FEMME FATALE: Sucker Punch follows a group of girls who escape from their problems by delving into a fantasy world.
Simply put, Sucker Punch is about a group of girls who need to escape using the best way they know—kicking a whole lot of butt.
The movie centers on a girl appropriately called Baby Doll, whose young, innocent look matches her name.
Baby Doll gets put into a mental institution by her stepfather. There she meets four girls who are just as damaged as she is. They team up in an attempt to escape the hell they are in.
The girls need to find five things in order to escape: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and the last thing is a “mystery” that only Baby Doll can discover—very original.
Baby Doll hypnotizes men when she dances, though the audience never gets a chance to see this wonderful dance. Every time she begins, she closes her eyes and gets transported to an alternate world full of massive iron soldiers, giant guns, huge planes, and five small girls.
The protagonist begins the film silently, and does not say her first words “Let her go, pig,” until about 20 minutes in. Usually, if a character stays quiet for a period of time before speaking, there is more meaning behind it—such was not the case with Sucker Punch.
In the film, there is an old man that acts as a Jiminy Cricket character, telling the girls words of wisdom before every mission. Through him we learn that “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,” (never heard that before).
Sucker Punch lacks a solid story line. It goes from reality to alternate reality to a fake-reality within another fake-reality. It felt as if the filmmakers sat together and thought to themselves, “It’ll be pretty cool if we make her jump really high. And let’s have this blow up here, and maybe we should have a lot of loud music throughout so no one notices that there’s no point to this.”
While the film may not have had much plot to it, the acting was pretty solid. Sucker Punch is entertaining if you like to watch action with no real story, but for those that prefer more meat in their movies, save Sucker Punch for a DVD rental.
