Sucker Punch (2011)
A mind bending vision of reality from the director of Watchmen & 300.
Did you know I haven’t done this one yet? Yeah, I know, I’m perplexed too. I could have sworn that I did it already, down to pictures chosen and everything. You could practically smell the review - and yet, in all of my different record-keeping spots show I never did it. Must be a glitch in the matrix, but we can remedy that right now. Learn the internal struggles of being a locked up girl in a world gone wrong, tonight we see the Sucker Punch.
This one can be a bit derisive. You’ll get the types that think it’s maybe a bit to pompous and thereby becoming nonsensical and easy to get lost. You’ll have the batch that loved all the visual effects but find it perhaps a little shallow and more style over substance. What I would have thought is that you would have gotten a bunch of people propping the movie up for both being stylistic and girl power, but in all honesty I always saw more of the first two then that. The funny part is it’s arguably all of these and more, or perhaps none of these. I get it - Snyder is sort of across the board, some people love his stuff and some people hate his stuff. A lot of it will nail certain parts of adaptations, and other parts will be different (or dumb) enough that people will get in an uproar over them. The man has a style - but let’s set him aside for a minute and get down to the movie itself.
The story is… complicated. How much you get out of this movie is directly related to how much your willing to focus or look into things. At it’s core, from a “brain off enjoyment” standpoint (that is, the state my mind is normally in when going to watch a movie) the movie is a story about a girl with a tragic history who gets sent to a place of healing that turns out to really not be such. From there, it’s all about the escape - in multiple senses of the word. It’s that point that can cause a lot of confusion, as we hop around inception-style to multiple levels of fantasy covering the story over. At the first level is the real world - of which we really don’t get much. The back story of the girl (or start of the movie), the introduction to the ward and the corruption present within it, and then the lobotomy is set up. Everything else in here is all multiple levels of fantasy - be it the girl’s version of the events of the story, or the pure fantasy of her inner thoughts that’s completely obviously in her head. The highlights of the movie are that last part, and yet the bulk of the story is actually in the parts above it. So yes, it’s a simple story at it’s core, but through presentation and the human capacity for thinking into and overthinking symbolism it becomes a far more complex beast.
None of it comes out of nowhere though - we get plenty of easy to miss setup all over the place for things to come, be it foreshadowing in some of the costumes or a very fast eye-balling of important items before we hit fantasy level one. Still, the fog of fantasy does obscure just how much of the story is completely honest, and some questions might be unanswered by the end. Most the cinematography side of this movie is just plain stellar - and I know I don’t tend to hit on that side of movies all that often, as I’m no scholarly critic who went through professional schooling or anything like that, just a lowly high school film studies class. Shot framing, compositions, the camera movement - it’s all quite wonderful. One could argue the thing is too dreary and dark, almost as though some moody filter was rolled over it that drains the colors a bit, but unlike color-muting comic book movies it feels appropriate here given the subject matter.
Somewhere oppressive outside…
This extends out to the action scenes as well - my preferred part of the movie on account of them just being so darn cool. Various camera movements, effects work, and well choreographed shots combined with some pumping soundtrack scoring makes for some memorable moments that seem like each could be it’s own video game should it desire it. Filled with glorious elements like steam-powered clockwork zombie nazis, catapult-launched goblins guarding wyvern-filled castles, and futuristic guard robots. Plenty of practical costumes exist, in the case of the lady-squad incorporating elements from all the fantasy scenes at once, such as the armor plates, flight hat, and plenty of weapons. To back up these more fancy outfits and the finely done more realistic costumes up, we get plenty of computer effects to provide threats and some nice scenery - and honestly probably some digital doubles for the main girl as she does battle at times.
The acting is pretty decent as well. It’s not always blowing it out of the park, but it’s totally serviceable for viewer enjoyment. The actors deliver their lines well enough, with maybe only a few times where a better performance could have been done. There are some moments where they do a pretty stand out job as well in there, so it all balances out in the end. Plenty of the characters don’t really get as much to do outside of the fantasy elements - where even the fantasy elements aren’t necessarily character builders or anything, but they all get their little moment of action to steal the stage.
Audio department also is having a real hoot here. The soundtrack is enjoyable, although it won’t be for everyone I’m sure. Still, their renditions of White Rabbit, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) and the Queen mashup are all good for me, and it’s also nice to see them tweaked a bit and remixed instead of just straight pasted into the movie - which also allows them to fit the mood of the scene a bit better when they show up as well. Balance is good, and you won’t have any hard times hearing people talking in this one. Background sounds and foley work is also pretty good in here to boot.
…can be a real internal struggle.
In the end, I was a little on the fence about re-watching it, as I only really care about the sweet fantasy scenes. That said, those are still the highlights of the movie for me, but in it’s entirety it really isn’t that bad and the pacing keeps it from feeling like it’s taking way too long to get to completion. There’s plenty of symbolism in there for people to pick apart and make it mean what they want, and despite having plenty of rather vile male characters in it, it also still takes the time to have a helpful guidance character in there as well - something some movies could learn from (looking at you, Ghostbusters remake). It gives plenty of vulnerability to it’s characters to help enhance a face-value message of being able to overcome things as long as you just put your mind to it and fight, and more than anything else that could be a helpful statement to a lot of people - even if I’m just hear to watch some tough-as-nails warrior gals beat up some steam-powered nazi zombies.