I was so excited last Wednesday, because we had tickets for a free screening of Sucker Punch.  So I get home from work and the movie doesn’t start until 10.  Cool.   Even better, the tickets are VIP so we don’t have to wait in that long ass line.  Woo hoo.  While I was at work, I get a text from Perry reminding me that the movie begins at 10pm.  After dinner, there’s a little time, so I hop onto the chaise and say that I am going to take a tiny nap.  When I woke up a little later, I ask what time it is, and he says “9;57” as though we didn’t have anything to do.  So I say, “What the hell? Doesn’t the movie start at 10?  Why’d you let me sleep so much?” To which the response was “I forgot.” I was a little bummed that I would be missing the movie.

So today, we watched it.  Kinda mad that I didn’t get to see it for free.

The story was okay.  It’s major characters are patients at a mental institution.  The heroine is Baby Doll, who gets institutionalized by her step father when she accidentally kills her younger sister with a bullet meant for him shortly after her mother died.  Baby Doll’s coping mechanism for being in this place is by escaping into her imagination.   While off in her daydreams, she came up with a plan to escape.  She then enlists the help of 4 other girls.   The twist is that Baby Doll’s story is meant to be tragic, but in turn it makes another girl’s, Sweet Pea, happy.  I love an escapism movie that uses escapism as a tool for pushing the story forward, but it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense.  Why would a girl trying to cope with being a patient in an institution imagine that she was a “go-go” dancer in a place she could never leave? On top of that, why would she then need to imagine that she has to get away from the “club” version of her mind?  Why not just go from the institution to the battle scenes?  Throw in the mix that there wasn’t much character growth built into the script.

I’ve read that Zack Snyder movies, like Tarantino’s, rely heavily on the soundtrack.  While the soundtrack was alright, I found it curious that there were a number of times that the same Bjork song is played through the last half of the movie.  What I didn’t really like was that it was mostly remakes of a few songs that all sounded similar in style and tone.

Visually, in regards to the effects, the movie’s budget was spent in that one area.  The images are incredible and vibrant.  But while the sight of the movie is amazing, it’s nothing that’s very new or unexpected. I love the lushness that was used when he showed people of power.  It was always in some overindulgent kind of way.  For example, the mayor uses a gold plated lighter that has a dragon on it.

Now visually, in regards to style, it’s pretty plain to see that Mr. Snyder has a fondness for long panning shots, and slow motion action sequences that show the audience exactly what’s happening.  But guess what, so does Guy Ritchie.  While there are a few variations between the two, I think that Snyder uses the slo-mo action shots for too long of a period.  Like I said it looks super cool, but it makes those sequences repetitive if you utilize this imagery as often as this movie did.  Taking a look at the costumes, it’s easy to see which focus group this movie was made for.  The costumes are nearly every cliche that has been considered sexy in the last twenty years.

I have to say that  I began to roll my eyes during the fight scenes because every single time there was a girl jumping in the air and landing after an attack, all of the landings were exactly the same: head bowed, one knee down, and one hand placed on the ground.  Every single time! Augh, talk about overdoing it.

Talent: All I am gonna say is that this movie’s acting is on par with the amazing Showgirls.  It felt a little forced.

So I if I had to grade this movie, I’d have to give it a C-.  It did have entertainment value as a fluff movie.  It was visually fantastic. But don’t have high expectations when you go to see it.

***ADDENDUM***

This is why I really need to start taking notebooks with me when I see movies…

I did love some of, what I believe is, the symbology in the movie.  The whole thing takes in the moment right before Baby Doll get that final lobotomizing tap from the doctor.  During the fight sequences, Snyder combines things that aren’t part of the same era.  In the first fight, he had a samurai using a rocket launcher and a machine gun.  I feel like the samurai represents tradition but the use of the machine gun bastardizes the culture itself, much in the same way that the institution is supposed to help people with their problems but turns out that a bad seed in the place makes the integrity level plummet.  There’s also phallic shaped dirigibles that get shot down. There’s a lot to read into for this movie which is why it isn’t a complete fail, but the script needs some work.