Sucker Punch (2011)

Sucker Punch- Where to start? This is a prime example of why I endeavour to write this blog; the film is being generally disliked across the board but I want to stick up for it. It's not brilliant but it's got so much energy and chutzpah it becomes totally endearing.
Which is not to say that it's not totally confounding. This is the film that directors get to make only after significant success, having made 'one for them', Sucker Punch would be Zack Snyder making 'one for me'. But then again that doesn't completely fit-Snyder has pretty much been making ambitious movies since his take on Dawn of the Dead. 300 cemented his place as a visual pragmatist and made Warner Bros, a Mack truck full of money and it would appear they will foster him in whatever he chooses. So much so they let him make his version of Watchmen, which incidentally could only be indited for being too faithful to the source material. I'm sure that it recovered costs, but itwasn't as successful as it should have been, in execution or with audiences. But even before Sucker Punch was released, Warners have given him the jewel of their IP's- Superman...
I've been facinated with the film since I saw the trailer. Has the ever been such a dynamic trailer?  One that says 'this film has nubile young womens doing Eastern swordplay, WW1 trench warfare, killing cyborgs and dragon mythology set to Led Zep... in an insane asylum... Hi.' It was so over the top and boisterous, it left you wondering 'How's this ever gonna work in cohesive story!!?' Well that's the rub- Sucker Punch has no interest or intension of making a story any further than what it needs to fit its metaphorical philosophies on femininity, feminism and the id. Weighty subjects one and all and i don't celebrate it for succeeding with any of them cos I doesn't BUT I do support it for trying. This is a mash-up filmmaking, where subtext mixes with visceral action; where feminist messages are set in dank locales with never enough clothing. You can't judge it on its acting or writing, it's about physicality and ideas. Snyder takes from so many things, throws them seemingly carelessly into the pot that what you get it so unrecognisable, it might be original. As you can tell there's so many conflicting things going on, it's dizzying and like Watchmen, it's not executed quite as well as it could have been but it's an improvement; I think it's probably his best film becuase he's getting better with tone,  something his films have always suffered with. There are lots of moments where the film could have turned nasty or exploitative but it does a snap-change into one of its crazy fantasy sequences and that levels it out. This is the first time Snyder hasn't adapted from other materials and he shows us that with even more original creative input, he's got even more curious ideas about how to make a film and what you can do. It's not going to be many people's taste because it's too metaphorical to have a cognisant narrative but too excessive to be subtle. It also has a terrible bedroom electro version of Where is my Mind? by The Pixies, which is a lynching crime in most places but I feel like it was made with such good intensions I think it's excusable...

I watched Sucker Punch (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Hatchet II (2010)...