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I think my main problem with the film is that its attempts to pander were kind of obvious and kind of trite. It wants to engage a geek/nerd audience with images that seemed cool and it seems to showcase that Snyder only has a base understanding of why people react to images and ideas in certain ways. I think his completely lack of subtley when trying to pander to his audience is what undoes the film and I think is the chief reason for the backlash. It's a misstep, but there's a thesis behind the misstep which I find kind of fascinating. Snyder's attempts to equate the provocative dancing with the action-sequences the film was built on is kind of interesting and it's the sort of thing you'd expect from Haneke or Trier.
The problem is that I don't think Snyder is trying to troll his audience, but I do think he wanted to comment on the objectification of images. I don't think this film really has anything to do with female empowerment, except in the basest 'chicks with masculine characteristics = impowered' thinking, but I do think the film has a lot on it's mind about imagery and perception. Stuff like the Old Man* explaining that it's OK to shoot the clockwork German's 'cos they're already dead, to the way the mama-dragon taps it's dead baby with it's snout seem to make us want to question what we're actually watching.
The problem is that the action-sequences, for me, just aren't engaging enough to actually make the key thematics work. There's a sense of rhythm and beauty to the action-sequences but they feel almost entirely weight-less (although this is, barring the opening brawl in Watchman, something of an ongoing problem for me with Snyder). As such what should be visceral and unrefined (as per Sweetpeas criticisms of Baby Doll's dancing) is stuffily elegant. Then again I've had intellectual issues with the last three Snyder movies I watched. I think he's an amazing craftsmen in-terms of his aesthetic (and also casting, Watchmen and 300 feel perfectly cast for what they are and Sucker Punch is full of potentially great actors with little to actually do) but I've had fundemental problems with the core of his films (the politics in 300, the tone of Watchmen, the attempts at intellect in Sucker Punch).
I think Sucker Punch is the sort of thing that shoots itself in the foot almost immediately. The opening curtain-call gives a sense of unreality to what is essentially reality and then we have two more layers of unreality beyond that. However the few times I synched with the films rhythm (I absolutely adore the opening, even if it is completely ham fisted) I really got into it and I'm genuinely fascinated by the extended cut.
*The Old Man is a real issue for me, largely because the film is all about authority figures abandoing and fucking with these girls and yet the ultimate authority figure, who speaks in nothing but rules and commands, is presented as benevolent.
