Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch was Alice in Wonderland on a landscape of CGI goodness. Judging from the trailers I always us assume that this would be another visual masterpiece similar to that of 300, Sin City, and the other graphic novels turned movies from the past. Emily Browning stars as Baby Doll our Alice in this tale of mental illness delusions and marvelous visuals. By now you may have noticed that Sucker Punch is receiving not to favorable reviews by critics all over the Internet. Well I went into the movie expecting to be delivered crap based on what I have read from the reviews and I am glad to say that I was disappointed (in the reviews that is) because for me Sucker Punch was amazing.
Part of the reason for the disconnect with the reviewers and this movie is in the fact that most people go into it expecting to get another Sin City or 300 which gives us a story that is pretty plain from beginning to end and doesn’t ask for much thought. On its surface Sucker Punch gives us another sad tale of abuse, mental illness and men being men – raping, killing, and being all-around nasty bastards. Beneath the surface, as you have read already, it is an Alice in Wonderland fantasy which tricks the viewer in a way where like the girl having the illusions we cannot separate what is real from what is not real. Very much like Shutter Island from last year we are given 2 – 3 realities but unlike Shutter Island, we are left with our own devices to decide which was real and which wasn’t.
One other major disconnect is that Sucker Punch will appeal more to video gamers and anime fanatics than it will older audience members who care not for videogames or Japanese animation. As a gamer I started to recognize characters, moves and little Easter eggs that brought back games that I have played in the past into memory. This little extra, made the crazy action scenes and visuals that much more special while it played out on the big screen.
Very much fan service for guys in the audience, Sucker Punch features femme fatales, girls in schoolgirl outfits – shooting guns, being sexy, speaking with accents, twisting, writhing, punching, jumping, playing with katanas, and just about every other fetish you can think of within this spectrum. Of course as a man I appreciated every second of it, especially seeing the beautiful Carla Gugino dressed like a naughty school teacher and taking up much screen time in between all of the CGI craziness. The other memorable beauty in sucker punch was sweet pea played by Abbie Cornish.
So your biggest question upon reading this review is probably: what is Sucker Punch about? Without going into any detail, being that I would ruin the movie for you, I will say that at its core Sucker Punch is an artistic movie. It is a visual journey through the mind of Zack Snyder, Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, and the rest of the girls involved. In term of acting my hat goes off to Oscar Isaac who plays Blue Jones the villainous pimp that terrorizes the girls. So don’t let negative reviews sway you, if you are impressed with beautiful CGI visuals and want a story that isn’t straightforward and simple then you should check out Sucker Punch. The ladies are hot, they have dragons, World War I era dogfights, katana swords, and frontal lobotomies. If that doesn’t pique your interest, then nothing I say will.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
