Kirkus Reviews, founded in 1933, is a venerable institution in the media world, serving as the industry bible for bookstore buyers, librarians, and ordinary readers alike for more than 75 years. As part of the Kirkus Book Bloggers Network, a rotating crew of your favorite Popdose writers will grace the virtual pages of Kirkus Reviews Online, taking on the best — and sometimes the worst — in pop-culture and celebrity books. From coffee-table studies to quickie unauthorized bios, if it’s about show biz, it’s fair game.

Here’s how it probably was expected to go down:  superstar director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) would bring his first original screen story to life with the willing assistance of production company Legendary Pictures and studio Warner Bros., a phalanx of digital artists and a pop culture nerd’s wish list. The combination of live-action Japanese anime tropes, steampunk design and young Hollywood starlets seemed like an easy puzzle to put together, a precise ”flap A into slot 1″ procedure.

Cut to opening weekend where Snyder’s Sucker Punch receives just that from underdog sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2, a movie made for a fraction of its competitor’s costs. To add insult (many of them, actually) to injury, critical drubbing rightly classifies the film as a big-budget exploitation flick without the charm of lowbrow, low budget grindhouse trappings. It was pegged as an excuse to have young women firing guns in panty-baring outfits while blimps and mecha storm about.

Read the rest of this article at Kirkus Reviews!

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Books, Kirkus Reviews

Tagged in:

, , , , , ,

About the Author

Dw. Dunphy

Dw. Dunphy is a writer, artist, and musician. For Popdose he has contributed many articles that can be found in the site's archives. He also writes for New Jersey Stage, Musictap.net, Ultimate Classic Rock, and Diffuser FM. His music can be found at http://dwdunphy.bandcamp.com/.

View All Articles