What happens when you put five incredibly hot (and scantily clad) women against Steam-Powered-Mechanical-Zombie-Nazis, Dragons, Monsters, Robots, and Stone Samurai Warriors? You get Sucker Punch, the newest spectacle from Director Zack Synder (300, Watchmen). This new visual endeavor starts off as a slow-going intro to a psychadelic music video (enter: Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’, just in case the audience wasn’t aware that they should be on a hard-and-fast acid trip), crescendos into a dystopian first-person-shooter (ala Bioshock), and ends with a half-hour attempt to tie fantasy and reality together in a satisfactory ending. But, weak storyline and questionable/predictable plot twists aside, this movie is absolutely worth a watch for the badass CGI and wardrobe, alone.
Baby Doll (Emily Browning – Phantom of the Opera, The Uninvited) is a doe-eyed blonde beauty who, after being institutionalized by her money-hungry stepfather for control of her deceased mother’s will, retreats into a candy-coated world of violent and survivalist fantasy, all decked out in glitter and schoolgirl outfits. In this world of make-believe, Baby Doll is fighting for her life alongside her fellow patients (an all-female ensemble, each actress a treat for the eyes, even without heavy dialogue) in various scenarios. Each of these war-games scenarios are played out in Baby Doll’s mind as she is dancing for the enjoyment of burlesque patrons. The dancing is applauded by her ‘captors’ (the heads of the institution-disguised-burlesque), and she is spotlighted as a main act, attracting the attention of the “high roller”, who offers to ‘purchase’ her in five days. So, within these five days, Baby Doll is informed by her Mr. Myagi-esque internal mentor (played in each scenario by Scott Glenn) that she has a small window of opportunity to recruit the help of the other girls to escape the club and regain her life. All that is required for her to obtain her freedom are five things the girls will need to escape the asylum/burlesque club: a map, fire, a key, a knife, and a fifth mystery object, which she will discover towards the end of her journey to freedom. Baby Doll’s first ‘dance’ shows her meeting her mentor, and being forced into battle with three gigantic, stone/robotic Samurai warriors. Snyder uses heavy Matrix-inspired slow-animation for a majority of this fight scene, and Baby Doll proceeds to defeat her three enemies. The ‘dance’ ends. Going into detail about each of the fight scenes and action-fantasy scenarios during Baby Doll’s dances would ruin the fun in seeing the film, so we’ll just say that Zombie Nazis and Metallic Androids are some of the many visual treats througout the movie. Even when Baby Doll is retreating from world-to-world in her mind, the visuals are consistent, and remain stunning, in true Zach Snyder fashion.
The soundtrack is more than just a little noteworthy, as it is a strong plot-driver behind pretty much every scene. Trippy, chopped-and-screwed remixes of popular songs like “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)”, “I Want it All”, and “We Will Rock You”, make each scene as audibly forceful as they are visually over-the-top. Although the music was genuinely awesome, and a lot of audience-members will likely leave wanting to add a copy of the soundtrack to their iTunes library ASAP, it did feel a little heavy at times, and seemed to be used more as a scene-driver than for background effect. Score and sountrack are key players in every film, but if it completely dominates a scene, the movie becomes more of a music video, and all hope of a storyline is somewhat lost. But this may have been intentional, as the fantasy scenes are definitely works of the imagination, and couldn’t exactly be confused for real-life, dramatic situations. Regardless of intention, the songs fit perfectly with the scenes, and work to hype up the audience alongside the intense visuals.
Emily Browning really brings the Baby Doll character to life, her performance standing out as both believable and powerful. She didn’t have a lot of dialogue (honestly, none of the characters really talked up a storm – the movie was definitely driven by visuals), but her shy yet dominating lost-girl-in-the-woods portrayal of her character was impressive. Jena Malone (Saved!, The Messenger) as Rocket is also a surprisingly tender and likeable character, and her emotions expressed as the little sister torn between loyalty and freedom seem genuine and her scenes really forward the storyline. Holding seniority among the bnuch is Sweetpea, played by Australian actress Abbie Cornish (Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Robot Chicken). Acting as the highly-overprotective sister to Rocket, her scenes are generally intermingled with Baby Doll’s, but both actresses bring their A-game (although I really could have done without Sweetpea’s uber-hokey ending lines pre-credits) The rest of the ladies can, unfortunately, kind of be lumped together as less-than-memorable. Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical 1-2-3, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody) branches away from her usual sugary-sweet persona to play the seductive and street smart Blondie. And, ya gotta admit, its always fun to see tween-beloved Disney Princesses pop out in corsets, playing smoking-hot strippers. Jamie Chung (Grey’s Anatomy, Sorority Row) is Amber, the favorite burlesque-girl of the mayor, who frequents the club to see Amber and watch her sister-dancers perform.
Carla Gugino (Entourage, Californication) offers a compassionate and genuine performance in her dual roles as Madam Vera Gorski, the mother hen of the burlesque girls, and Dr. Vera Gorski, the head psychiatrist at the asylum who oversees Baby Doll’s therapy. Scott Glenn takes on the role of Baby Doll’s mentor throughout escapes into her alternative reality. He seems to channel David Carridine’s aloof-yet-wise performance in Kill Bill, playing up his various roles as a Wise Man, spiritual mentor, and battle commander, maintaining emotional distance from the girls, while still guiding them to success. Guatemalan actor Oscar Issac (Body of Lies, Robin Hood) is Blue Jones, the creepy asylum orderly and burlesque-owner, who is all-too-easily bribed by Baby Doll’s stepfather to assure that he will never have to deal with her being released or escaping from the hospital. He excels at playing up the pimp-daddy angle of the burlesque-owner, and ending the film with an impressive emotional breakdown when acting as the corrupt orderly.
The soundtrack is more than just a little noteworthy, as it is a strong plot-driver behind pretty much every scene. Trippy, chopped-and-screwed remixes of popular songs like “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)”, “I Want it All”, and “We Will Rock You”, make each scene as audibly forceful as they are visually over-the-top. Although the music was genuinely awesome, and a lot of audience-members will likely leave wanting to add a copy of the soundtrack to their iTunes library ASAP, it did feel a little heavy at times, and seemed to be used more as a scene-driver than for background effect. Score and sountrack are key players in every film, but if it completely dominates a scene, the movie becomes more of a music video, and all hope of a storyline is somewhat lost. But this may have been intentional, as the fantasy scenes are definitely works of the imagination, and couldn’t exactly be confused for real-life, dramatic situations. Regardless of intention, the songs fit perfectly with the scenes, and work to hype up the audience alongside the intense visuals.
Emily Browning really brings the Baby Doll character to life, her performance standing out as both believable and powerful. She didn’t have a lot of dialogue (honestly, none of the characters really talked up a storm – the movie was definitely driven by visuals), but her shy yet dominating lost-girl-in-the-woods portrayal of her character was impressive. Jena Malone (Saved!, The Messenger) as Rocket is also a surprisingly tender and likeable character, and her emotions expressed as the little sister torn between loyalty and freedom seem genuine and her scenes really forward the storyline. Holding seniority among the bnuch is Sweetpea, played by Australian actress Abbie Cornish (Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Robot Chicken). Acting as the highly-overprotective sister to Rocket, her scenes are generally intermingled with Baby Doll’s, but both actresses bring their A-game (although I really could have done without Sweetpea’s uber-hokey ending lines pre-credits) The rest of the ladies can, unfortunately, kind of be lumped together as less-than-memorable. Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical 1-2-3, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody) branches away from her usual sugary-sweet persona to play the seductive and street smart Blondie. And, ya gotta admit, its always fun to see tween-beloved Disney Princesses pop out in corsets, playing smoking-hot strippers. Jamie Chung (Grey’s Anatomy, Sorority Row) is Amber, the favorite burlesque-girl of the mayor, who frequents the club to see Amber and watch her sister-dancers perform.
Carla Gugino (Entourage, Californication) offers a compassionate and genuine performance in her dual roles as Madam Vera Gorski, the mother hen of the burlesque girls, and Dr. Vera Gorski, the head psychiatrist at the asylum who oversees Baby Doll’s therapy. Scott Glenn takes on the role of Baby Doll’s mentor throughout escapes into her alternative reality. He seems to channel David Carridine’s aloof-yet-wise performance in Kill Bill, playing up his various roles as a Wise Man, spiritual mentor, and battle commander, maintaining emotional distance from the girls, while still guiding them to success. Guatemalan actor Oscar Issac (Body of Lies, Robin Hood) is Blue Jones, the creepy asylum orderly and burlesque-owner, who is all-too-easily bribed by Baby Doll’s stepfather to assure that he will never have to deal with her being released or escaping from the hospital. He excels at playing up the pimp-daddy angle of the burlesque-owner, and ending the film with an impressive emotional breakdown when acting as the corrupt orderly.
In general, this was just a freaking awesome movie. I was into it from beginning up to the very end, and wasn’t distracted at any point by anything shiny (save for the glitter and bling all over the screen in every scene…..maybe that is why it successfully held attention? Hmm.) The CG, visual effects, and cinematography are, of course, similar to other Snyder films (i.e 300, Watchmen), hence Sucker Punch was packed with the pretty colors, crisp imagery, and sleek fight sequences we have come to expect from him. The addition of an all-female-starring-cast gave ample opportunity to add even more to the fantastic visuals, with colorful costuming and incredible, light-catching makeup. I won’t lie, when I left the movie, I spent the drive home contemplating where I could find the eyeshadow and most of the burlesque outfits that added candy-colored gloss to the scenes throughout Baby Doll’s reality #2. The plot is very thin, admittedly, and there isn’t a lot of detail or backstory given to any of the characters, even the main players. But it is coherent enough that the audience understands what they are watching, and how the events are sequencing – but, yes, the emphasis was very obviously on making a pretty movie with pretty girls fighting intense/crazy (but pretty!) battles. If you go into Suckerpunch expecting a deep and prominent storyline, unpredictable twists, and incredibly multi-dimensional characters, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. But the trailers didn’t lead viewers on by eluding to a drama-fest. Rather, it was avertised for exactly what it is. Really, really awesome; a noir fairy tale packed with as much entertainment as two hours can give.
ComicsOnline gives Sucker Punch 3.5 Items you will need to escape out of 5.
ComicsOnline gives Sucker Punch 3.5 Items you will need to escape out of 5.
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