Sucker Punch (2011) Review








Sucker Punch (2011) is a schizophrenic masterpiece. The mastermind of Sucker Punch, director Zack Snyder, creates a hyper-reality of a 20-year-old girl who is placed in a mental institution by her stepfather. Baby doll enters Lennox Hospital for the mentally insane knowing she needs to find a way to escape in order to turn her stepfather into the authorities for her sister's death. In her alternate reality, she meets an Old Wise Man whom strategically explains how to escape the institution before she is given a lobotomy, "a surgical incision to the frontal lobe of the brain that severs one or more nerve tracts."

Set in the 1960s, this action/fantasy/adventure film grabs the viewer's attention instantly. As Baby doll enters her alternate reality, her coping mechanism to escape realism, the film aesthetically transforms Baby doll, a blonde, blue-eyed female, into a sexy animated dance character. Baby doll's Barbie stature uses her curves to distract the male administrators in the institution to gather five items that would be an integral entity to escape Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. Baby doll is able to find the confidence to put herself in font of ogling men from her envisioned dance instructor, Dr. Gorski.

Baby doll's quest risks more than her proven sanity of her sister's death. She confides in four other girls to aide in her distraction, and it's bewitching to know that in her attempt, lives are risked and tears are shed for Baby doll's sacrifice.

The term sucker punch is relative; the meaning is different to everyone. However, Snyder's Sucker Punch is more expressive, elusive, and entertaining than most. Baby doll is being sucker punched first by her stepfather for covering his actions, and second by the institution for bribing Baby doll's stepfather to forge his signature to secure Baby doll's memory loss. As the audience sees Baby doll's transcendence into her alternate reality, the audience expects Baby doll to pull through. Just when the viewers are lead into one direction believing this hyper-reality is her reality, a twist is in place when Snyder sneaks upon his audience and gives them a sucker punch into the transcendence of reality. The audience is then informed of Baby doll's sacrifice.


Sucker Punch failed in comparison to Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules at the box office. Sucker Punch brought in $19.1 million while Rodrick Rules brought in $22.1. Sucker Punch was Snyder's worst live-action review. In part, by meshing more than one genre, action/fantasy/adventure along with drama, mental health, and gaming into one film single handedly is easy to misinterpret. The one thing that Snyder is able to convey through symbolism is the mental health status of schizophrenia.

            http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/reviews-889

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just Shelby (2020)

  Brooklyn James not only challenges herself as a storyteller in her newest release,  Just Shelb y   (2020), but she challenges her readers with a writing style that reveals a mysterious plot of  whodunnit  at the end.    Just Shelby  may not be everyone’s flavor of a read in 2020 while we’re pausing in the quarantine life as it is a slower read told with dual perspectives; however, slow doesn’t equate to poor art; it’s a matter of taste and delight. The  hurry-up-and-get-there type  may be  looking for a  whodunnit  murder mystery to be upfront in your face with a character reveal like  Game of Thrones  (2011-2019) with relentless jousting and jolting with no hesitation to kill the main character in Act 1 Scene 1 of an Emmy Award-Winning television series.    Just Shelby  is more like the Emmy Award-Winning television series,  Breaking Bad  (2008-2013), taking a slower pace to really nai...
Read more

A Walk Across America (1979) Review

Image
What is your deepest desire? If you know what that is, what are going to do to find satisfaction? Some find it in their business endeavors, some in the arts, and others in politics. For Peter Jenkins it's self-discovery that leads him on a search for his country and for himself. With his desire, Jenkins discovers a career he least expects. Jenkins' 1979 novel, A Walk Across America,  describes an internal battle that he has in order to understand The United States in a time of misunderstanding. The Back Story:  In 1969 Peter starts his collegiate career at Alfred University. Alfred University (AU) is a quaint private University in Upstate, New York.  It's small in comparison to Peter's home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Peter originally enrolls in Liberal Arts College, but quickly transfers into the College of Art. Seemingly, this is where Peter discovers his love for sculpting and other works of art. After finding his niche, he learns to balance his socia...
Read more

Man of Steel (2013) Review

Image
Whether you're 10 or 100-years-old then you know of the sci-fi action/adventure phenomenon, Superman. But, do you really know Superman? Director, Zack Snyder put his best foot forward in capturing the man that wears the red velvet cape in his 2013 rendition, Man of Steel. Starring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/ Kel-El and Michael Shannon as Master of Destruction, the Fallen Angel of Planet Krypton, General Zod. Snyder takes his audience on a 2 hour and 23-minute journey into bridging the gap between Planet Krypton and Planet Earth. Historical Context of the Man with the Red Cape 101: Superman originated in 19th century by German Philosopher, Frederich Nietzsche. Nietzsche's interpretation of this superhuman we know as Superman was translated from the German word Ubermenslch meaning overman or beyondman. In creating Ubermenslch, Nietzsche's philosophical vision is to create an ideal man of integrity who would rise above evil and represent the good in human evo...
Read more