Movie Musing Sucker Punch

Of all the Zach Snyder films I’ve seen to date, I think Sucker Punch ranks in the top slot.
One must assume going in, however, that the plot will be thin or convoluted, the beauties be scantily clad, the visuals stunning, and the ending scene bordering on unbearably preachy; And as always these things hold true to some degree. “Watchmen” did it with about 85 % faithful respect to the original text, and “300” was a very pretty animating of Frank Miller’s bloody take on the greek history. But those films, to me, were lessened in quality by Snyder’s attempts to put his own stamp on someone else’s story.



However, I will give this film some serious points for originality and for execution.

The plot, in essence, is that a young girl sent away to a mental institution slips into a fantasy world in order to escape the drudging horrors of her captivity. This, in turn, becomes her reality and so she take four other girls with her in her grand scheme to flee their prison, and another sub-reality or sub-fantasy becomes THAT world’s escape.

There is more to it than that, however, and quite happily one can enjoy the ride without too much brain work. Of course certain facts and acts are eased by the convenience of a contrived film universe; in reality, not everything would go as smoothly according to the girls’ plan as they try to accomplish acquiring the various items needed for their jailbreak. The methods by which they do so, however, is where our interest lies in the film.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to these three levels of reality as the Ward, the Club, and the Warzone. One of the quirky and fun parts of the film is that, on the nightclub level of reality, the character (here named Babydoll, and played by Emily Browning) we’ve been following since the credits opened begins to dance for the sleazy nightclub owner. However in her faltering starts, she suddenly closes her eyes, and with a rush of wind and a single snowflake we are brought into what we must assume due to the lack of explanation as her “safe place”, that level of the subconscious we like to dive to when things get rough. Turns out, her safe place is far from it- a desolate ancient asian pagoda, amid a snowy wasteland. She meets her “mentor”, the sagely old man who will apparently continue to appear throughout her quest, and is told to take up her weapons – a stylish and convenient combination of katana and pistol. Immediately she is confronted with three oversized samurai, with glowing red eyes and a penchant for her pain; After a harrowing first battle we are snapped back into reality — where Babydoll has apparently danced so stunningly that the room is clapping in awe; It is at this point we must assume that the Warzone level of reality must be where all of the action happens. because there's no real explanation of WHY she goes there. or how. or how the girls come with her. Is it all just her imagination? if so then why do some things start to carry over from the Warzone to the Nightclub?

We begin to learn a little bit more about the other girls- the spunky Rocket (Jena Malone), her guarded and fiercely protective older sister, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), the quiet and intense Amber (Jamie Chung) and the ironically named Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), a dark-haired youth who is almost unrecognizable as the lead female from High School Musical (seeing this in the credits was pleasantly surprising…It seems everyone can break their mold in the hands of a creative director). They live as dancers and callgirls in the hall of one Mr. Blue, played greasily by Oscar Isaac. I’m not familiar with the actor, to be honest, and spent half the movie thinking he might be a brilliantly chameleoned David Krumholtz, but regardless of that Mr. Isaac brings every pound of pork to the table as he hams his way villainously through as the “mastermind” behind the dual-layered prisons. He puts on a very straightforward evil, and only in small moments is he given the opportunity to actually creep the audience out, while his costume and dialogue are so painfully ham-handed that I give him credit for doing his best to keep it interesting for us.



The shift from Mental Ward to Night Club provides an interesting skewed perspective, as the audience gets to see a tradition of “and you were there!” that stretches back at least as far as The Wizard of Oz—but here, we understand why young Babydoll would have such opinions of her captors and a desire to revise her accommodations from the monochromed Ward.

Their plan to escape together is enacted in a series of “Battle Missions” set in the War Zone, ranging from WWII paraphernalia mixed alongside the Japanese mechas favored in anime throughout the last 20 years, to a classic Castle Assault complete with orcs and dragons; each “item” of their quest is sensationalized but holds to a key part of Babydoll’s escape plan.

As the girls continue on their quests, they learn about working together, they learn more about themselves, and they learn that their journey is much harsher in reality, blah blah and soforth. I won’t exactly say that this film had surprises in store for me. The tribulations, the betrayals, the heartbreak and the inner fire it inspires are all fairly straightforward. It’s solid bedtime story fare. And yet, when we finally Inception-ourselves up through the layers of this fantasy, to Babydoll’s harsh snap into reality on the proper level of reality, we do feel a sense of emptiness, that the world is a cold, desolate place and that each fantasy we can bury ourselves in is far happier tragedy than the numbing existence in our own personal hells here and now.



Like I have stated, the CGI and the use of slow-motion cameras that Snyder has developed into something of an art form (not entirely; his inability to try somethign new is in fact the artful finesse) is a joy to behold. Every moment is detail-packed while keeping the focus on the pair of breasts-- *ahem* the protagonist --at hand is a wonderful mashup of styles, genres, and hit/miss successes. I do enjoy that his cast has all the makings of Poster Girl quality, most notably in the steampunk-ized take on World War II, where the ladies practically look painted onto the plane and the landscape like the posters of old. this, coupled with an eclectic and very "THIS IS EPIC MUSIC" style soundtrack provide the wonderful bombardment of sight and sound any good popcorn music keeps to without hesitation or respect of classy choices. his accuracy of music is spotty but can succeed when i'm not pulled to amusement at the sometimes familiar choices of remixed songs.

The rest of the cast, I should add, is solidly acted and while it is more of an ensemble piece, each brought their own 110% to the support roles. Carla Gugino in particular as the head matron of the ward, slash matron of the exotic dancer youths, pours just enough into her thick eastern-european accent to add a sexy (if Snyder-y over the top layer) quality to her character(s).

I won't call this film perfect; far from it, the bubblegum-action, busty-heroine-who-cannot-possibly-be-so-skilled-in-street-fights-let-alone-weapon-specializing pulls one out of the believability of the story now and then, replacing "yeah, i dream i can do that too!" to "seriously? he's pulling that move? oh come on now!", and the chorus of simple or overly-cryptic-and-message-laden dialogue weighs on one's tolerance levels here and there. If one can step back, the film is gorgeous and is almost MORE enjoyable as an outer-narration without any dialogue happening in the story itself.

However it’s Snyder’s inability to walk away from a soapbox in the final moments of a film that truly cuts this one short from being a decent film, in my book. By this point in your 2 hours, we get it sir. Your heroine was not what we had first thought, we are supposed to have been shaken to our core, and in the words of another man, "the journey's the worthier part". Thanks for the entertainment and please leave the pulpit behind. If he had simply kept that last scene a little cleaner, could loosen his grip long enough for us to finish the story without sucking on the lemon of his "important final message", this film might have earned a few more points in my book.
Instead, we have a pleasant film of escapism set against the gloriously cluttered backdrop of Snyder, who at this point seems to be one part Michael Bay and one part Prophet Jeremiah.

three and a half out of Five haymakers.