Cannes Film Festival 2013

Watch: Final 'Sucker Punch' trailer unleashes hot girls, crazy mayhem

Zack Snyder's first original film is almost here

<p>Somehow, war seems a little less scary when it's staged like this by Zack Snyder and the largely female cast of 'Sucker Punch'</p>

Somehow, war seems a little less scary when it's staged like this by Zack Snyder and the largely female cast of 'Sucker Punch'

Credit: Warner/Legendary

Next week, I'll finally be able to talk about my time on the set of "Sucker Punch."  Right now, nothing I say is going to sway people one way or another about the film since there's a new trailer for the movie that is going to pretty much seal whether or not you think you're going to go see the film in the theater.

I can't imagine someone who loves genre films and fantasy filmmaking in general who doesn't think this looks like a visual treat.  The story to the film is a tough one, and I remember thinking that even when Zack and Deb Snyder both described it to us, it seemed like they were struggling to fully sum it up.

What this trailer really does is establish that Snyder's signature is here in full force, but unleashed to just wander and do anything it wants instead of in service to someone else's vision.  I've been reading the gorgeous "Art of" book that Titan is putting out, full of Clay Enos photos from the set, and if nothing else, I am dazzled by the scope of Snyder's unfettered imagination in this one.

When I see someone complain about Snyder's visual work, I honestly don't see the same thing they see.  Snyder plays with time during scenes and during action because that's the way time feels during certain moments, thick and slow and then suddenly fast again.  It communicates something, and it allows for something akin to a comic book panel, a frozen highlight from a larger series of motions.

As far as Snyder's cavalcade of lovely young things goes, it really doesn't matter what sort of woman you love, you'll find yourself drawn to someone in the ensemble.  Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino… that's quite the onslaught of "holy cow."  What really weirds me out is just how striking Emily Browning is these days.  When we showed "Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events" at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, I moderated a Q&A with the two kids from the film, and Emily Browning was, without question, a kid.  And I was pretty much exactly who I am now.  Which freaks me out.

I think I'm oversharing.  It's not my fault.  This trailer gets me antsy, because we've still got some waiting to do.  Check it out:
 



"Sucker Punch" opens on March 25th.

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  • No need for me to watch that. I'm already fully on-board and can't wait to see it. Haters gonna hate, etc.

    February 23, 2011 at 8:39AM EST Reply to Comment
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    MIB

    I also think this looks hella cool (and I'm a straight chick).

    Drew, when are we going to see the next Film Nerd 2.0? Those are great essays, and you've been holding on to the new one too long!

    February 23, 2011 at 10:41AM EST Reply to Comment
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      mmcb105 I second this request. Film Nerd 2.0 is always a great read.

      February 23, 2011 at 2:47PM EST
    • Thirded.

      February 24, 2011 at 11:34AM EST
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    Dryden

    Are people complaining about Snyder's visual work? I read criticisms (legitimate, I think) of his disinterest in things like story, character, and meaning, but nobody argues he doesn't have a sharp eye. I hope this movie is the one where all this imagery comes together with a decent story to be more than a visual treat.

    February 23, 2011 at 11:38AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Ambivalentman

    I'm a fan of Zack Snyder films, and look forward to "Sucker Punch." But, it seems so weird that in a film which the trailer portrays as a girls' fantasy world, that the girls fantasize about themselves in fetish clothing. It's like Snyder is inviting us to shout "misogyny." I'll be interested to see how much like the trailers the movie actually is.

    February 23, 2011 at 11:39AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Why can't women like fetish clothing?

      February 23, 2011 at 1:41PM EST
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    chris

    here's my thing with snyder,
    his stuff always comes off as so pretentious. "this is sparta!" on 300, "from the visionary director of 3oo" on watchmen, "you will be unprepared!" on this one. snyder doesn't have much of a personality of his own as a filmmaker, he mostly just copies other people, that's okay, but it seems like a mistake to position these movies as if they're somehow going to blow my mind.
    snyder's movies are always kinda goofy. i have no problem with goofy, but i don't think they know they're goofy. i think he thinks he's making high art. so they have that vibe of a highschool girls poetry. .
    i really think snyder thinks he's on the level of nolan or the wachowski's or ridley scott or something, and he just doesn't have that kind of visual intellectual sophistication.
    he doesn't even have the visual sophistication of bay. and i like bay, he doesn't always work, but he knows what kinds of movies he makes.

    February 23, 2011 at 12:16PM EST Reply to Comment
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    MIB

    Okay, the Reply function isn't working for me.

    Re: Ambivalentman, I understand where you're coming from, but the way I interpret it is "fantasy = not really happening physically", as opposed to "fantasy = what I really want". As in, I don't see it as their fantasy to have to fight all this stuff, either. To me, the clothing is as much of the genre conventions they're being forced into as the fights are. (In contrast to, say, the end of Watchmen [the book], where Laurie's talking about how she wants her new "mask" outfit to be tougher and more useful in the real world.) Does that make sense? Then again, maybe I'm just a former English major from a liberal arts college trying to justify to my feminist side that the genre fan in me thinks this all looks awesome. :-)

    February 23, 2011 at 12:21PM EST Reply to Comment
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      MIB (and which one I'd want to dress up as for Halloween) (and now "reply" is working)

      February 23, 2011 at 12:24PM EST
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    Mark

    The problem for me with Snyder's work is it is completely soulless. And this is a big stumbling block for a man about to tackle Superman. He's a cool stylist and designer. He's just not a very good film director.

    February 23, 2011 at 12:26PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Monterey Jack

    Lookit all the pretty Teal & Orange...

    February 23, 2011 at 12:55PM EST Reply to Comment


  • I'm a huge fan and full-on supporter of the 'genre bash'. And, this film is that in spades and then some.

    IF Snyder pulls this off (that's a big if), kudos to him. This film looks like a big risk. But, I'll be in line day 1.

    February 23, 2011 at 1:42PM EST Reply to Comment
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    jezzleffezzle

    I'm a fan of Snyder's work and excited to see this movie but thought it was most telling that this trailer has ABSOLUTELY ZERO DIALOGUE.

    February 23, 2011 at 1:59PM EST Reply to Comment


  • I admire Snyder's aesthetic style more than I've enjoyed his body of work so far. I agree with a comment above that the best glimpses of this movie have been the ones without dialogue. Still, it would be nice to see the guy finally stick a landing.

    February 23, 2011 at 2:19PM EST Reply to Comment
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    gregel

    Yeah, this isn't a trailer. It's pretty, but it's a :90 TV spot (there's a difference).

    February 23, 2011 at 3:38PM EST Reply to Comment
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    nick_r

    Looks like a great Blu-Ray demo disc. I just have no idea how good the actual storytelling will be.

    February 23, 2011 at 3:41PM EST Reply to Comment


  • *And* from the director of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. They completely forgot to mention that.

    February 23, 2011 at 4:48PM EST Reply to Comment


  • OH I'LL BET THIS IS A FILM ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

    February 23, 2011 at 5:06PM EST Reply to Comment
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    dyikini

    Yeah I'm in two minds about Snyder. I thought the slow-mo style he introduced to us with 300 was tired by the time that movie finished. It's just so unimaginative to a degree - literally just slowed down. It looks great, but it can just be boring. Especially when so much of what you're looking at is clearly CGI. With Bay slow-mo you get detail and scale of something that when you look it at it you're wowed because you've never seen something quite like it before... With Snyder a lot of the time it's just lacking that extra spark that makes you really go "WOW".
    Still, am super keen for Sucker Punch to kick serious ass. I just have a feeling it'll be 1 soul short of any soul. Something Snyder movies still haven't got right so far and is a little worrying RE: The Man of Steel

    February 23, 2011 at 6:56PM EST Reply to Comment

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