Sucker Punch

Plot
Emily Browning (Babydoll) is sent to a nut house by her evil stepfather for the accidental death of her sister after her mother died. The stepfather bribes an orderly to have her lobotamised, and in the apparent instant of the procedure we see a re imagining of Babydoll and Lennox House as a brothel. Then within that, Babydoll re imagines the quests for various apparatus required to escape the brothel as different mythic and fantastical battles. She enlists the help of other inmates/prostitutes in her endeavour. Abbie Cornish (Sweet Pea) and some other children/women (namely Donnie Darko's girlfriend and Zac Efron's ex-girlfriend) who scrub up good in knee-high socks and corsets, and more false lashes than a Liza Minnelli .... anything. Lots of lashes.

What say ye?
Well. What to say, what to say? It was pretty good. I guess it sits at the edge of the traditional Hollywood blockbuster - still commercial, but slightly more clever. Definitely better than Snyder's 300 (but perhaps still pipped by Dawn of the Dead), more fleshed out and refined. And not just the story, but his mise en scene as well.

His signature colour washed film, slo-mo action, impossibly beautiful cast, and gritty and mythical CGI are all still there. Borrowing from Peter Jackson, Zack Snyder seems to understand how to use CGI well. Hide it in a dark, moody and colour bleached palette - and voila - instant gravitas and sophistication to your movie. It is corny & hokey certainly, but the actresses are all extremely credible and strong - even if they look like schoolgirl hookers - and this prevents the film from becoming a complete caricature. He was going for something with his story and I liked that.

Umm. Did I mention the girls look pretty great? I won't go into the whole sexualisation of children here, but needless to say, I wasn't entirely comfortable with Snyder's vision of a desirable woman ... face full of make-up, pouty and demure, dressed like Shirley Temple....but there's no denying their hotness. And I guess making them masters of their own destiny helped to rectify the imbalance. However, it was definitely a man's vision/fantasy so difficult to embrace as a woman. Or maybe it's merely that it is what it is - a fringe-commercial film - so the punch will always be pulled a little.