The two-hour music video: ‘Sucker Punch’

When watching the previews for "Sucker Punch" I kept the steady idea that it could be either brilliant or terrible. It was neither. "Sucker Punch" is the story of a 20-year old girl, Babydoll, who is locked away in a mental asylum by her abusive stepfather after her mother dies. She overhears her stepfather speaking with an orderly, named Blue, that she will undergo a lobotomy in five days. In the face of a new and terrible reality, she creates a new reality in which she is instead in a brothel-like bar where Blue is in charge. In this fantasy she is meant to dance, and when she does she creates a new fantasy within the fantasy where she, along with five other inmates, become "sexed-up" superheroes in battle situations with steam mechanized Nazis or dragons. The girls: Rocket, Sweet Pea, Blondie, Amber and Babydoll, use this fantasy to try and gather the five things needed to escape, a map, key, fire, a knife, and the last thing being a mystery. The girls soon learn that freedom comes with sacrifice.

Babydoll remains silent for the first part of the film, but is suddenly talkative after she has her first "superhero" fantasy. The fantasy scenes themselves were visually stunning. However, I felt very much as though I were watching a video game/music video through much of the film because of the action packed scenes. They included many unnecessary moments with bullets and fists flying in slow motion; in one scene there were so many of these that took so long, I was ready to take a nap.There is no way for me to speak ill of the actual quality of the CGI scenes; they were probably the best part of the entire movie. However, my favorite aspect was the soundtrack, which had many different covers including "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)" sung by Emily Browning, who also played Babydoll, and "White Rabbit" covered by Emiliana Torrini. They were well done cover songs that went very well with the emotionally charged scenes in the movie.

The failing factor in this film was the most important in any movie: the storyline. It was full of plot holes and at times left me feeling lost and confused. The transition at the beginning between the mental hospital and the brothel happened so fast I had to try very hard to figure out what had happened. Was the mental hospital the fantasy, or the brothel; or was the hospital a front for the brothel? I figured it out eventually, but such an important part in the film shouldn't completely complex the viewer. The action fantasy scenes, while well done, took too long and felt more like fillers for a swiss cheese plotline. The moral of the story seemed to be that you can make yourself free no matter the situation, but by the end of the film there was no clear indication of how.

"Sucker Punch" is the perfect film if you are either a teenage boy or if you feel like watching mind numbing action complimented by a listen-worthy soundtrack, but overall it is far from an academy-award winning piece of cinema.