Blu-ray Review: Sucker Punch (2011)

To his detractors, Zack Snyder's output typifies style over substance: he sure knows how to shoot a pretty movie, but depth seems to be beyond his remit. 300 and Watchmen are, first and foremost, overwhelmingly exact visual recreations of their graphic novel sources. Sucker Punch is Snyder's first original screenplay (he receives story and co-writing credit), so this time he does not have an earlier work to imitate, but it has done nothing to silence his critics; even, for some, representing the nadir of his filmography to date.

You can see why it's a divisive film. Originality isn't an area of concern - it's quite unlike anything else you could think of - but the story and direction are certainly an acquired taste. Opening with what is effectively a music video montage, the first of many in the film, setting up our protagonist's plight: she's a 20-year-old orphan girl incarcerated in a mental asylum, and is only ever known to us as Baby Doll. She mentally escapes her predicament by fleeing into her imagination, where the asylum becomes a burlesque club, Baby Doll and her fellow female inmates the dancers. There are even further flights of fancy when she dances for the customers, as she dreams/hallucinates missions in which they have to recover key items that will help in their ultimate escape.

As is to be expected from Snyder, it's all highly stylised, and his penchant for slow motion and speed 'ramping' is indulged time and again. What makes it seem a somewhat hollow exercise is that there is never any particular contextual justification for the attention-grabbing flourishes. In particular, the outlandish fantasy worlds that Baby Doll dreams up when she dances have no connection whatsoever to anything in her experience; they feel manifestly more like a check list of what Snyder thinks would be cool. (Giant minigun-wielding robot samurais? Check! Steam powered Nazi zombies? Check!) Add to that a cast of young actresses who are rarely anything more than scantily clad and you have what errs dangerously close to a misogynist geek-out.

And yet, it avoids falling into the precipice thanks to appreciable conviction from the cast - rarely is there such a female-centric action movie - and a sincere attempt to tell a unique story. It's engrossing to an extent simply to try to predict where the film is heading, and the final act intensifies the drama substantially, albeit robbed of a certain emotional heft. Compare this to Christopher Nolan's Inception and you find two vastly different results from similar starting point, that being the delving into the subconscious world of dreams. Interestingly, those two creative forces are teaming up to bring us Superman next. Can such opposing sensibilities mesh into something coherent? You can be sure of one thing: it will look nice.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: Rental / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Warner Bros.

Presentation
Given Snyder's emphasis on visuals, the Blu-ray is slightly disappointing. It's technically sound - there's no apparent smoothening of grain, and the encode handles the ever-present darkness with ease - but there's little 'pop', with subdued colours (an aesthetic choice, granted) and surprisingly soft detail. Nevertheless, it seems faithful to the source. The soundtrack is ferocious, with a dynamic range that might be a little too much - the dreams are sonic barrages, while the quieter bits in between sometimes have dialogue that's just too quiet.

Extras
This review disc is the rental version, which lacks the main special features offered in the retail release, those being Maximum Movie Mode and an extended cut of the film. Here you only get four motion comics and a very brief (sub-3-minute) look at the soundtrack.



Summary
Sucker Punch is not a film to watch unprepared, but those who know what to expect (and like the sound of it) may be reasonably entertained. Anyone else probably need not apply.

Cinema Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

James Bond might be cinema’s most famous spy, packing the gizmos, the gadgets and the girls, but when it comes to high-level on-screen deception, he has nearly met his match with grizzled legend Gary Oldman playing MI6 man George Smiley in the film adaptation of John le Carré’s tense commie-baiting Cold War novel first published in 1973.

Alec Guinness brought Smiley to the BBC’s screens in the late 1970s, but ignore misconceptions of Oldman revisiting the boring and cuddly spy – he brings a cooler, crueller and altogether darker characterisation to the cinematic rendition. Directed by Let The Right One In’s Tomas Alfredson, it’s taut, twisty and updated for 2011’s cinema-goers. Set in the early 1970s, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy finds recently retired MI6 agent Smiley trying to adjust to life outside the Secret Service. But when a disgraced agent reappears with information about a mole inside the Circus – the British intelligence service – Smiley cannot resist one last indulgence in the world of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his former pals has turned against the organisation, Smiley focuses on four suspects. They are all experienced, successful agents, but their past histories, rivalries and friendships conspire to hamper his bid to unearth the mole.

The whole experience is unflinchingly authentic and is as low-tech as possible, the polar opposite of Bond where listening to conversations rather than bangs and booms will bring rewards. The film recalls the era in which it is set – when tense paranoia classics such as The Conversation and The Manchurian Candidate dominated Hollywood filmmaking – and it is packed with talent. Alongside elder Brit heavyweights such as Oldman, Colin Firth and Kathy Burke are spunky young bucks Tom Hardy, Stephen Graham and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The performances are all good to brilliant, especially Oldman, but the main problems arise with the screenplay. Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor fail to provide any social, historical or political context to give the mole hunt any great urgency or wider importance. Focussing on the overlong saga of the love affair between a British spy and the wife of a Moscow agent is fine but could have been trimmed down to give the main candidates a bigger chance to breathe. Alfredson infuses a sombre Scandinavian melancholy and the film is certainly stylish and evocative enough but it asks the audience too many questions without providing enough answers. At times one feels like begging for more evidence, more back story, more understanding and all we are left is Smiley randomly having a breakthrough justified with no real rhyme or reason. Ultimately, Alfredson nearly makes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy emotionally vacuous – the revelation is nowhere near as astonishing as it should be and some members of the audience will end up simply not caring. In contrast, with a grown-up thriller some may argue the whole point is to become engrossed and draw your own opinions or, failing that, simply admit to yourself that slow-burners where concentration is key are not your genre of choice.



Summary
A standard thriller in which the journey and the disclosure could have been so much more. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is certainly entertaining but thinks of itself as being more intelligent than it actually is with miniscule nuances few will notice.