Sucker Punch

Last night Laura and I headed out to the theater on a whim to watch Sucker Punch. I figured since I wrote about it back in the day when I first started seeing images for it, I should probably talk about it after I saw it.

I know most of the reviews out there for it are less than flattering. I think, like most things, it's a matter of managing your expectations. I went into this move expecting to see a few things:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons

Here's what I got:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons
4. Cool music and camera tricks

I did not get a fantastic story. I did not get a bunch of great acting. But neither of those things were things I was looking for, so I didn't really mind it. For what I wanted, it delivered. It wasn't the most surprising of stories - everything they're doing is telegraphed pretty far in advance so anyone paying attention could pick up on it pretty early. But for myself, it was the ride that really mattered. And boy, what a ride it was.

The word I came out with after the movie was "imaginative". I've seen WWI zombies before. I've seen samurai fights before. I've seen dragons before. But the way it was presented, with the trench battles, the blimps, the rockets, the biplanes. With the samurai toting some clearly not-samurai hardware. The fight between the dragon and the bomber. All great stuff that I've never really seen elsewhere. It captured my imagination and I had to smile that they were mixing up genres so effectively.

So my suggestion: if a bunch of high-action hot girls fighting in strung-together music videos with great camera work and computer work sounds cool to you, take a look at this film. Don't expect it to be much more than that, because the story, when all boiled down, is pretty simple and straight forward, and the characters are, except for a couple, not very well fleshed out. But man, what a ride.

Oh, and Sweet Pea was my favorite. Rocket took an early lead, but once I saw Sweet Pea in her "other world" get-up. Yeah. She won.