“How about something a little more commercial, for God’s sake?” —Sweet Pea
Today’s quick review: Sucker Punch. Trapped in a mental hospital by her abusive stepfather, Baby Doll (Emily Browning) retreats into her own mind, where she faces another sort of prison: a nightclub run by the manipulative Blue (Oscar Isaac). With only a week before the High Roller (Jon Hamm) comes to claim her, Baby Doll leads four other girls (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung) in a risky plan to escape.
Sucker Punch is a stylized fantasy action movie from director Zack Snyder. Sucker Punch pits five young women against enemies both real and imagined in a desperate fight to win their freedom. The movie features stylish action sequences, experimental cinematography, and a soundtrack that’s equal parts melancholy and rebellious. The film takes risks that are only partially successful, but the ones that pay off give it a unique appeal.
Sucker Punch’s biggest draw is its action. Sucker Punch draws from a number of different genres for its action sequences, including steampunk, fantasy, and sci-fi. The film mixes and matches freely between the genres, yielding action scenes that are pure nerd fodder. Each scene has the impact and concision of a music video, and it is ushered in by one of the soundtrack’s hypnotic selection of songs.
These varied action sequences are justified by yet another layer of imagination. Forced to perform in Blue’s nightclub, Baby Doll treats each dance as a battle to be won. These inner battles form the basis for the film’s action scenes. The battles are only loosely connected to the world outside; the film takes advantage of their metaphorical nature by indulging in genres and songs that would be inconsistent with the main story’s mid-20th century setting.
Sucker Punch’s other major draw is its visual style. Zack Snyder uses the camera to great effect, toying with the borders of reality and using elegant shots to transition between fantasies. Elided and nonlinear storytelling keep the viewer guessing, while a skewed color palette and abundant use of CGI make the whole film seem surreal. The stylization is not subtle, but the techniques that comprise it often are.
Sucker Punch also pulls off a few clever tricks with its themes. The philosophical backbone of the movie is one particular message: that victory over even the most overwhelming odds can be found in the decision to fight back. Subtler themes include abuse and exploitation, heroism and the nature of stories, and fantasy and escapism. These themes carry little of the weight they would in a devoted drama, but they do give the movie some flavor.
Moreover, the themes double back around in paradoxical ways. Sucker Punch caters to a specific type of freewheeling fantasy, but it subverts that fantasy by tying it inextricably to grim themes of abuse and escape. The superficial worlds the movie visits for its action sequences are only temporary reprieves from the somber facts of Baby Doll’s reality. The result is a seemingly shallow action movie that has hidden depths.
Sucker Punch’s acting is decent but not great. Emily Browning as Baby Doll is something of a blank slate, capable of despair and determination but little in between. Her closest ally is Rocket (Jena Malone), a loyal but reckless friend, while Rocket’s sister Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) is the group’s pessimist. But the standout performance comes from Oscar Isaac as Blue, a reprehensible man who uses violence and emotional blackmail to control the girls.
As for its plot, Sucker Punch has the pared-down logic of a video game. Baby Doll’s plan to escape requires four items to work, a premise that none of the girls ever question. The plot proceeds linearly once it has been set up: Baby Doll and her crew steal the items they need, while Blue grows more and more suspicious of their activities. This framework gives the film a clear place to put its action sequences while giving the story some structure.
Though the simplistic nature of the plot can be disappointing to the viewer, it appears to be a deliberate choice by Zack Snyder. The basic rules of the plot reflect the film’s dreamlike story and video game influences. They also let the film indulge in more complexity elsewhere: its nested story, its abstract symbolism, and its active presentation style. The resulting story is not deep, but it is more intricate than it first appears.
Sucker Punch depends heavily on the audience’s forbearance. Its dream-within-a-dream setup can be disorienting, its skimpy outfits won’t please everyone, and its action sequences have little relation to the plot they’re dropped into. Much like the thin logic of the plot, each of these choices is a deliberate tradeoff, sacrificing broader appeal for the sake of an artistic point. Viewed the right way, they are part of a remarkable whole.
But the gambits pile up quickly. It just takes one misstep to ruin the movie for the viewer, and seemingly the whole film is on shaky footing. For the right viewer, one who delights in spectacle and paradox in equal measure, Sucker Punch is a rare treat: a film that weds superficial style to subtle artistry. But the majority of viewers will run into some issue or another they just cannot get past and never receive the film’s delicate payoff.
Watch Sucker Punch when you are in the mood for fanciful action and experimental storytelling. Sucker Punch is a peculiar hybrid that will not appeal to everyone. It is a niche pick masquerading as a blockbuster, and even those who are drawn to it may be disappointed. But its unique combination of elements makes it well worth the gamble for anyone who is curious.
6.1 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.5 for a stylish action, engrossing cinematography, and subtle connections within its story; your score will vary wildly.