Suckerpunch – Ladies, Guns, Steampunk Zombies, Dragons, and Dancing

SPOILERS BEWARE!!

I have to admit I was really stoked about Suckerpunch based on the subway ads I was seeing.  However, I made the mistake of watching the trailer, bad idea.  It totally took 80% of the appeal off the movie for me.  When I found out this was some psychosomatic-dream state-hallucination story I was immediately disappointed.  From the ads it seemed to be a straight up crazy-bad ass-school girl-samurai sword toting-gun wielding-steampunk fest, but then there was this insane asylum and dreaming.

Well thanks for that Steve Shibuya and Zach Snyder, you almost ruined my Saturday afternoon.  But thankfully it was a more-or-less success.  Shibuya and Snyder actually managed to meld the idea of the dream state and the crazy action that was happening relatively well.  Mind you it was by no means a smooth transition at first, but I can appreciate that S&S didn’t feel it necessary to explain everything to the audience.  What’s that?  Writers and directors that allow for an intelligent audience?  What next, we’ll be landing on the moon or something?  Bah, hogwash.

My friend and I sat during the first 50 minutes of the movie thinking, “Ok, so it’s 5 minutes of story sandwiched between, 20 minute segments of random action.”  Hey I can live with that, I came in with low expectations.  Sometimes you have to accept that a movie really is just there to entertain, not tell a deep story, engage your heart or psyche, or make you better.  Sometimes a movie is just about (quoting G.I. Jane) “blowing shit up.”  And that’s all I expected from Suckerpunch, thankfully I was surprised to have my imagination stretched by creative storytelling that didn’t fill all the gaps.  Now as to the disjointed beginning to the movie, it all starts making more sense, collectively, during the end of the first hour, but you won’t be bored, too much stuff is blowing up to let your attention fade.

The Ronins

And on that note, S&S didn’t slowly build you into the character, they basically throw you into the epic level Special Forces crouching tiger hidden dragon style action sequences.  There are no baby steps here.  Babydoll, our heroine, gets handed a samurai sword and a .45 by a mysterious dream guide, then immediately gets attacked by three 60’ tall ronins, one with a giant naginata, one with missile launcher and minuteman chain gun, and a third wielding the more traditional pair of blades.  Yeah so there’s very little time to question Babydoll’s new found tactical acumen and martial prowess as she’s far too busy diving to avoid giant crumbling pillars blasted apart by the chain gun, and flipping in slow motion to narrowly dodge 20’ blades trailing fire.

The One with the Gun has Loads of Fun

So there is a suspension of disbelief required to enjoy this movie.  And that suspension is something rarely used by directors and writers these days it seems.  Most conventional directors and writers seem to feel the necessity to have everything wrapped nicely in a little package for the audience at the end of their two hours.  Of course there are some well known creators that come to mind that don’t always follow that convention nor follow lateral time lines, such as the Cohen brothers, Tarantino, and Nolan.

Babydoll, see she has a sword and a gun. Therefore she is awesome.

Suckerpunch falls into that Sin City, 300, Crouching Tiger, Hero, Expendables movie style where you have to take it for what it is and not question too many things about origin or physics as we know it.  Some things are explained away by the simple idea of dream\imagination, while other things (such as the abrupt styling change of the movies and their characters) is never really addressed.  So that being said if you don’t like those kind of over the top, comic like movies, then you most likely won’t find anything new or enjoyable about this movie either.  But if like me you love comics, imaginative tales, flights of fantasy, steampunk, and playing airsoft, then you’ll love what S&S did with the story.

Expectedly a movie like this was done with an exceptional amount of CGI.  For the most part it was enjoyable and good.  They did a great job with filters and showing the imaginative “Dance” sequences through the changing of visual tones and heavy use of CGI.  However there was nothing ground breaking nor especially amazing that happened in terms of visual effect.  It was great and loads of fun, but there were occasional moments when Babydoll would do something, like flipping over the flames of a dragon’s breath to land on it’s head, that you can clearly see the switch to CGI Babydoll.  I would have preferred the director use more wire work, such as in House of Flying Daggers, to accomplish some of those shots, but I can live with it.

Objectified women? Maybe. Maybe not.

Finally I’ve heard some interesting opinions about the portrayal of women in the movie and how disturbing it is.  Ok, I can see somewhat where those people may be coming from.  Yes the girls are all seen in stereotypical male fantasy outfits (but with a 20’s\30’s flair), and yes they’re all girls being taken advantage of and seemingly helpless.  But I would argue rather that the movie is more about female empowerment than anything else.  Yes women are objectified, however they’re also the ones with the guns and knives killing everything and escaping, outwitting the male characters (who are equally being objectified as chauvinistic and carnally sexual).  So can we all lighten up and appreciate the great gunplay in the steampunk-zombie sequence?  Cause it was dope.

Right before all the zombie killing happened. Mmm, zombies.

OK, so see it if you want, don’t if you don’t.  I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it much more than I expected.  It’s not going to change your world, but it’s solid.  Have a nice day.

Is how women are portrayed in film truly an issue or just artistic expression?