Sucker Punch
For the record, I actually saw this on March 30th...for whatever that's worth. So this should be a bit different. I'm already thinking it's going to be downgraded from where I would have had it had I written this right away. I imagine when a lot of folks think about Sucker Punch, what they think starts and stops at five rather scantily clad young ladies kicking all sorts of ass. And yeah, it IS true to a point that that pretty well sums up the movie. But if you can look past that- hard as it might be- you'll find a pretty darn fun and funky graphic novel-type (if that is a type) movie from Zack Snyder- the creative mind behind 300and Watchmen. And just to be crystal clear here, there is nothing about this movie that makes it a candidate for Skinemax (in fact looking only at the fact that the chicks are scantily-clad..ish... you would miss out on the larger question of WHY they are scantily clad. Snyder is trying to make a point here- or so I've read- flimsy as it might be. And while I've read what his point is... it has to do- and I'm paraphrasing here- with women overcoming the notion of being sexual objects... it's all part of the prison they're in... and when you see them dressed in the pseudo-sexual fashion they're there to kick-ass...thus conquering the world they're trapped in, perception and all... or... something like that? I know I've read somewhere where Snyder was defending his wardrobe choices for reasons other than to get 15 year old boys in the seats). ANYWAY, leaving all that aside, I think Snyder has come up with a movie that IS entertaining to say the least.
That said, it's also undeniably stranger...or quirky.. and complicated- probably too complicated for it's own good. Some of it just plain doesn't makes sense. But the action is good. So it has that going for it. I will say that I also liked the style of the film. That- for lack of a better way of putting it- graphic novel-esque style Snyder featured in both 300 and Watchmen. I just dig it. Never seems to get old for me. And I also liked some of the quirks. But what I liked the best was the idea of the world within a world within the mind that he tries to lay out. It's like Inception...super, super lite. Allow me to try to explain:
Because of a family tragedy, the character known only as Baby Doll (it's obviously not her real name) is sent to an insane asylum. I should mention that the movie is set in some indistinct but clearly defined "yesterday" time period...maybe the 1930s or 1940s? Not entirely sure, I just know it wasn't literally yesterday. But it does hearken back to the day when lobotomies were fairly common place and insane asylums were horrific places. See, Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is being sent to the asylum by her evil stepfather who is after Baby Doll's share of her mother's inheritance... I think... and through a crooked deal with the chief orderly, evil Step Dad has arranged for Baby Doll to receive a lobotomy, thus taking her out of the picture. Baby Doll gets wise to this and obviously isn't going to take it lightly. It becomes clear that she wants to escape- presumably to teach dear old step daddy a lesson. And this is where things get weird. All of the sudden, we're led into a night club/burlesque/brothel scene where all the asylum inmates are now dancers/prostitutes. Baby Doll is the new addition on scene and she quickly makes acquaintance with a few of the other colorfully named dancers: Amber (Jamie Chung), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Rocket (Jena Malone), and resident tough girl, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish). None of these girls is particularly happy being stuck here in the club/asylum so Baby Doll quickly convinces them to join her in her planned escape. Freedom- it would seem- can be won if the girls can assemble a number of different items and figure out how to use them. We know this because Baby Doll meets a mysterious dude in another realm of her imagination... I think it's her imagination... which she visits when she is forced to do her special dance in the first imaginary realm of the burlesque club/brothel. (All the girls are supposed to dance to win the affections of their potential clients for the other part of the equation). In addition to getting sage-ish advice in this other imaginary realm, this is also where Baby Doll and her accomplices kick the asses of some seriously weird villains ranging from machine gun-toting Samurai warriors to re-animated, dead Germans, to orc-like creatures, to futuristic cyborgs each with the end goal of the battle being to capture one of the items they'll need to escpae. Each of these villains or groups are course figments of Baby Doll's imagination and are really fronts for her dancing episodes- which are themselves distractions (we're back in the first imaginary realm) that allow Baby Doll's cohorts to grab the items they need to escape. One assumes all of this has implications in Baby Doll's real world in the asylum. The question becomes, can Baby Doll escape before the lobotomist comes in five days (he's known as the High Roller in the burlesque realm)?
Yeah, you should be sufficiently confused. Granted my description isn't doing you any favors either, but the movie won't provide you with much aid itself either. How much you enjoy the movie probably depends on how willing you are to forget about trying to make too much sense of it and just roll with the pretty awesome action and quirky style. For my part, I was completely ready to turn my brain most of the way off. And I enjoyed it. It's not all bad in the end, Snyder does a decent job tying everything together, but that does kind of lead to more questions... or perhaps plot holes is a better way of putting it. Again it all depends on how deeply you want to delve into it. I'll again emphasize that I liked the style and the quirk. Beyond that... well, there was also a lot to quibble with besides the confusing and complex... or ridiculous depending on your point of view... story. The ending bothered me. In that I mean the very end of the film. Snyder chooses to smack you over the head with his intended message. I HATE when film makers do that. Look, I know you've made a- probably- needlessly confusing flick, Zack, but I still think I could have figured out the message without you coming out and telling me.
Besides that, the acting was hit or miss, especially in Emily Browning's case. She alternates between genuinely decent acting and cold, emotionless, Barbie-doll-come-to-life expression. She's at her best when she's kicking ass which is often enough to push the rest of her sterile performance to the rear view. I found Vanessa Hudgens to be fairly annoying more than anything else. And Scott Glen as the Wise Man (yeah I just looked it up, the sage-y dude's character was really called the Wise Man) delivered his lines with appropriate sincerity, but some of those lines were absolute, flat-fallen duds. I DID, however, enjoy Jena Malone's and Abbie Cornish's performance. They both displayed a range of emotions and some considerable depth... and I suppose I wouldn't be going out on a limb to say that depth of character- particularly these characters- was a high priority. Well, maybe it was, but it sure didn't come out that way. Oh, and Oscar Isaac played his role of the sleazy chief orderly/night club owner with a great deal of what I can only describe as effortless sleaze. Nicely done, sir.
I'm going to go ahead and stop it here. It seems like the more I think about it, the more I want to seriously downgrade the movie. But it WAS fun. Really it was. Wasn't it? Yeah? I think so. No, it was. At least I thought so at the time I saw it. And that really does count for something. I think when I walked out of the theater I was ready to give the thing an A-. Not so much anymore... but really... to me... it was enjoyable. And that's what a movie should be right?
Grade: B
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