developed" excuse to be lame in genernal. Yes, the main character is the most important, but how are we to relate to other characters when we know nothing about them? At least the characters in "Inception" had charm to them in between their interactions with each other, and we know some information about them like their jobs and personality traits. And forgettable? Oh no, I would say Tom Hardy's charm was the stand-out of the movie, giving a performance worthy to make him the next James Bond. On the other hand, we know NOTHING about the Sucker Punch girls, who were just line reading to each other, and while Abbie Cornish showed promise, that small ray of sunlight is lost among the void that's surrounding her.

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia And again, thanks to Snyder's bad storytelling, how are we suppose to relate to how bad the girls are being treated? One girl steals from the kitchen and the cook attacks her over it. Wow, what a hell hole they are in, we should feel pity for them based on this alone!

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia And I just realized this: MWG mentioned the girls dressing up like that because that's how girls in anime dress. The big problem with that is it's called "fan service", which is just a nice way of saying "T&A". The anime girls are dressed that way to lure in horny teenage boys (or men). Yes, there are people in this world who get sexually aroused by cartoon women! So if MWG is trying to defend the movie not being sexist, that excuse is not helping his case, it only confirms that the movie makes the girls look like eye candy for perverts to enjoy.

Well, isn't it obvious they have to please both sides? In Hollywood, the best thing you can ever do is to balance the beam: You want to make what you wanna make, but you shouldn't forget about the masses. I still don't see how it's sexist (and to which gender?).

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia Okay, jeans and a t-shirt doesn't make sense when fighting Nazi zombies and dragons, but a Japanese school girl outfit with bare legs and a bare midriff does make sense? The only outfits that made sense were what Blondie and Sweet Pea were wearing, fully clothed in leather and chainmail. Now that makes sense. But a Japanese schoolgirl outfit and the assless/crotchless chaps that Amber wore? No, sorry, not buying it.

But it's still appropriate for the style of the film.

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia Also Emily Browning was woefully miscasted in this movie. She looks like she's 12 years old, yet we're suppose to believe she's 22? It gave the movie a slight pedophile undertone to it. And how else is it not female empowerment? Well, in order to reach her goals, Baby Doll has to do a dance that is always being described as "raw" and "lots of grinding". So doing a broaderline strip tease is female empowerment? Granted, the dance is never shown on-screen, but then we're left wondering what the big deal about this dance is.

I think the pedophilic undertone was purposefully left there, especially in the opening when the stepfather was going to get the little sister. Along with that, the whole dancing routine is just a way for her to fantasize about her getting to kick some ass. Sure, it may seem counter productive, but she's in a brothel. What do you expect her to do in order to fantasize about fighting?

Here's how the story would have worked, both as a story and as female empowerment: The movie starts as it did with Baby Doll going to the asylum, keep all that. Then show how the inmates are treated like subhumans (as most inmates in aslyums are in real life) and Baby Doll wants out. She befriends the other girls, perhaps by stealing the chocolate and sharing with them, so we can keep that scene. Meanwhile, the girls are having group therapy with Carla Gugino's character, and she teaches them this self-hypnosis trick that sends them into a fantasy world that they can control, and through this method, she teaches them that female empowerment must be a way of thinking, and then a course of action. And then the story plays out with them stealing the four items, using the self-hypnosis trick to give themselves confindence, and Sweet Pea escapes, etc. That would have worked. But instead, Snyder gave us his poorly done version of "Inception", proving that while he knows how to put together pretty images, he can't write his way out a wet paper bag.

But the thing is that Snyder didn't make that story. Sure, the version you came up with is much simpler and easier to understand, but Snyder didn't think of that. I'm not saying that Sucker Punch has the best plot structure ever, but it's one of those films that you just have to go along with and not ask, "Why doesn't he do this instead?"

Originally posted by SuperTeenTopia And again, thanks to Snyder's bad storytelling, how are we suppose to relate to how bad the girls are being treated? One girl steals from the kitchen and the cook attacks her over it. Wow, what a hell hole they are in, we should feel pity for them based on this alone!

Well, before all of that happens, it was already implied that the mental asylum is a corrupt place. Furthermore, we find out that the sisters were brought to the asylum in a shady manner. She steals chocolate because it's obvious that they get sh*t food to eat. It's like saying, "Why should I feel pity for a Jew in a camp when he's stealing bread?" The state the girls are in is bad enough and one doesn't have to go into deep reasoning to see why they do what they do.

If I may,I think you're both confusing the terms.Implying BABYDOLL and her sister were about to get raped was context,not undertone.The undertone has to do with their outfits,although I disagree on that.

Oh,so it's not because of the school girl outfit?Yeah,that wouldn't be fair.A lot of grown men like watching women of any age in those and it doesn't mean they're pedophiles.

I actually liked this movie. It's not anything great but I had fun with it. Vanessea Hudginsens looks kinda hot with a machine gun.