Very unconventional, but entertaining and beautiful

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2011)

First of all, Sucker Punch is a really controversial, odd movie, certainly not for everyone. It's an uncommon mix of spectacular high octane action and a dark grey psychological drama about a girl wrongfully imprisoned and abused at a mental institution. These sometimes sharp shifts between genres, and contrasts in storytelling, might not be to everyone's liking. If you expect a simple and purely entertaining action movie, you'll probably feel cheated and disappointed, because Sucker Punch certainly isn't that. Sucker Punch works on more levels than that.
Babydoll is a young girl imprisoned and abused at a mental institution in a bid by her stepfather to get to a big heritage. To cope with the abuse Babydoll glides into a different levels of sub-reality in her own imagination. One is that the asylum is instead a brothel (hence the name Babydoll), and in next Babydoll and the other girls form a special military unit in different fantasy or science fiction worlds. It's in these third level worlds that all the action are in. And the action is very good, filled with effects and coordinated combat. But if the movie would have consisted only if this it would have been too simple, unmotivated. The brothel-world builds a framework that the action work inside, and suddenly all action makes perfect sense. But to be honest, without the action the movie would have been quite boring. The different levels in the movie really needs, and feeds of another.
If you want a mental picture of how this works, one way to put it is that Sucker Punch is how the result would be if two of Snyder's earlier movies would have been cut together. Sucker Punch is an peculiar mix of both 300 and Watchmen.
At the same time, Sucker Punch can look like a teenage boys simple fantasy. Hard action, scantily clad young women and both fantasy and sci-fi war. But to discard Sucker Punch as something simple as that is wrong. Then you have missed the bigger picture. I really liked how Snyder makes the different levels interact. How visual small tags in one level become important in another, and vice versa. And one of the big strengths of the movie is the visual component. Sucker Punch is a very beautiful movie. It is skillfully filmed, with smart perspectives and editing, enhanced by a lot of impressive special effects.
I enjoyed Sucker Punch. But then I from the beginning expected a very odd movie. I think it is a must to be open to a unconventional and sometimes provocative storytelling. If you expect something ordinary, you will most likely set you up for a disappointment.
7/10