Sucker Punch – Movie Review – Four Thumbs Up!

It’s been a long while since TDA and I had a chance to review a movie, but we did get to go see Sucker Punch last weekend and both enjoyed it immensely. While TDA said it may be in his Top 5 all-time, I wouldn’t go that far (Top 20 maybe)… but it’s a great movie with fantastic FX, an awesome soundtrack, and a strong message (for recovery?) for anyone willing to pay attention and give some thought. The professional reviews on aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes have been overwhelmingly negative, while the general population consensus is the opposite on sites like imdb. My guess is the film will barely recoup its money at the box office, have fantastic DVD sales, and become a cult favorite. It’s definitely going to be in my Blu Ray collection and already have the soundtrack in my iPod.

The message and method of presentation is definitely open to interpretation…but here’s my take on it. Sucker Punch is a futuristic Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy packs a .45 and samurai sword and the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow are replaced by hot crazy chicks also armed to the gills. Like Dorothy, Baby Doll is on a quest, but instead of encountering scary trees, flying monkeys, and a wicked witch; Baby Doll and her troupe do battle with giant Japanese feudal warriors, clockwork machinery zombie nazi’s, a mega-dragon, and nuke deploying robots. Director Zack Snyder doesn’t miss a trick in the action sequences, the enemies meet their ends in every conceivable way imaginable, all to mash-ups of music by the likes of Bjork and Queen. While the trailer might look sexist and violent, there is no nudity, the women are depicted as strong, the language is certainly cleaner than an episode of Two and a Half Men, and the violence depiction (while cooler) doesn’t rise that much above Saturday morning cartoons.

In the end, the message is simply… No matter how dire one’s circumstances are, we all have the power to do something about it, and that power lies within ourselves. Like Dorothy’s ruby slippers and the Tin Man’s heart, the Wizard did not give them anything they didn’t already have.

This is my favorite trailer for the movie, watch in HD if your bandwidth allows.