BOMBASTIC!!! – Beyondthefilms.com on Sucker Punch“Zip, pow, slash, kaboom!” - Sucker Punch on Dialog
“I liked it.” – Oscar Wilde on Sucker Punch
Reviewed by James Ryder
Sucker Punch is a very, very bombastic film. There isn’t an ounce of subtlety to be found here. Once the fight scenes kick in, so does the soundtrack, and every punch is undercut by a driving bass thump or the strum of a heavy metal guitar. Some of it is great fun. Seeing World War 1 planes fighting dragons, robots and many other action film staples is quite exhilarating and inhabits a uniquely post-modern setting. However, most postitive things in Sucker Punch often carry an equal negative. For every impressive action sequence, there will often be several flashy, “look at me, I’m cool” camera compositions which serve no other purpose than to look cool. For example, the camera repeatedly zooms in on shell casings in slow motion during a train heist sequence. Why keep focusing on the casings? One shot would have sufficed for the cool quotient. Are the now useless bullet shells a metaphor for the discarded girls who populate the film? If so, I think it’s accidental. KERPOW!!
The story anchoring these fight scenes is that of a girl, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), sent to an insane asylum by her evil, mustache twirling step-father to cover up his abuse. Once inside, Baby Doll imagines that she is a future warrior with the institution's other girls as a coping mechanism. The film’s fantastic fight scenes are a visual representation of her escape plans. I don’t want to ruin how the story unfolds, as it indeed is one of the more interesting aspects of the film, but suffice to say there are three levels of reality. The first is in the insane asylum, the second is in a theater/brothel, and the third is the pop-culture WWI battleground. The characters, to be honest, aren’t that well drawn and we learn very little about them by the end of the film. They serve more as placeholders for the concept than as fully drawn individuals. The dialog is largely functional though characters will often spout well worn truisms in attempts to be profound. Could these platitudes serve a meta-commentary on action movie clichés in the vein of Paul Verhoeven? I’d have to see the film again to be sure, but I’m almost certain the answer is “no.” ZOOM!!
The film is largely devoid of any deeper meaning. The film’s final words instruct the audience to “fight,” but due to paper thin characterization and empty dialog, I have no idea who the audience is supposed to be fighting upon exiting the cineplex. Most folks going to see a blockbuster on a lazy afternoon aren’t going to be in immediate "fight or flight" danger so we can’t take the battle cry literally. Is this fight supposed to be against modern day teenage oppression like the internet going down? Is the audience supposed to start an existential fight club? I have no idea what writer-director Zack Snyder and co-writer Steve Shibuya are trying to say with this film. EXPLODE!!!
If Snyder and Co. wanted us to take anything resembling a message of “persevering in the face of adversity” home, they really need make us care about the heroines on a personal level. Of course the audience cringes when assorted bad guys threaten the girls with rape. In fact, the film is a 24 hour rape threat machine. Perhaps there is a subtext to be read here. Could the film be about how a patriarchal society menaces young women to keep them in line? There is a lot of skin being shown for audience titillation though, which undercuts any potential subtext with a giant, half-naked asterisk. SMASH!!
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| Storming the studio for a better script. |
Sucker Punch is a trade off between quality technical achievements and “less quality” story elements. In general, blockbuster fans will likely enjoy the film for what it is: a loud, over-the-top and even thrilling action film. It’s visually interesting and has an interesting (if underdeveloped) original intellectual property. Just don’t expect to be inspired or intellectually challenged by it. KLABOOM!!
Abbie Cornish, Jenna Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Issac, and Scott Glenn also star. KER-BLAMMM!!!
© 2011 beyond the films
