Sucker Punch is Every Young Man's Fantasy

I never felt like anything was missing from last year’s thriller, Inception, until I checked out Zack Snyder’s newest film, Sucker Punch. The 300 and Watchmen director added something to the dream world that Christopher Nolan forgot. Nolan forgot the half-naked, barely legal, hotties doing all the dream action. Once again Zack Snyder shows film makers that sex sells.

Baby Doll is a young girl forced into a mental institution by her step-father after her mother and little sister have died. To make sure Baby Doll doesn’t cause any trouble she’s scheduled to have a lobotomy in five days. That gives her a short amount of time to break-out of her prison. But she doesn’t imagine it as a prison. To Baby Doll it seems more like brothel where orphan girls are forced to dance and satisfy the clients of their captor, Blue. When Baby Doll dances she just shuts her eyes and imagines a world of fantasy where her and her friends are fighting a war under the guidance of the Wise Man, played by Sam Glenn. Baby Doll, Rocket, Sweet Pea, Blondie, and Amber must collect five items in order to escape, collecting a different item each time while people are mesmerized by Baby Doll’s dancing.

The fight sequences in this film where badass! While Baby Doll dances she imagines she’s fighting Nazi-zombies, a dragon, and giant samurai warriors. Of course you only see these worlds when Baby Doll dances. The rest of the time you’re in Baby Doll’s other dream where the psyche ward is a brothel. You never even see actual reality until the end of the film.

The five girls did a nice job of all appearing strong and vulnerable at the same time. High School Musical alumni,Vanessa Hudgens, showed she’s got more balls than Zac Efron, and former Samuri Girl, Jamie Chug, got to play a hot warrior once again. Even though Emily Browning leads these girls as Baby Doll it’s Jena Malone’s performance has Rocket I was most impressed with. She hit the whole spectrum of emotions in this film. The supporting cast of Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, and Sam Glenn helped the fear for the girls become more real for the audience as well. Even Mad Men star Jon Hamm guest starred, which I found ironic since he was rumored for a while to be the first choice to star in Zack Snyder’s next film, Superman.

 Overall the film is something you have to see in theatres. The great action sequences mixed in with the unexpected music choices makes it a worth-while experience. I think Zack Snyder is the next Cameron Crowe with his films all having a unique soundtrack to them. There was one point where I was a little bored, wondering when it was all going to end, but mainly I was trying to think about HOW it was going to end. In Baby Doll’s fantasy’s all the girls survive their missions, but the the danger isn’t in her dreams, it’s in reality.

When it comes down to it this is the stuff teenage boys dream about. It has lots of guns, lots of fantasy action, and lots of hot girls doing it all while wearing practically nothing at all. In Sucker Punch Zack Snyder shows us that he is up for the task of providing great action with an in-depth story for the next Man of Steel film. The hard part for me is going to try and remember which level of dreaming I'm on.

Rating:  B-