Kevin's Watch

What the hell is this crap??

Okay, I suppose I must post a bit more. Honestly, that's all I wanted to say. I'm not sure the movie deserves anymore than an outraged expression of disapproving bewilderment. But I've got to be fair and admit that I took a nap about 45 minutes into it, and then woke up for the last 30 minutes. Ordinarily, I wouldn't complain about a movie that I didn't bother to watch all the way through, but Ki watched it while I slept and confirmed my suspicions: this was nothing more than an excuse to dress women in skimpy outfits and watch them fight over and over and over. It's another video game movie, with even less plot or character development than Scott Pilgrim. God, I hope this isn't a trend. Video games don't make good movies. Many of them don't even make good games.

Ki is working on a screenplay, I'm helping a little bit too. This has caused us to look at movies with a more critical eye. We've always been critical and attentive, but now we make observations like, "Ah, so that was Plot Point one. Act Two has now begun." You know, trying to learn the structure of the craft. Well, the first plot point for his movie was 'Baby Doll' receiving her Quest from the Wise Man. Up until this point, the main character has barely spoken a word. There is absolutely no warning or buildup to her receiving her Quest. There is more explanation and buildup in a Mario game. One can understand and accept Mario's object of rescuing a princess. It's all the explanation you need to start running, jumping, and smashing blocks. But when you're not the player of a game, but rather a member of the audience, a little emotional connection would be nice. Imagine if Thomas Covenant had been dropped into the Land without any buildup or connection being made with this character. Imagine if he had not spoken a word yet. I'm not sure if I would have kept reading. Without knowing what makes him tick, I wouldn't have cared to see where he goes.

Well, once Baby Doll received her quest out of the blue, I realized that this movie wouldn't even try to have a plot or character development, and went to take a nap. Ki confirmed later that it was just a series of pretty fight scenes. I don't have the patience for that. There is a right way to do this, and a wrong way. I've already seen The Matrix. Neo's quest to escape a mental prison and accept his role as The One is how it's done. You can't base an entire movie on a look or a style. There has to be some substance there. And that substance must be something other than female flesh.

But maybe I'm wrong, and I missed too much to judge. Anyone else out there like it? Care to tell me what I've overlooked?

Zarathustra wrote:this was nothing more than an excuse to dress women in skimpy outfits and watch them fight over and over and over.

You say that like it's a bad thing

I would say I agree with you on the rest, but I fell asleep partway through as well... so I will withhold judgment

It's Zack Synder, what did you expect? That guy couldn't direct himself out of a paper sack. His movies are always based on someone elses' creative work and always, always, always suck in comparison with that original work. Watchmen? Dawn of the Dead? And now this...

Sounds like the title is aimed at anyone who paid to see this in the theatre.

Yeah, this was pretty bad. Pretty, but bad.

I haven't watched it...because I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in the middle of the trailer.

I enjoyed this movie and thought it was quite good.

It was a little bit more intellectual than I was initially expecting. I was expecting a lot of GKA action. And there was, but the action was metaphoric, and it was to tell a poignant story. I also watched it without my wife, thinking that it was male fantasy stuff. But it's not really, I think she probably would have enjoyed it.

Fortunately, the one thing I did know going into it was that it was a comic book movie, like Watchmen. So I fully expected the action scenes to be overblown and overdramatic. Which they were. But, as I said, they are metaphoric action scenes, overtly so, and in this movie, that works. Much more so than Scott Pilgrim, where such scenes are supposed to be more ostensibly real, or more subtly metaphoric anyway.

Anyone familiar with the Chronicles could not help but spot the similarities. People transported to a fantasy realm and given quests, but what's really at stake is your inner self. It's about fighting despair, and sacrifice.

Best movie ever? No. But it's way better than a thread with all negative posts would lead you to believe, I feel. I would recommend it to anyone whose up for an action movie that makes you think at the same time.

Fair enough. Good to know some enjoyed it. Like I said, I didn't watch the whole thing, so I was open to the possibility that I missed its redeeming qualities.

However, 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'd say the opinions in this thread are in line with the critics, at least (audience score was a bit higher).

I liked it. Mostly, I liked the story it was trying to tell, I liked the fight scenes, and I liked the soundtrack. I can see why it didn't fare well on the tomatometer, though; it seems the producer was more interested in making another Sin City than anything else.

I'm with the minority on this one in that I liked the film. I think that going into the cinema in the full knowledge that this was going to be cinematic candyfloss not roast beef - and accepting it as that - allowed me to just lie back and wallow in the visuals, and it worked. The fights (especially for a gamer like myself) were great, the girls were beautiful and it did what it said on the tin. To me it's all a case of expectations vs. reality. Where the two differ too much, dissapointment always results.

More worrying for me is the problem some people seem to have had with 'Watchmen'. God I loved that film! I saw the film before reading the graphic novel and for me, the one only served to enhance the other - in both directions. The music score of the film (JH's All Along the Watchtower in the final ice wilderness with Rorsarch and ?) was simply unbelievable. That film ticked every box I know for a great night at the cinema for me. How could anyone not like it (puzzled, not disputing question - and sad that what I experienced is clearly not available to all).

Zarathustra wrote:What the hell is this crap??

Okay, I suppose I must post a bit more.

nope, that sums it up pretty nicely I reckon ...

hired Sucker Punch on dvd the other night.

what a goddamned mess of a movie, I hated it within the first 5 minutes (probably sooner), probably the quickest I have ever made a judgement on a film.

Zach Snyder's story was ambitious, I'll give him that (although quite similar in conception to Inception, which I enjoyed a lot), unfortunately he was unable to extract anything interesting from a premise that sounded ok on paper.

The opening and closing monologue's were painfully overwrought.
The 'baddies' were so one-note as to be laughable (to his credit Oscar Isaac seemed to have a bit of fun with his ridiculous role).

The flimsy plot was poorly 'advanced', with the main characters required to complete various fantastical levels and obtain certain objects (a map, a key, I didnt care enough at this stage to pay attention to what the other ones were) in order to achieve their goals - it was basically like a computer game.

Any red-blooded male who saw the posters or previews for Sucker Punch may be, erm, tempted to invest their time on this film in order to more fully appreciate the scantily-clad young women whose images were heavily used to promote it - unfortunately you would be very disappointed if this was the case, as Snyder somehow makes these fetishized women sexless and boring.

Emily Browning is ok in the lead role, particularly when she doesnt speak.

There are dozens of films/t.v. shows with plot devices comparable to Donaldson's Covenant books which I love; I must have a predilection for anti-escapism; however this film just left me cold and I saw it as an abject failure of the director to juggle the various tones he was trying to balance.

I hated it.

2/10 (the '2' is given solely for the occasionally imaginative visuals/CGI)

There are precious few films that are so bad that I get mad at them. This is one of them. It doesn't even succeed as masturbation fodder.

I agree that there was an interesting idea there, but the execution was awful.

It was a pretty bad movie, but I still kind of enjoyed it. The thing is, considering the utter predictability and lack of any kind of nuance, they could've cut it down to between 30 and 45 minutes and not lost anything.