Now, almost a decade later, I have the luxury of rewatching this with all the past years defenses and criticisms in mind, and all the extra "information" now out in the open.
I think, ultimately, that the verdict on this is written by a single act alone: Zack Snyder spending almost a year continually having to "explain" all the parts of the movie as he "intended" them to be, and the continual fanbases' whine of "you just don't get it".
If the large majority of people didn't get what you were trying to say in the movie, then THAT'S THE MOVIE'S FAULT. Not the audience - that's a failure to communicate what you intended. That's bad moviemaking. If you have to dig through 3 layers of meaning to get to what the supposed "proper" one is, then again, the movie is a failure as art. You can't claim to be talking about some particular topic when you layer the completely opposite 10 miles deep on top, and then fail to acknowledge that your message is in complete opposition to what your movie actually shows and promotes.
That's not to say that all art has to be 1 dimensional and superficial. But the fact is, Sucker Punch is a morass of conflicting messages that it results in an almost unwatchable mess. It can't decide whether it is a parody, social criticism, straight porn, or just an anime action homage. Snyder doesn't have the intelligence as a scriptwriter and director to juggle the competing messages successfully - he just presents them all together, as "Choice A, B, and C", then whines that "Of course you were supposed to pick C!" when there's no reason to do that whatsoever.
Given Snyder's movies in the intervening decade, Sucker Punch is a pretty good example of how he's not an auteur, and, frankly, more like a Michael Bay where visuals "tell the story", which, if the truth be told, is frankly almost completely lacking in any impact. It's all flash and no substance. There really is No There There.
To quote another poster on the internet: Sucker Punch really is deep. As a puddle.
Failure, thy name is Zack
Now, almost a decade later, I have the luxury of rewatching this with all the past years defenses and criticisms in mind, and all the extra "information" now out in the open.
I think, ultimately, that the verdict on this is written by a single act alone: Zack Snyder spending almost a year continually having to "explain" all the parts of the movie as he "intended" them to be, and the continual fanbases' whine of "you just don't get it".
If the large majority of people didn't get what you were trying to say in the movie, then THAT'S THE MOVIE'S FAULT. Not the audience - that's a failure to communicate what you intended. That's bad moviemaking. If you have to dig through 3 layers of meaning to get to what the supposed "proper" one is, then again, the movie is a failure as art. You can't claim to be talking about some particular topic when you layer the completely opposite 10 miles deep on top, and then fail to acknowledge that your message is in complete opposition to what your movie actually shows and promotes.
That's not to say that all art has to be 1 dimensional and superficial. But the fact is, Sucker Punch is a morass of conflicting messages that it results in an almost unwatchable mess. It can't decide whether it is a parody, social criticism, straight porn, or just an anime action homage. Snyder doesn't have the intelligence as a scriptwriter and director to juggle the competing messages successfully - he just presents them all together, as "Choice A, B, and C", then whines that "Of course you were supposed to pick C!" when there's no reason to do that whatsoever.
Given Snyder's movies in the intervening decade, Sucker Punch is a pretty good example of how he's not an auteur, and, frankly, more like a Michael Bay where visuals "tell the story", which, if the truth be told, is frankly almost completely lacking in any impact. It's all flash and no substance. There really is No There There.
To quote another poster on the internet: Sucker Punch really is deep. As a puddle.