SUCKER PUNCH!!! No, it's not a cheap shot to the balls you deliver to your brother while wrestling, it's the new kick-ass action extravaganza propelling female youths across the country (no, the world!) into fighting mode. Although most girls will probably use their newly-found fire to merely bat away those pesky molesters and rapists, the implications the film will have on our nation's youth is scary, making Sucker Punch Zack Snyder's first true cinematic disappointment.
I hate reading reviews where the author believes he or she is writing something thought-provoking and fresh by attacking one aspect of the film that has nothing to do with what's important, things like cinematography, acting, sound mixing, artificial lighting and cleanliness of sets. But the irresponsibility Snyder displays in pushing teenyboppers toward a life of crime really killed the movie for me.
Noted, it's almost forgivable, as it's a bittersweet dilemma. At the core of the storyline, it's about a girl, Baby Doll, and her struggle to free herself from a decadent mental asylum where they unforgivably serve her moldy cheese-stuffed artificial turkey nuggets and force her to listen to post-Pinkerton Weezer albums on repeat for hours at a time; the torture would engender the killer in the best of us. Snyder even cleverly forces the audience to to endure the pain along with Baby Cakes through his controversial and revolutionary movie technique that engages the audience more than 3-D could ever strive to. He does this, of course, by serving those very same turkey balls to the audience, who sign a liability waiver upon ticket purchase, and sentencing them to not one, not two, but FOUR Weezer sessions, totaling in at 12 hours. That's enough Beverly Hills and Can't Stop Partying to make you wish waterboarding was on the menu instead.
While the gimmicks are cute, they also help you understand her plight. Sweet Cakes must do whatever it takes to escape this hellhole. But at what cost to our youth? Snyder deceivingly uses awful Rivers Cuomo lyrics to distract the audience from why Sweet Mama is in the mental asylum in the first place: she is an unstable psychopath with the untapped ability to unleash a gunfirey onslaught upon her peers. Her stepfather, unfairly villainized in the film, realizes this and sends her away for a much needed lobotomy.
While Quentin Tarantino inspired a generation of females to only use killing for revenge in Kill Bill, Snyder's miscalculated approach gives Hoochie Mama's dreamed-up killing fantasy of innocent lives the OK. At one point, we see our protagonist blowing the head off a giant robot with her 500 Magnums during one of her fantasies. In reality, Hoochie Muffin is repeatedly stabbing the front-desk intern in the face with a broken broom handle. Snyder's unabashed portrayal of blood and gore in the scene is bold, but the scene proves to be a bit much for the light-stomached.
Again, this is just a bias I can't seem to get around. But all in all, Snyder's film proves to hit home on every other level. It's worth noting that this is his first film not based on a source material. Both 300 and Watchmen were based on graphic novels, Dawn of the Dead was a remake, and Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is clearly based on Snyder's childhood. This explains why Sucker Punch's universe is more complex and seizure-inducing than any of his films, as Snyder had no constraints and penned the fuck out of this script. Snyder was reportedly forced to whittle down the script from its original 5,912 pages, but the DVD will feature a director's cut.
We've all seen the trailer a billion fucking times, so I don't need to delve into the greatest aspects of the film, including the dazzling special effects and festive acting from Emil Browning as Baby Muffins and Vanessa Hudgens, who further establishes her bad-ass movie persona after the racy High School Musical trilogy.
To quote drmcninja17's featured review on imdb.com: “I love this movie for exactly what it is...a good movie that appeals to me in every way.” I couldn't agree more. Movies that are both good and appeal to me in every possible way are the ones I typically love. But because of its social shortfalls, Sucker Punch proves to be an exception. Instead of caring for the central character, I'm only left worrying about that poor intern. Sorry, Baby Doll.
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