Movie Review Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch (2011) 

Directed by Zack Snyder

Written by Zack Snyder

Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jon Hamm, Carla Gugino

Release Date March 25th, 2011

Published March 24th, 2011

"Sucker Punch" is ostensibly a story about an abused teenage girl who is sent to an insane asylum by her evil step father who hopes she will be lobotomized before she can tell anyone about his crimes. Babydoll, as the girl comes to be called for her affinity for pigtails and short skirts, has five days before a doctor will come to deliver her lobotomy.

In those five days the hospital transforms from an asylum to a brothel where Babydoll and fellow inmates, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung) are featured performers in a burlesque show. Babydoll quickly becomes the main attraction with her mesmerizing dances.

We, however, never actually see Babydoll dance. For Babydoll, dancing becomes a fantasy world where she retreats into a chimerical world filled with dangers that she and her friends must defeat in order to gather the materials they will need for an elaborate and fiery escape.

Babydoll's dance fantasies are fanboy dreams realized with monster robot ninjas, dragons and Nazi machines right out of a bizarre sci fi comic book. The images that Zack Snyder crafts in "Sucker Punch" are extravagant geek fantasies where gorgeous girls in fetish wear wield swords and machine guns against the kinds of villains only Frank Miller or Neil Gaiman might imagine.

If that sounds cool to you then you are likely in the target audience for "Sucker Punch." For me however, "Sucker Punch" is a confounding exercise in Zack Snyder's typical style over substance filmmaking. As with his "Dawn of the Dead" remake, his interpretation of "300" and his take on "Watchman," Snyder's "Sucker Punch" is yet another impersonal homage to what he thinks the audience wants to see.

Zack Snyder as an artist is a cipher; he has no style of his own. "300" was the vision of Frank Miller taken almost frame by frame from his graphic novel. "Watchman," though disowned by creator Alan Moore, was as faithful to the graphic novel's imagery as Snyder could be while adapting the story to cinema standards.

"Dawn of the Dead" too has little life of its own beyond the 1979 George Romero original. The film has the same beat and energy as the original and while the characters and settings have been updated to modern times, there is little that Zack Snyder brought to "Dawn of the Dead" in terms of subtext that George Romero hadn't brought to the original.

Now comes "Sucker Punch" , a seemingly original effort. Yet, despite not having a literary source, "Sucker Punch" still plays homage, like a movie made for others and not by one visionary artist. The geek fantasies at play in "Sucker Punch" are so market tested to particular fanboy tastes that one could assign "Sucker Punch" as an adaptation of Comic Con, the annual comics and entertainment gathering in San Diego, California.

Comic Con invites fans from across the globe to San Diego where costumed characters celebrate their favorite geek fetish properties from "Star Wars," to the latest comic book movie adaptation to little known Asian import comics and movies. Fans of sci fi, swords and girls in schoolgirl uniforms carrying swords cannot get enough of comic con.

Zack Snyder even announced the planned production of "Sucker Punch" at Comic Con 2009 while promoting his "Watchman" adaptation. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with knowing your audience but "Sucker Punch" has nothing of substance beyond the demonstration of geek fetish imagery.

Zack Snyder's highly stylized CGI worlds are impressive technical creations but his characters are cardboard cutouts placed inside a computer image and dressed to please the drooling masses. Fans of a well told story will be out of luck watching "Sucker Punch" which can barely be considered coherent at times.

The switch from the insane asylum to a brothel to the fantasy fight landscapes are so bizarre that many will be too confused to bother trying to figure out why person A is shooting robot B while blowing up robot C. There is zero logic in "Sucker Punch" and that leaves only the titillating aspects which, as I mentioned before, will only satisfy the faithful.

Movie Review: Watchman

Watchmen (2009) 

Directed by Zack Snyder 

Written by David Hayter, Alex Tse

Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earl Haley, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson

Release Date March 6th, 2009 

Published March 6th, 2009 

In his review of Watchmen critic David Poland nails one of the major issues with the movie. Paraphrasing Mr. Poland: Watchmen is like someone recounting a funny anecdote that ends with 'I guess you had to be there'. For anyone who isn't a member of the Watchmen fanboy cult this movie is a meaningless morass of superhero arcana.

For those more familiar with but not in fealty to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons legendary comics series it is a dishearteningly dull and dreary filmgoing experience that takes up 2 hours and45 minutes without providing any insight beyond Dr. Manhattan's desperate need for a pair of shorts.

Set in an alternate reality 1984 where with the help of superheroes like Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) America won the war in Vietnam and Richard Nixon remains President, Watchmen is a desolate fantasy of cold war tension and gritty urban cityscape.

The death of the Comedian, killed in his apartment, thrown through a plate glass window to the street below, sets the plot in motion. One his fellow former heroes, Rorschach thinks he senses a pattern beginning. The Comedian's murder leads him to believe someone is afte masked heroes.

Whether the motive is political, the Comedian has checkered history as one of Nixon's favorite right wing commandos, or something else, Rorschach is convinced the Comedian won't be the last target. He sets about warning former members of the hero group the Watchmen.

First up is his old pal Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) who seems dubious of his old friends' suspicions, but is soon himself passing warnings on to Ozymandias aka the world's smartest man who is more forceful in his dismissal. Next up for Rorschach is the super couple of Laurie "Silk Spectre 2" Jupiter (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhattan who have more important things to worry about.

Manhattan is the only one of the group with any actual super powers, he was the subject of an nuclear accident that turned him into a blue ball of energy in human form by his sheer will. He cannot be killed so why should he worry about a mask killer. For her part, Laurie is more selfishly concerned with her growing disconnect with Manhattan whose inhumanity grows more by the day.

She is drawn to Nite Owl for reasons only she knows and soon the two have taken up with each other as Manhattan faces personal exile to Mars after disturbing accusations. Comedian dead, Manhattan leaving earth and a subsequent failed attempt on the life of Ozymandias, further inflames Rorschach toward uncovering a stunning conspiracy that effects more than just the supers.

I have read Watchmen the graphic novel twice and was both times electrified by Moore's urgent storytelling and Dave Gibbons striking images. I don't buy into Watchmen as one of history's greatest bits of fiction but as a rollicking superhero yarn, it is a seminal work of the genre, a work that has shaped much of what came after it in the medium.

Director Zack Snyder seems to be of the opinion that he adapting the bible for the big screen and offers the treatment only a fellow zealot could appreciate. His love for the comic supercedes the judgements that needed to be made to turn the comic into a movie. The religious zeal blinding Snyder to the necessity for cuts and changes that could have made Watchmen something of his own.

Then again, Snyder is best known for being a conduit for the mass reproduction of other people's genius. His debut feature was a modest update but mostly homage to horror master George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. His next feature was an overly literal replication of George Miller's swords and sandals comic 300.

The success of 300 is what brought Snyder to Watchmen after so many other, more talented and unique directors failed to get it going. Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass head an impressive list of filmmakers once attached to this quickly aging bit of cold war superhero suspense but they could never quite get a handle on Moore's prose or compete with Gibbons' visionary squares.

Snyder for his part fails just as they did, it's just that his failure is actually on the screen. The difference however is that where Gilliam and Greengrass wanted to make Watchmen with their own stamp, Snyder is only interested in using the comic as storyboard and replicate the words and images using real actors.

Snyder is like some rich dilletante playing chess with live pieces. His Watchmen amounts to little more than a whole lot of gaudy showing off. Given a budget in the hundreds of millions, Snyder is playing poker with house money to bring his favorite comic book to life before his eyes. He's like Richie Rich hiring the Denver Broncos to play football with his pals in the backyard.

That might sound like fun but it plays like one fanboy showing off for a bunch of other fanboys and that will do nothing to satisfy those not already in the Watchmen cult. Trust me, if you do not absolutely love Watchmen. If you are not slightly buzzed by the idea of Rorschach coming to bloody life on screen or the thought of Dr. Manhattan blowing up the Vietnamese with the wave of his hand, you have no reason to see this movie.

It's not that there aren't good things about Watchmen, it's just that the good things are as pointless and overbearing as the bad stuff. Jackie Earl Haley for instance is astonishingly compelling as Rorschach. He could have been good in just about any other movie, I assume, Watchmen is merely the role in front of him and he makes the most of it.

The rest of the cast is pretty hit and miss. Crudup effectively captures Dr. Manhattan's otherworldly disconnectedness and Patrick Wilson is not bad as a Bruce Wayne post Batman character who finds life purposeless and dull without his alter-ego.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Carla Gugino hover somewhere in the middle between the good of Crudup and Wilson and the utter disasters that are Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode. Morgan struggles only because most of his character motivation is cut for time. Gugino as the original Silk Spectre is a functionary character who only exists because the plot kinda requires her to.

As Akerman's mother she allegedly pushed her daughter into being a hero. That however, will not be as clear to those who haven't read the book. Akerman tosses off her character's deepest motivation to be a hero in a toss off conversation with Wilson's Nite Owl as they prepare for some kinky masked love making.

The romantic subplot is also an ineffective holdover from the novel. Short shrifted by time constraints, it means little in the context of the central plot and takes up a lot of time for what amounts to some mild well shot female nudity. It doesn't help that Akerman, under an awful wig, is less expressive than Rorschach's masked moving ink blots.

Matthew Goode as Ozymandias is handicapped by the fact that Alan Moore in the comic seemed to find him the least interesting character. His back story is dull and his super power, the world's smartest man is mostly left off screen. He does seem to have super strength, at least in the late fight scenes, but under a David Spade haircut, he doesn't exactly cut an intimidating figure.

Maybe Ozymandias isn't supposed to be intimidating. Maybe that is beside the point but then why the fight scenes? Oh who cares. In the end, that is the real question. Who really cares? Beyond the Watchmen cult, the Watchmen movie will be a curiousity that likely will not linger on to far past opening weekend box office.

Among the cult, I can only hope that they find comfort in their fellow fanboy's indulgence of the thing they love so much. Otherwise we could have mass handwringing on the level of post Phantom Menace depression, a depression that lingers still for far too many basement dwellers.

Movie Review Legend of the Guardian The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Legend of the Guardians The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Written by John Orloff, Emil Stern

Starring Jim Sturgess, Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish

Release Date September 24th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010

Why a movie about warrior owls? Where did this idea come from? Who saw this and thought 'Warrior Owls? Brilliant!" As baffling as the idea may be, “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole” is for real and arrives in theaters with the help of some extraordinary animation and the marketing hook of 3D.

Soren (Voice of Jim Sturgess, 21) is a dreamer who lives for his father's stories about the Warriors of Ga'Hoole, Owl defenders who protect the meek from the tyranny of evil owls. Though the Warriors have not been heard of in years, Soren and little sister Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria) are fervent believers in the legend while Soren's brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) has tired of the stories.

Soren and Kludd will soon have the chance to verify the reality of the Warriors of Ga'Hoole when they find themselves kidnapped by the evil Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and forced to become warriors for the Pure Owls or lowly workers deep inside of mines where Owl's, zombified by Moon Blindness, sift endlessly for pieces of a new and deadly weapon.

Soren being brave and defiant quickly takes to the aid of an Elf Owl named Gylfie (Emily Barclay) and the two seek freedom with the help of a former kidnappee, Grimble (Hugo Weaving), who teaches them to fly and points them in the direction of the Warriors of Ga'Hoole.

Soren and Gylfie are charged with flying halfway round the world to the great tree to find and warn the warriors. Along the way they are joined by a misfit pair of Owls who pitch in to help, Digger (David Wenham) and Twilight (Anthony LaPaglia). Indeed, the Warriors are real as is Soren's hero Ezylrib (Geoffrey Rush) who literally and figuratively takes young Soren under his wing.

The stakes are set quickly and easily by director Zack Snyder (“300”, “The Watchmen”) and though the storytelling is elementary, the animation is as epic and complex as anything you've ever seen before. Snyder, for all his bombast, is a visionary who sees a massive epic where people like me see merely warrior owls.

Snyder's visionary approach brings massive scope and scale to what otherwise seems a minor kids story. Author Kathryn Lasky's book series is pitched with simple stories; simple meanings intended to offer valuable lessons for kids in the 5 to 12 age group. Under the direction of Mr. Snyder, the story remains childish and simple but the vision and the design are aimed at any audience seeking a dynamic visual experience.

Indeed, “Legend of the Guardians” is an exceptional visual feast filled with pitched battles, and stunning scenes of flight. Even when the owls are grounded one cannot help but be dazzled by the detailed animation that is rivaled only by the artists at Pixar. See Legend of the Guardians in its Digital presentation and you will be awed by the color and contours of the animation.

Sadly, in 3D Digital, “Legend of the Guardians” is robbed of a true dimension. Sure, things leap off of the screen but because the science of 3D Glasses has yet to catch up with the new generation of on screen 3D technology, the glasses strangle the color and rather than adding to the experience it hampers it. Having seen a Digital 2D presentation and the 3D Presentation there is simply no competition, 2D Digital blows the 3D away.

The complex colors are not merely a visual extravagance. During the massive battle sequence at the crescendo of Legend of the Guardians, color becomes important in determining who is fighting who and where our rooting interest lies. Digital 3D dulls the colors and strains the eye while Digital 2D presents bright, vivid color and the effect is breathtaking.

A visual spectacular, “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole” is not likely to win any awards for great storytelling. This is a very simple story with a solid, worthy message about protecting those in need and fighting evil. It's told with the kind of simplicity that will bore adults but will be easy for small children to follow. The key appeal of “Legend of the Guardians” is the visual feast and on that account, it's worth the price of a 2D Digital ticket, if not a 3D ticket.

Movie Review: 300

300 (2007) 

Directed by Zack Snyder

Written by Kurt Johnston 

Starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Michael Fassbender

Release Date March 9th, 2007 

Published March 8th, 2007

Frank Miller is the pre-eminant graphic novelist of this short century and now that film technology has reached the ability to present his vision on screen we are being treated to some astonishing works. His Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez, was a mind blowing exercise in cool. Now comes 300 a historical novel that uses the graphic novel form to render history in a most visceral and modern fashion.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead), 300 is about bravery, manhood and desire. But more than anything, 300 is about style and rendering Frank Miller's vision on the screen in the most slavishly accurate ways imaginable, short of just making it straight animation.

The Persian army is spreading like a virus across continents; slaughtering millions and enslaving millions more. Now, standing on the doorstep of the Roman empire, the Persian king Xerxes looks to complete his world domination but first a small band of warriors stand in his way. The greatest warriors in the world, Spartans, stand in a small corridor between the Persians and the conquer of the Roman empire.

Leading the Spartans is their king Leonides (Gerard Butler) who refused to kneel to Xerxes when he was offered a truce. Xerxes is well aware of the reputation of Spartan soldiers as the greatest fighters in the world and had attempted negotiation. Leonides ended the negotiation by killing the messenger. However, before he could go to war he had to consult the gods.

The Ephors, mountain top dwelling cretins, are the conduit between Sparta and the gods. They deny his call for war leaving Leonides with one option. Taking 300 warriors, men with sons who could carry on their names after they die, Leonides heads toward the coasts, toward Thermopylae where he will stand against Xerxes army and hope that his bravery moves the gods enough to bring back-up and take war to the Persians.

Based on the novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a visually arresting force of nature. Director Zack Snyder stunningly recreates Frank Miller's graphic novel with every blood drop and sword whoosh in tact. It is in fact such a slavish recreation that its fair to criticize Snyder for not bringing something of himself to this epic movie.

Snyder's work is there. He was the one slaving over every shot making sure the actors were at home in their CGI environment and the melding is seemless. Zack Snyder's technical chops are unlimited it would seem but at times they can be a little much. Once you have seen one head spinning in slow motion as it disconnects from its body, you've seen it enough. That scene however, along with many others is repeated over and over throughout 300.

It's all visually impressive but once you become accustomed to the style the repetitive nature becomes mind numbing and tedious. It's no help that this film seems louder than most other films. I know for a fact that 300 is no louder than any other action blockbuster, but with it's raging hordes of Persians, elephants, rhinos and freaks it seems louder.

The films rousing, bombastic score from Tyler Bates is so amped up I was preparing for my face to melt ala the screaming demons of Indiana Jones. Bates' score asaults the ears and while it's not a bad score it's often so amped up you may have to cover your ears to make out the notes.

As happens with epic war movies in the era of Iraq; some critics are applying political allegory. Red staters could if they so choose see the Spartans as a small band of American soldiers standing against the hordes of Persians, read Arabs, with George W. Bush as Leonides. Blue staters see in the small band of spartans defending their homeland from hordes of invaders as an allegory for the Iraqis who are fighting the Goliath American army to protect their homeland.

Both are a great intellectual stretch. Not that Frank Miller's story doesn't have it's depth and metaphor but any relationship to Bush administration policy in Iraq is something you bring to the film on your own. 300 is a film that is about itself. This is a perpetuation of style, an exercise in aesthetic and reveling in technology.

The technology is quite breathtaking. From the computer generated elephants and rhinos to the exquisitely sensual rendering of the female form in slow motion, nearly nude, dance, nearly every scene in 300 is a remarkable visual. Some will compare it to a videogame and considering the advances in technology; that is not an unfair or even unflattering comparison.

Is it historically accurate that the Spartans fought battles wearing only leather panties and red capes? This seems an impractical and discomfiting choice of battle wear. They are right on the coast, the spray off the raging ocean alone must be a little uncomfortable. On the other hand, these outfits are perfect for showing off washboard abs and giant pumped up pecs. Whoever was lucky enough to open that Gold's Gym in Sparta must have been a very rich man.

The gay subtext of 300 I'm sure will be uncomfortable for some. But the fact is that with all of these pumped up bodies on display in all of their sweat soaked glory, it's clear that director Zack Snyder wanted some level of homosexual awareness in the picture. Either that or he is clueless and closeted. And there is nothing wrong with that. I admire the bravery of any filmmaker who so daringly displays the male form when the industry standard is to treat women as the eye candy

I liked 300 but I didn't love it. Maybe some of it was the hype or my own high expectations but I was slightly disappointed. From the trailer I expected a similar giddy thrill to what I experienced watching Frank Miller's Sin City. Instead I found myself, mildly thrilled and loving the work of Frank Miller but underwhelmed by the film made from it.

300 is an undeniable achievement in visual filmmaking and that alone is enough to recommend it. Just be sure to temper your expectations. The lower the better.

Movie Review: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead (2004) 

Directed by Zack Snyder

Written by James Gunn 

Starring Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Webber, Mekhi Pfifer

Release Date March 19th, 2004

Published March 18th, 2004

Top 5 Lessons for Surviving A Zombie Attack from Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide (Three Rivers Press $12.95)

1. Organize Before they rise

2. They feel no fear, Why should you?

3. Use Your Heads: Cut off theirs

4. Blades don't need reloading.

5. No Place is Safe, Only Safer

Sage advice for the cast of the movie Dawn of The Dead, the "reimagining" of director George A. Romero's schlock classic by first time director Zach Tyler and writer James Gunn.

Indie staple Sarah Polley stars in the new Dawn as Ana, a nurse on the run after watching her husband turned into a zombie by a ten-year-old neighbor girl. Ana at first doesn't know they are zombies but after hooking up with a ragtag group of fellow living souls, she soon comes to realize that the dead have indeed risen. Ana is joined by a taciturn cop Kenny (Ving Rhames), a studious businessman Michael (Jake Weber) and a couple with a baby on the way (Mekhi Phifer and Inna Korakoba).

There are others but they are mostly zombie food. Other than Michael Kelly as mall security guard CJ, none of the remaining supporting cast makes much of an impression. Not that they needed to, they just have to run, scream, look scared and be eaten and each does a terrific job with that. Otherwise, the core cast members, Rhames, Polley et. Al, actually infuse a little life into their stock horror characters.

The action is centered in a suburban mall near Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Toronto and Ontario Canada stand in for Milwaukee). This is where our band of heroes hole up and bond over the shared experience of nearly being eaten by zombies. The actors do a terrific job of letting the audience share in the frightened excitement and confusion of this surreal life and death situation.

So how do the zombies come to be zombies? The film never bothers to explain. Like Romero's original, the zombies simply spring up out of nowhere one day and suddenly neighbors are chewing on neighbors and chaos reigns. The film’s teaser says something about there being no more room in hell, and indeed you should book your plans early if you want to get in, but really there is no explanation. Only the most nitpicky viewer will care how the zombies were conceived and nitpickers never make good horror fans anyway.

Director Zach Tyler and schlock veteran James Gunn, a former writer for Troma films, have a terrific sense of classic zombie farce. Though there zombies are the sped up new generation zombies that don't trip at opportune moments or shuffle slow enough to allow easy escapes, they are still a great source of both scares and humor. In one scene, Rhames and company on the roof of the mall play a unique time-killing game with a gun shop owner on a neighboring rooftop, challenging the marksmen to pick off zombies resembling celebrities.

There are also moments of good drama sprinkled between the gore and the humor. Keep an eye on Phifer and Korakoba. Also, the film’s ending, which some may find unsatisfactory, I found it to be fitting regardless of how well it hues to the original film.

This "reimagining" of Dawn of The Dead doesn't have Romero's cockeyed undercurrent of consumerism allegory. Where Romero used the mall setting for his 1979 film as a platform for social satire, this new film is more action oriented and the humor comes from different sources.

I never expected to like Dawn. On general principle, I oppose most, if not all remakes. Even I must admit when they get one right and they get this one right. Scary, funny, gory and surprisingly well-acted, Dawn Of The Dead is one terrific horror movie.