Review: Sucker Punch

Length of Shower: Ah, but was it really a shower? --I sometimes like going to a movie by myself.  You get to sit where you want, get whatever concessions you want, and even watch whatever movie you want all without compromising with anyone else or dealing with their talking or judgements.  It's nice.  It reminds me that I am still me and I'm an independent person.  I like it; particularly when it's late on a Wednesday night and there are only 4 other people in the theater.  I totally ignore them and pretend the theater is my own private theater at some mansion I own in the Hollywood Hills.  But enough about me.

Speaking of fantasies and going to movies alone, the other day I went to the movies alone and saw Sucker Punch.  What I got was only partially what I expected.  I expected to have a lot of violence and sexy women and a loose plot line that allowed for more heavily DGI produced violence with sexy chicks never far from the frame.  And while I did get most of that I also got so much more.

Once I actually let my guard down and stopped judging the heavily stylized digital world that the movie was in, I was kind of blown away.  I found myself, normally a big plot guy, anticipating and even thirsting for the battle scenes.  Each scene had higher stakes and more hurdles, which was cool, but more than that each scene was a well orchestrated painting by a master.  I found myself feeling like I was at a gallery opening of a painter, who in this case was director Zach Snyder, in which his work was similar in style but each more fascinating and wonderfully complex than the previous.  I didn't want to stop looking at the current painting but I also couldn't wait to get onto the next.  It was a strange and unique movie going experience that caught me by surprise.

The other thing that I didn't expect was such a complex and multi-layered plot.  The film moves along on two, and arguably three, different realities and you find yourself living in all three at the same time without straining to keep up as if you were watching Inception.  The ease with with Sucker Punch pulls you along all three of these plains isn't really coherent until the final scene when you finally realize that whichever plain is real doesn't even matter.  What matters is the message of the film you weren't aware was there until the final word of the film is spoken and it hits you like a ton of bricks that this movie had an actual and important message to the world.

It goes without saying that I expected little from this film but got a huge wake-up call.  I find myself three days later still being inspired and in awe of the film.  That is what movies are supposed to be but they rarely are these days.  So, in short, I was pleasantly surprised and even moved by Sucker Punch and I would recommend it to anyone over the age of 18; because after all the five main characters are young, attractive females who are scantily dressed the entire time...but again, you hardly notice because of everything else going on.  It's safe to say I was "Sucker Punched," and I liked it.