By: Victor Sornovich

It’s not surprising to find out that Zack Snyder, the director behind 300 and Watchmen, wrote and directed Sucker Punch. It becomes most obvious in the slow-motion action sequences layered in CGI animation and special effects. And the lack in dialogue (or good, meaningful dialogue not peppered in by intermittent sage advice from the wise-old-man character, played by Scott Glen—the best character of the film) is substituted for an erotic thrill ride. Five girls in their early twenties wearing short skirts, bustiers, and showing as much skin as can possibly be allowed before it becomes a skin flick, all while playing out the fantasies of every thirteen-year-old gamers’ dream by swinging big swords and even bigger guns. It’s a proverbial masturbatory action film for those wanting to please their androgynous penchants of ass-kicking female leads with more balls than The Expendables. While the film was not an entire disaster, I would not go see it with the expectation that it had anything meaningful to say. I would, though, go see it just for the pure entertainment and fantasy that it evokes with jaw-dropping effects and stunning cinematography. It’s another film that confirms we’re moving closer and closer, as the years go by, to a future where Hollywood will easily replace substance for spectacle.

The main character, Babydoll, played by Emily Browning, loses both her mother and sister, and is thus left with her evil stepfather—who happened to have killed Babydoll’s sister. Soon after being thrown into a mental asylum for women (modeled after a darker, more noir version of Girl, Interrupted), she starts to withdraw into her own fantasies, which plays out a metaphorical world in place for reality. It’s a world where the id, ego, and super-ego can battle it out, all while she anticipates a lobotomist coming for her in five days, giving her motivation to escape expediently. She imagines herself in a brothel where she quickly befriends four of the other girls: Rocket, Sweet Pea, Blondie, and Amber. All of them want to escape just as much as she does, yet none have the individual will to power until Babydoll inspires them. How does she inspire them? Other than saving Rocket from the cook’s rapacious, greasy hands, Babydoll is a magnificent dancer. Not that the audience ever sees this because each time she starts to dance she goes into this trance-like state where she fanaticizes even further.

In these danced-induced fantasies, Babydoll imagines her and her comrades fighting off various forces of evil. From a dragon to giant Samurais, to steam-powered Nazis, to antisocial, terroristic robots, the list of forces goes on and on developing into a veritable mental-mash of foes. The imagery is perhaps as spectacular as the imagination that went into these fantasies, making me envy for half the imagination the writers dreamed up for this fictional character. At times, Sucker Punch evokes the preteen angst of Japanese anime and manga transitioning to steampunk with fusions of cyberpunk, all with that similar Snyder comic-book style setting and action and spectacle. It’s a film of sensory overload that’s one big roller coaster ride that will not let you down.

Yeah, while there are faults with the film, (and I’m sure most are validated in their criticism of Sucker Punch), the film should be viewed as its own creation. And if it is done so, then it doesn’t disappoint. But perhaps the worst part of it (without giving too much away) was the ending. Modeled after the comic book, we all know what has to happen—just like we all knew that King Leonidas had to die in 300 from our history classes—but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t hope that Snyder would take it in a different, more hopeful direction. Overall, I’d say it was worth the ten bucks I spent on the ticket.