“Suckerpunch”
Written by Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya; Directed by Zack Snyder; Stars: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Issac and Scott Glenn. Story: A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.
Seen by Adam and Lars, March 27, 2011
LARS:
Some movies are easy targets for critics. “Sucker Punch” is definitely one of those. It is very easy to accuse it of being shallow, all about form and fetishizing young, scantily clad girls. I can’t even say that I’d disagree with either of those accusations. I went into “Sucker Punch” having heard/read little, but just enough to expect that I’d probably hate it. As readers of this blog will know, I am all about the story, and my consternation with most movies is that the scripts are terrible. But, to my surprise, I realized about half-ways through “Sucker Punch” that I was really digging it.
To explain why I liked it, I have to confess to enjoying musicals. Yes, I’m the one straight guy in the world that actually likes musicals. I love “My Fair Lady”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, “Grease” and “Moulin Rouge” to mention a few (I do, however, struggle with “The Sound of Music”, feeling a strange urge to commit grievous bodily harm whenever Julie Andrews sings). What “Sucker Punch” is, for my money, is a musical that substitutes spectacular action set pieces for song and dance numbers. It may be the first musical for the gaming generation. As in most musicals, the characters are slight, not all that deep and they only really come to life, when they can express themselves through song, or, in this case, insane and ever escalating fight scenes.
No one can accuse the director Zack Snyder of being subtle. All his movies (and he unashamedly makes movies, not films) use slow motion excessively and green screen to the point where reality takes Elvis’ hand and leaves the building. Both “300” and “Watchmen” were based on the works of comic book royalty (Frank Miller and Alan Moore, respectively) and had fan boys ready to pounce, if he got a frame wrong. He didn’t. That “Watchmen” doesn’t completely work as a film is not all Snyder’s fault. Terry Gilliam had it right, when he said that the graphic novel was unfilmable. With “Sucker Punch”, Snyder is working from his own material for the first time, so even if the movie feels like it’s based on a comic book, it isn’t. Rather it’s the work of a big, playful boy, who finally can make the sand castle he wanted to make all along.
“Sucker Punch” reminds me a lot of “Moulin Rouge”. It has some of the same frenetic editing, the color overload and the extreme characters that are obviously archetypes and not real people. “Moulin Rouge” also divides people; you either hate it or love it. There is little middle ground. The two movies also share the characteristic that the story is mainly an excuse to stage set pieces that the director has dreamt about for years. You shouldn’t think too much about it. Just enjoy the ride.
The girls of “Sucker Punch” really only have to do two things well: look great in very little and fight like a crew of Shaolin monks. Emily Browning, who plays the main character, Babydoll, in a sailor uniform as imagined by the most lecherous tailor of all time, gets to carry most of the film. She’s perfectly cast; about 5 feet tall and with huge innocent eyes, she looks like a fly could beat the crap out of her. But give the girl a sword, and she’ll show you that’s not the case. At least in her imagination. After a brief mood-setting opening, the rest of movie takes place inside of her mind. At least I think so. Not that it really matters.
The “Sucker Punch” soundtrack is the perfect companion. It consists of reinterpretations of modern classics such as Pixies’ “Where is my Mind”, “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)” and The Smiths’ “Asleep” to mention a few.
I think I’ll get the Blu-Ray when it comes out and every now and then, when I need a complete break from reality, I’ll put on “Sucker Punch” on the biggest screen I can find, crank up the volume and enjoy the hell out of the mayhem.
ADAM:
Where to begin…This is a tough one. How do I explain a movie that is so “out there,” so different in its execution, storyline and look than most things I’ve seen before? I can say it’s original. That’s safe. And more accurate than “groundbreaking,” which is too kind. But “different” isn’t kind enough. The reality is that “Suckerpunch” is at its core a story we’ve heard and seen before; it’s a story about a helpless girl thrown into a world she doesn’t at first understand. She must navigate difficult waters, decide who to trust and eventually gain the strength to defeat those who oppress her. It’s a revenge piece, no doubt. So deciding how the journey will unfold from victimization (point A) to revenge (point Z) is where “Suckerpunch” makes it’s departure from most things you’ve ever seen before.
Babydoll, a young girl, who recently lost her mother is victimized by her stepfather and is forced to fend for herself and her little sister. Framed for her sister’s murder (carried out by said stepfather), Babydoll is sent to a creepy old compound for the mentally insane, filled with unsavory characters and rife with its own brand of corruption. As Babydoll is considered for a lobotomy, we pull away from reality, and into a world filled with the same actors, though the troubled girl patients are now exotic show dancers, held captive at a social club against their will, and those in charge at the asylum manifest as the club owner, the security, the local mayor, etc. who wield power. And within this fantasy world, there’s an additional split — and another level of fantasy that manifests whenever Babydoll dances. As she begins to move, we’re transported to an ever-developing battlefield where enemies range from dragons to Nazis to robots. And these battles, as well as searches for treasures or elixirs in these fantasy worlds mirror things in the real life asylum and function to help Babydoll and her friends escape.
There’s no question you have to check a bit of cynicism at the door on this one, but if you do, you might have fun with Suckerpunch, like I did. The soundtrack absolutely helps; some high grade drugs would only make it better, I imagine. My biggest note is that I would like to have known what the people in the social club were experiencing by way of dance while Babydoll was deep in trance, fighting the good fight. I also think having seen “Inception” last year may have helped me comprehend and enjoy this film, as there seemed to be an analogous feel: the asylum is real, conscious world, the social club is a dream and the battle fantasies are a dream within the dream.
In any event, I feel that little Lars or I say here will push anyone over the top to spend $12.50 to see this film. If the trailer didn’t get you moderately interested, it’s a pass for you, I’m sure. But maybe this review will make you throw it in your Netflix queue. Lars mentioned he thought this will have a healthy life on rental, and I agree completely. And though we’re in the minority, I enjoyed this one and how it stepped away from the typical, formulaic and ultimately forgettable pictures that dot most of our movie-going schedule.
