For the record, I think Zack Snyder is sort of idiotic. The 300's propaganda-laced nature could have only not been obvious to someone who either hailed from a planet or plane of reality other than Earth or a daft bugger who had spent far too much time living in a hole underground to notice the ongoing West/Middle-East conflict. That and he somehow managed to miss the entire point of Watchmen.("It's about a bad guy who takes over the world, DERP") That was an actual quote by the way.
Thus, I went into Sucker Punch without an oodle of hope, thinking "Meh, at least I'll get to see some scantily clad femme fatales mowing down German Zombies." And actually, that statement ended up being correct, but...not quite. What I didn't count on was this turning out to be his best, and most auteuristic film.
Sucker Punch follows the woeful tragedy of one aptly named "Babydoll", a pig-tailed toy of a girl who's malevolent step-father ships her off to an insane asylum after she accidentally shoots her sister whilst trying to save her from the aforementioned step-father (Yikes). Once there, it turns out that due to illicit dealings Mr. Evil Father-Figure makes with a slimy orderly, Babydoll is set to soon be lobotomized.
In order to cope with her current environs, Babydoll fantasizes that she has actually been sold to a burlesque brothel of sorts, and that she and the other girls are all entertainers, forced to dance and whore their bodies out for Blue, orderly in truth, but imagined as a slick pimp showman in Babydoll's skewed sense of reality. Forced to perfect an individualistic(Ha) erotic dance in order to please clientele, she ends up further abstracting things by now imagining herself in Ancient Japan, meeting with a fairly wizened dude who tasks her with finding 6 items that will win her her freedom. upon returning to her prior fantasy (Dream within a dream anyone?) she rallies the other girls about her, convincing them that these items hold the key to their freedom.
Babydoll's plan for acquiring these items? She distracts the men who possess said items with her apparently irresistible dancing techniques while her girl-friends scurry about pick-pocketing these scuzzy fellas. These scenes manifest themselves as absurd and over the top battle scenes waged between the girls (Dressed like various fetishist fantasies) and armies of zombies, orcs, and robots. No, before you ask, I'm not fucking with you.
Sucker Punch's plot is absurd. It almost seems as though it were cooked up by a 15 year-old boy who decided to write a screenplay while under the influence of every psychotropic he had access to, with eighties speed-metal playing in the background. Now, side-note. It's kinda fucking awesome.
The movie is essentially a deconstruction of the female role in action movie pop-culture, and the fetishism of warrior maidens in things ranging from anime to videogames. It's a movie about audience expectation being turned onto it's head and beaten to death by the very girls it was ogling.
Now, maybe I give Snyder too much credit. Granted, this may all be a big mistake on his part, an unintentional work of mild genius, but I digress, back to my point about what makes Sucker Punch special. It caters to it's target audience while simultaneously making a mockery of it. This is where the burlesque imagery comes in. Though this is definitely a boys movie, the most reprehensible characters in the movie are all slimy boys themselves. In effect, the typical male audience is watching a movie which vilifies them, most likely without them even grasping this. Hence the title.
In a way, it isn't wholly a film. It's akin to a concept album, hence the abstract and somewhat nonsensical lilt of the tale. It's more a film of theme and ensnarement than one of narrative, readily apparent in the characters who seem archetypes more than actual people, and in how central music is to almost every sequence. This statement isn't to write off the actors. They simply don't have much to work with, though they do seem to put their heart into their roles, as cartoony as they are.
Further cementing the films place within the male psyche is the videogame-like structure of our band of heroines' quest. Embark on an epic journey to collect 6 different items? Face down hordes of faceless minions? Plug in a controller why don't you. OH WAIT, it's a movie! Gosh I'm funny.
Now, this isn't to say I ABSOLUTELY adore the movie. This movie being from a male perspective, it feels distinctly unfeminine, despite the amount of lace and flowery outfits. The film being about male audience expectation more than anything, everything is filtered through this kinda phallic Lewis Carroll gone goth-steampunk thing. This isn't entirely bad, but it does feel cold on a certain level. One can't really be expected to care for the girls uniformly when in truth, they seem to all be aspects of the heroine of the tale. The film also walks a fine line between being unabashedly boyish sexual fantasy and sexual parody. A kinda Barbarella for the 21st century...and with more machine-guns.
And you know what, I like it.
4/5
On a side note, I've yet to hear a female perspective on this film, at least from any friends of mine. I eagerly await, curious as to what scathing things they have to say about it.
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