Some days I swear the Internet reads my mind. I have been working on a post about how 'Sucker Punch' has been getting a raw deal from critics (who are full of shit most times) and the movie's target audience - geeks who are never happy with anything no matter how cool or perfectly tailored to us the movie, TV show, comic book or novel is. We bitch about about movies like '300' or 'Watchmen' instead of celebrating the mere fact that our favorite comic book tales actually got made and are right there for us to enjoy, live, on the big screen. We complain about the tiniest little things instead of having perspective and looking at the project as a whole. No one takes more crap for making GOOD movies than Zack Snyder.
Brother Mike D over at Cultural Compulsive Disorder sent me this article that articulates everything that I had been thinking about when I saw that 'Sucker Punch' only received a 20% 'fresh' rating from 'Rotten Tomatoes. To me that is a quarter of the positive reviews that this movie deserved. I suspect that in six months there will be many genre fans who will quietly place this movie as one of the most 'fun' and 'entertaining' movies they saw all year.
I learned a long time ago to not let the pack mentality of critics determine what I do or do not want to see. They often have opinions that are radical different than my own. If you have read any of my movie reviews you will see that I am entertained by pretty much anything as long as the filmmakers put some effort into their project. You have to mess up in a pretty big way to gain a 5/10 from me. Maybe I am too forgiving in my assessments or maybe I just look to reward the good I see instead of punishing and bitching about the bad. I see the glass half full in this area of my life (popular entertainment) which runs counter to my usual opinions about life in general.
I love to watch movie review programs because I enjoy hearing what other people think of the films opening in theatres. Often they justify my own reasons to want to see a certain movie in the first place. Sometimes they infuriate me with their 'educated film student' arrogance.
I have a person grudge with the new movie review show 'Ebert at the Movies' in which new critic Ignaty Vishnevetsky has a bug so far up his priggish little ass that he can't seem to enjoy any movie that was made in color and released post 1930. His love for arcane black and white French cinema is obvious. To him, no one has made a good movie since 'The Bicycle Thief'. I hate his reviews because I know there is no way he will like anything. He is predisposed to being disappointed by any film that smacks of popular entertainment. He must be infuriating to be around in real life as he is on that program. Just watch one episode of this new TV show and tell me I am wrong and you don't want to smack him upside the head. Just looking and listening to the contempt he has for all of us movie fans is beyond irritating.
So check out this article and tell me what you think. If you have seen 'Sucker Punch', does what the author claim ring true with you? If you have avoided seeing 'Sucker Punch' because of all the bad press or word of mouth I would encourage you to remember how much you wanted to see this movie when you first saw the trailer for it last summer. If you can lower your impossibly high expectations, I would encourage you go give it a try. You may surprise yourself and find a whole new respect for Zack Snyder and his visual genius.
http://geekscape.net/the-problem-isn-t-zack-snyder-the-problem-is-you.html
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11 comments:
WORD! As a horror fan, I have learned that critics and fans (on sites like Cinemaclock) will always rate horror movies on the low end of the spectrum. Always. Even if it's a finely tuned instrument played by a genius scaremaster (as is, I would suggest, Insidious), it won't get the same love as an equally well crafted feelgood movie. My theory is that it's tough to make an objective evaluation on a film that makes you feel, essentially, bad.
In any case, I also go see movies because I love most of them. Even if it isn't a great film, I almost always enjoy the experience. I don't understand why you would become a film reviewer if you dislike most movies. Yikes.
I pay exactly ZERO attention to what critics say. I TOTALLY loved both 300 and Watchmen. To me, these movies were pure art. They were beautiful. I'm sure I'll love Sucker Punch as well.
Along that line...
There was a movie made about 10 years ago that totally flopped. It started Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio and Jennifer Lopez. The name of the movie was "The Cell." It wasn't the greatest movie ever, that's for sure. Maybe it wasn't even good. BUT, it was so beautiful. The colors and effects were amazing. If you haven't seen it already, I think you'll like it a lot...
Pat, I loved 'The Cell'. It was made by Tarsem who does movies with fantastic visuals. If you liked 'The Cell' you will love one of his other movies called 'The Fall'. To tell you what it's about would spoil it for you but I highly recommend it. The little girl in it is amazing but the visuals are what keep me going back to this one.
Another movie I really loved that got critically panned was 'The Fountain' by Darren Aronofsky. He recently made 'Black Swan' The final 20 minutes of 'The Fountain' still leave me breathless.
I knew exactly what I expected Sucker Punch to be and still knew I would like it - then I saw it and was actually surprised at how much better it was (on so many levels) than I had anticipated!
not seen it yet, but have every intention of doing so, regardless of what anyone - friend or foe - has to say about it. I got no time for the begrudgers, them people never gonna be happy, no matter what.
& you know what? I LOVE both 300 AND Watchmen. there. I said it. & I feel better, now.
I haven't watched Sucker Punch because I'm not familiar with this movie and didn't even know that it had bad press until I visited your blog just now.
So, I'm glad that you provided some advance noticed on the way that the film is being treated by critics because that will at least remind me to give it a chance if I ever decide to check the film out sometime in the future.
I have lots of films on my list that I'm trying to get through and don't watch those TV movie review programs much but your post here has such a moving argument regarding the critique for this film and other films by that one guy, that I'm interested enough to check out one of the videos to find out what you're talking about.
I doubt that I'll want to smack him upside the head because I don't prefer that type of solution to aggravation, but I'll let you know if his reviews make me want to scream, lol.
The Madlab Post
I only mentally want to smack him because something called 'THE LAW' disapproves of it. But he does annoy me with this attitude and his name and his hatred of color film. Come into the 22nd Century buddy.
I met Roger Ebert years ago. He was a very friendly guy and qyuite entertaining. He had the worst pallor I had ever seen on a human being. His skin was a ghastly pale and his lips were purple -- he looked like the Baron from David Lynch's Dune -- but he was entertaining to be around and he talked about writing the script for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls which is universally regarded as one stinker of a movie.
I haven't watched his show since Gene Siskel died but this new guys sounds like a complete yutz.
I always like Roger Ebert and learned alot about movies from him. I followed his recent medical issues with great interest and am happy to see him on the rebound desptite being disfigured. This punk they put on his new movie review show is an insult to film critisism. He is such an elitest prig whose movie recomendations are all French and black and white from the 1930s. I kid you not. I think I only watch the show on Friday just to test myself how much I can hate him. I thought I had a limit but apparently not.
Ebert is a great critic, one of the last few left. I regard his opinion well. How he picked this asshole to be on his show is beond me. I watched an episode of the show today where not only did he give 3 out of 4 movies the thumbs down (He liked Super... I was shocked), but he belittled his co-host for disagreeing with him by saying things like "12 year olds could have made a better movie"... this despite the fact that his co-host is also a PROFESSIONAL CRITIC. He also gave the movie that won this years Acdemy Award for Best Foreign Film a Thumbs Down. WHat a dick.
Thanks for being the first one who has seen the new Ebert show to agree with me that that punk is brutal at his job. The snarky looks on his face when anyone likes a movie made TODAY IN COLOR just infuriates me. Dick is right.
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