Are you a sucker for Sucker Punch?

--reviewed by X

If you've been keeping up with movies at all for the past few months, you have undoubtedly seen the trailer for Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. I recall the 2^nd (or 3^rd I forget… I've seen that trailer way too many times) time I was watching it before some movie, and the response of one audience member was, "okay… so hot girls, nice action… I'm down for watching it." I must admit, when I saw the trailer for the first time, the same thought entered my mind. The movie is definitely geared towards videogame/anime loving nerdy young adults, who, at one time or another, had fantasies similar to that of hot girls in fetish outfits battling samurai/dragon/airplane/whatever.

The film follows the story of a 20-year-old girl, Babydoll (Emily Browning), whose mother dies and her evil stepfather admits her to a mental institution. To make matters worse, in order to make sure Babydoll never bothers the stepfather again, the stepfather bribes the corrupted and perverted head of the mental institution to lobotomize Babydoll in 5 days. To escape from the harsh reality of her current surrounding and the final lobotomy, she finds a measure of peace in her imagination and ultimately salvages what she could from the situation. Zack Snyder and his wife and producer Deborah Snyder said in an interview with io9 (beware of spoiler in the interview) that they "thought of the movie's structure in terms of The Wizard of Oz, where the fantasy world serves as a metaphor for what's going on in the real world." I thought the movie was more similar to Pan's Labyrinth, a foreign film directed by Guillermo del Toro, about a young girl whose life is so terrible that she uses her imagination as a means of escape into a fairy tale like world. The difference is that while Pan's Labyrinth focuses more on the art of film making, which critics love (it won 3 Oscars), Sucker Punch is more of a movie made for entertainment, which critics hate.

Because Sucker Punch had so much anime/videogame feel to it, I was expecting all professional critics to focus only on the flaws and ignore all achievements. What I am surprised, however, was how much the non-professional critics took a similar approach to the movie, because contrary to what all the reviews said, I actually enjoyed the movie and thought the movie had a lot of merits that deserved recognition.

Other than the great visual effects that were very similar to those of 300 (also directed by Zack Snyder), Sucker Punch actually had a coherent and, dare I say, somewhat deep storyline that was quite thought provoking. The trailer has already told us that much of the movie took place in an imaginary world, but Sucker Punch doesn't just stop there – it actually had two imaginary worlds, a world where Babydoll imagined the mental institution as a brothel, and an anime/videogame fantasy world like one that was shown in the trailer. What makes the latter world interesting, other than having hot girls fighting insane creatures while wearing fetish outfits, was that contrary to what the trailer led us to believe, the fantasy was not a product of Babydoll's imagination, but the product of another character's, a character who joined Babydoll in her quest for freedom. By putting the fantasy world in the imagination of someone other than the protagonist, Zack Snyder cleverly allowed the fantasy world to be subjected to tremendous romanticizing; thus the reason that the girls were so powerful in the fantasy world was a tribute to Babydoll for organizing the escape.

One could argue, "Why the use imaginary worlds; why not just show Babydoll breaking out of the mental institution?" The short answer is that it'll make for a much less interesting movie. The more insightful answer, however, is that just like Zack Snyder's previous works (most notably 300 and The Watchmen), Sucker Punch is told through the story of a narrator. Therefore, whatever happens in the film is not only allowed to be subjected to romanticizing, but needed to be romanticized.

Another aspect of the movie that I really loved was how much detail Zack Snyder focused on each scene. I especially loved the way he transitioned among the real world, the brothel world, and the fantasy world. So real was the brothel world that I had to pick up every little detail to know whether the characters were in the real or the brothel world. In addition, Zack Snyder constantly used his trademark slow motion to focus on the key elements of the movie, foreshadowing what is yet to come. Though some may find his use of slow motion corny and boring, I honestly thought that he used the slow motion very well in this film, for it helped me focus on specific things in the movie that I should remember for later scenes. Zack Snyder also did a great job of putting subtle references to famous videogames. For example, in the scene where Babydoll was obtaining the map, the Nazi soldiers from World War 1 resembled much like the enemy soldiers of Kill Zone 2, and the scene where the girls try to disarm a bomb in a train was a clear reference to the cutscene shown in the Final Fantasy XIII trailer. As much as I respect the knowledge and experience of professional critics, I believe most of them simply cannot appreciate this kind of videogame reference because they haven't played these modern videogames. Therefore, the moment they see these references, they instinctively resort to trashing the movie.

Like most movies that are made to entertain, Sucker Punch certainly had its share of flaws. One glaringly obvious example was the subpar acting. To quote a great person for whom I have much respect, "[Emily Browning] is cute, but she's more anime-girl cute than real-life cute." I cannot agree more; in fact, I think Zack Snyder picked her based on her anime-girl cuteness alone. A more debatable issue is the fine line between exploitation and empowerment. Zack Snyder has the follow to say regarding that aspect:

Everything in the movie is about a show within a show within a show. Someone asked me, "Why did you dress the girls like that, in those provocative costumes?" And I said, "Well, think about it for a second. I didn't dress those girls in the costume. The audience dressed those girls." And when I say the audience, I mean the audience that comes to the movies. Just like the men who visit a brothel, [they] dress the girls when they go to see these shows as however they want to see them.

He then goes on to talk about how this actually empowers women rather than objectifying:

They start out as cliches of feminine sexuality as made physical by what culture creates. I think that part of it was really specific, whether it's French maid or nurse or Joan Arc to a lesser extent [laughs], or schoolgirl. Our hope is we were able to modify them and turn them into these power icons, where they can fight back at the actual cliches that they represent. So hopefully by the end the girls are empowered by their sexuality and not exploited.

While I do see where Zack Snyder is coming from, I doubt the sincerity of his answer. Personally, I think the reason he dressed the girls up the way he did was more of a marketing decision. He probably thought to himself, “Hey, 300 made a lot of money, and that movie had good looking men dressed in underwear. If I make a movie exactly like 300 but with hot girls instead of guys, the movie would sell even better!”

Overall, I'd say the movie was definitely worth the money I spent in watching it at IMAX. I was entertained throughout the movie, and there was enough substance for me to discuss it with my friends for a fair amount of time. Though I expected it to be hated by critics, I am still very shocked at the negative reviews it got from non-professional critic websites such as spill.com and io9. Perhaps it was my low expectations that made the movie enjoyable for me, but I will say this with absolute sincerity: I will definitely give the film a second viewing on my computer to catch all the foreshadowing that I've missed in my first viewing, for the film had enough depth to be watched more than once.

Rating: RECOMMENDED

Note: The 2 blockquotes are taken from Zack Snyder’s interview with io9's Alasdair Wilkins. The original interview can be found here (beware of spoilers in the interview).