SUCKER PUNCH (2011)

SUCKER PUNCH (2011)

Tagline: You Will Be Unprepared. 

(Action, Fantasy, Giant Freakin Samurais) [PG-13]

"Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die? Who teaches us what's real and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we'll die to defend? Who chains us? And who holds the key that can set us free... It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!" 

Oh man, this one is wrapped around two sisters (Rocket played by Jena Malone, and Sweet Pea played by Abbie Cornish) who find themselves in an institution that deals with mental illness and uses escapism to help young women overcome their inner and outer demons. In reading a lot of reviews for this right off the bat you can tell that the writers either didn’t understand this. Or perhaps they did but lost the idea because the film itself doesn’t start our dealing with the sisters and a few of their cohorts, but rather on Babydoll’s introduction. Aptly played by Emily Browning, Babydoll provides the empowerment and fearlessness the group needs to break free from the depths of a system geared to keep them down. The opening scene alone is worth paying money to see this movie, with its music video-like darkness and eventual positioning into the storyline. Director Zack Snyder’s layered approach to the film seems to have caught a lot of moviegoers and critics off guard. So in this review, I will break that down as well.

Visually the movie really doesn’t have a parallel. Its absolute mastery of CGI wizardry is second to none. From giant samurais to dragons and Nazi zombies, nothing is held back in complexity or imagination. However,  because perhaps people walked into this movie thinking this was all they were getting, they probably just didn’t feel the eye candy was enough and completely lost sight of the brilliantly woven storyline. In fact, most people I have defended this masterpiece to didn’t even realize this was a 3 layered story driven by how actual visualization therapy works.

In all, we end up with 5 girls all trying to get out of the institution but in order to do that they must navigate their surroundings to find objects that will help them with the plan. This is handled on 3 levels.

Level or layer 1 is real life. These girls are actually in an institution for various reasons and Rocket and Sweet Pea really have resigned to just going along with the direction of Dr. Vera Gorski as a means to survival. Once Babydoll arrives we get to layer 2.

Layer 2 is the “prison” or “trapped” side of the real-life situation. This layer relegates the girls to play-acting and performing for the people running the institution only in a nightclub situation. The nightclub is high stakes and a deranged attendant in real life is actually given control in layer 2 as the nightclub's manager.  During the performances, we are given an empowerment level of the film we’ll call layer 3.

Layer 3 is where we get the most intense of the layers, visually and complexity-wise. Here the girls follow Babydoll on several different tasks that mirror things going on all the way down to layer 1 but on a level that empowers each girl with specialties and weapons. The coolest part about this layer is that the consequences are very real and have an impact all the way down to layer one. This makes the final sequence of the film all that much more brilliant. It also serves to take this out of the “Wizard Of Oz” situation where this is all just a dream with zero consequences.

In the end, this movie with all its glory wasn’t for the pervert or meant to be the theme park version moviegoers might have expected (even though both could have enjoyed the movie). Its core purpose was to empower young girls and women.

For me, Sucker Punch has always been the cult hit it’s become from the first time I saw it. Once you can both take in the visuals and appreciate the depth of this film, you will likely see it in a whole new light. This one is an easy 7 out of 7.