March 29th: Updated with some observations on the levels of reality in this movieYou may have already heard the premise behind "Sucker Punch": a really smokin' hot femme is locked away in a 1950s mental institute, and she has n days until her lobotomy. Soooo...like anyone else would do in her situation...she has elaborate fantasies involving robots and dragons and machine guns that somehow enable her escape.
This seems almost stupidly straightforward. "Stupidly", because, quite honestly, what the hell do robots have to do with mid-20th century psychiatric medicine?
Well, ok, but that's just barely pertinent.
"Sucker Punch", is, in fact, not that straightforward or even that stupid. I mean, it's kind of stupid...it is often a showcase for explosions and cleavage. But everyone going to see this film wants explosions and cleavage. And it manages to present these showcases for cleavage explosions/explosive cleavage in a way that isn't completely stupid or...Lord help me...antifeminist.
Yes, I am about to tell you that the movie about hot femmes shooting guns in skimpy outfits isn't sexist.
As hard as it may be to believe, judging from the film posters, the overall message of this film is not sexist. It can be summed up as, "Girls are awesome". Girls in this film sacrifice themselves for their sisters, their "sisters" (as in fellow exotic dancers), and for their vaguely lesbian best friends. Girls kick ass and look great while doing so. Girls stab oily rapists in scenes that gave me bad flashbacks to "Black Swan". And they pilot steam-powered mechs in scenes that gave me good flashbacks to "Tank Girl".
Yes, I am about to tell you that "Tank Girl" is a better movie than "Black Swan". Suck it!
The way the movie gets around the inherent stupidity of steam-powered clockwork Nazi zombies is by presenting these scenes as fantasy vignettes triggered by disassociation. It's kind of like "Muppet Babies", except it's as if Kermit and the rest of them are all attractive young women and are trying to escape from a brothel.
The movie treats the dissociative moments in a sympathetic manner, (no matter who is having them). The bad guys might characterize the protagonist, Baby Doll as violently insane, but to the audience she is presented as a brave, self-sacrificing hero, fighting against authoritarian villains and indeed, the patriarchy. Her trips into la-la land grant her the power to do great things. Thus the movie avoids the trap of certain other movies reviewed here, where potentially sympathetic women who are traumatized by violence and sexual assault wind up turning into unsympathetic monsters. Sometimes literally. Ahem.
I guess you can argue that Hollywood crazy somewhat resembles PTSD, which CAN make people very angry as a result of a specific event...but Hollywood crazy really is a special disorder, all its own. Most "crazy" people are not violent, and often are singled out for violence because of their odd behavior. Meanwhile, in real life, often the bad guys are perfectly sane and the ones in charge.
Enough of my harangue. Well, maybe a little more...in "Sucker Punch", the bad guys are indeed the ones in charge. They are rapists and corrupt doctors. And the good guys wind up losing a lot. The ending is not feel-good, because of all of the suffering that leads up to it, although I would call it life-affirming.
And the plot? Well, there's a plot. It can be a little cheap at times.
I really liked the overall message of women working as a team to help one another. It warmed my frosty heart.
Or maybe I've just been taken in by how pretty the damn movie is, and all the explosions and swords.
I don't think so, though. I think, indeed, that anybody who calls this a bad movie, or boring, or unimaginative, probably doesn't have a soul.
I give "Sucker Punch" 4 stars, and if you don't like that, you can go watch Natalie Portman yank her cuticles off.
3 stars for "Is that a biplane? No, it's a triplane! No, seriously, 3 wings!"
And 1 star for "Not being completely stupid", which is all I really asked for anyway.
****
Update: On another level, perhaps nothing in the film actually happens except for the very beginning and the lobotomy scene toward the end. All the rest is disassociation in reaction to extreme abuse. Or maybe it's the other way around, and the brothel is real, the disassociation still occurs, though for other reasons, and the protagonist isn't who you think at all. The movie mostly follows the character named "Baby Doll", who is champion of these fantasy vignettes. She is the one who appears to be spacing out during the fantasy sequences. But does she exist at all?
"Where Is My Mind" is featured prominently throughout the film. The same song ended "Fight Club", in a very plot-appropriate way. Certainly the song is thematically related to "Sucker Punch", but maybe it's also a hint? The film is open to multiple interpretations.
The very same twists that seem to come out of nowhere on first viewing really do enrich the film. Underneath the action is a tragic and serious story! No really. Shocker number 3. Yet I do not think that ruins the enjoyment of the action sequences.
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