Some movies leave viewers with questions. For example, at the end of “Inception,” many people wondered if Dom was stuck in limbo or if he’d made it back to the U.S. Certain scenes in “Black Swan” suggest the character of Lily, played by Mila Kunis, doesn’t exist, but the makers of the movie don’t resolve that uncertainty. However, at the end of “Sucker Punch,” the new Zack Snyder movie, the only question that came to my mind was, “Why?”
“Sucker Punch” vigorously resists attempts to extract meaning from its hollow depths. I thought I’d latched on to something while talking with a co-worker about the film’s attitude toward women, but the idea dissolved into thin air before I was able to grab hold of it. The young woman with whom I was talking said she didn’t like how the main character in the movie, Baby Doll, was only able to obtain power over men by slipping into a fantasy world and using her sexuality to distract them.
Her point was well made. With one exception, the men in the movie are pigs, yet they have absolute control over women and girls. To escape this oppressive, abusive social order, Baby Doll creates a dream realm in which nothing can physically stop her, and in which she has the ability to outsmart her captors. Had Snyder buried a well-disguised pro-feminist statement in “Sucker Punch?”
Nah.
My guess is Snyder wanted to cook up a great visual gumbo. Unfortunately, he was more interested in creating a compelling aesthetic than he was about telling a story with weight. So while “Sucker Punch” clearly displays his command of visuals, sound and movement, the narrative takes a back seat to the action.
The movie opens with the death of Baby Doll’s mother. The circumstances surrounding her demise are suspicious, as the stepfather is shown reading her will, going into a rage, and then trying to “abuse” Baby Doll and her younger sister. Baby Doll fires a gun at the man, and although the bullet hits a ceiling light, her sister is then shown bleeding from a wound.
Instead of killing Baby Doll, the stepfather commits her to a sanitarium and arranges for her to receive a lobotomy. Baby Doll immediately begins to plot her escape, but instead of staying grounded in reality, she slips into a fantasy world in which the asylum is a burlesque theater in which the ladies do “special favors” for the clients. (I hope you don’t mind me using “quotation marks” to suggest unpleasant things. Snyder does the same thing.)
Within the safe confines of her mind, Baby Doll isn’t trying to avoid a lobotomy, but the grimy touch of the High Roller, who’s coming to (sigh) “take away her innocence.” From there, she slips into a second layer of fantasy, where she meets a wise man who tells her she must find five items to be able to escape the High Roller. Each item is located in a different world, and she must fight to obtain them.
This finally gets Snyder to where he can play with his toys, as the moment the wise man is done talking, three humongous samurai warriors materialize, intent on killing Baby Doll. The skirmish that follows is the kind you might expect to see at the end of another movie. Baby Doll pulls off moves that would have required a lifetime of training and slays all three warriors without getting so much as a scratch.
Snyder blends computer animation, slow motion photography and phenomenal action choreography to create a stunning visual experience.
Once that battle is over, Baby Doll returns to the first layer of fantasy, where she recruits four helpers and then continues her quest, fighting zombies, a dragon and futuristic robots to acquire the items she needs.
As the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Snyder has simply stitched together a series of great looking, but unrelated, video game cinematics. While each scene is entertaining, the viewer has no emotional investment in anything that happens. Baby Doll is invincible, her enemies are generic obstacles, and I didn’t care about what was taking place on the screen.
Despite its considerable failings, I liked “Sucker Punch.” Scott Glenn does a nice turn as the wise man, and with the exception of the bewildering voiceover that brings the movie to a close, Snyder delivered a decent ending. Moreover, Baby Doll’s fate moved me, and the resolution of the overall story surprised me.
The answer to the question of why Snyder made “Sucker Punch” is simple: he had to get these images out of his head before he started working on the new Superman movie. Here’s hoping he can give the Man of Steel the kind of narrative attention he deserves.
Rated PG-13 for sexuality, violence and language. Two stars out of four. Next week: “Source Code.” Email David Laprad at dlaprad@yahoo.com.