By Nate Palermo, staff writer
Take one attractive young blonde. Combine with an abusive stepfather and the mental institute he puts her in. Add one active imagination and a plan to escape the hospital plus a sprinkling of samurai, robots, dragons, and zeppelins, and you’ve got Sucker Punch in a nutshell.
Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), Sucker Punch tells an interesting story and provides scenes of absolutely everything boys thought would be completely awesome when they were 12 years old.
The movie focuses mostly on the fantasies that the blonde Baby Doll (Emily Browning) uses to escape reality. These take the form of action scenes, using frequent slow motion and computer generation effects in a style reminiscent of 300 but with robots and fighter planes instead of Persians.
Surprisingly, Sucker Punch has good character development and great acting from the supporting cast (including Disney Channel’s Vanessa Hudgens), as well as levels of symbolism and intelligence usually absent from most action movies. The movie calls into question what is real and what isn’t, and both sides have plenty of evidence as the viewer rides through Baby Doll’s fantastic imagination.
However, at times this can seem quite like Christopher Nolan’s Inception, especially when there’s the possibility of a fantasy within a fantasy. But Snyder’s films aren’t usually about bringing an interesting point to light; they’re about amazingly rendered fight scenes. In this respect, he succeeds, and he seems to trying for something deeper. Though not Oscar-worthy, it does provide more entertainment than just a generic action film, and the level of fanboy awesomeness recommends this film to anyone who ever thought it would be awesome to fight robots with a katana.
