Sucker Punch
PG-13
110 minutes
Director: Zack Snyder
Writers:Zack Snyder, Steve Shibuya
Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn, Richard Cetrone, Gerard Plunkett, Malcolm Scott, Ron Selmour
Making films about crazy people can be a cop out. The movie doesn't necessarily have to make sense, because the characters cannot make sense of their own world. Movies this bad are made all the time. Except this one is not made from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan. 30 minutes hour into the movie, I noticed a few people leaving the theater, never to return to their seats. Even as I write this review, I am still trying to make sense of it all.
Baby Doll (Browning), a pseudonym she adopted because of her resemblance to a baby doll. I do not really know this for sure. I just kind of deduced it from her appearance. Blonde hair, rosy-red cheeks, and she is cute as a button; she possesses all these traits, yet her character is seemingly creepy and unsettling.
Even for the sole purpose of this review, it would have been nice to know her real name. For example, if I reviewed The Crow. Imagine having to refer to Brandon Lee's character as 'The Crow,' throughout the review. That would be utterly ludicrous, his name is Eric Draven, guitarist extraordinaire.
After her mother dies, Baby Doll and her sister, live with their stepfather (Plunkett). The stepfather murders her sister. Later on, Baby Doll attempts to shoot her stepfather. She misses and shoots a light bulb near his head. Baby Doll is sent the Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. She is institutionalized by her stepfather. The stepfather wants to keep murder under wraps. So he bribes the institutions' director, Blue Jones (Isaac). Blue forges a psychiatrist's signature. Another doctor (Hamm) will perform a lobotomy on her in five days.
This is where Baby Doll loses touch with reality. She imagines that she is a dancer. The mental institution is the dance hall. The patients are other dancers, the staff all have their respective parts to play. Additionally, the dance hall is a brothel. The events that occur in the dance hall, are all analogous to real life events. The fantasies within fantasies serve a symbolic purpose, at least I think so.
A “Wise Man” (Glenn) shows up in a fantasy within a fantasy. He says, “you will need to find five items. The first is a map. Then fire. Then a knife. And a key. The fifth thing is a mystery. Begin your journey. It will set you free.” From there, she would need to log-on to Xbox Live, download the cheat codes, and unlock the last level.
I expected a generic metal soundtrack. Instead, we get something much better. The soundtrack is filled bad original music and bad cover versions of songs. Here are a few tracks:
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Emily Browning (yes that is Baby Doll singing)
White Rabbit – Emiliana Torrini
I Want It All/We Will Rock You Mash-Up – Queen w/ Armageddon Aka Geddy
Where Is My Mind? – Yoav featuring Emily Browning
Tomorrow Never Knows – Alison Mosshart and Carla Azar
Zack Snyder created 300 and The Watchmen. Unlike those two films, Sucker Punch is a completely original screenplay. I do not want to confuse anyone. By completely original, I mean this screenplay was not based off a novel. Sucker Punch is not completely original, in the other sense of the phrase. If I had to describe the movie in a word, it would be, clusterfuck.
Sucker Punch closes with the following quote:
“Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us. And at the same time, things that will never die. Who teaches us whats real, and how to laugh at lies. Who decides why we live, and what we’ll die to defend. Who trains us, and who holds the key to set us free. It’s you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!”
Wow! That was deep, and if we can learn anything from Captain Planet, it's that the power is, indeed, yours.