I missed Suckerpunch (sniff)

I was busy working this weekend, and sadly missed the release of Suckerpunch. I have been very excited to see it, and I hope to make it to the theater as soon as possible. The gist of the film goes like this: a woman is unjustly put into an insane asylum, and plots her escape. As she does so, she fantasizes about being the leader of a band of sexy female super heroes who do battle with machine gun wielding robots, dragons, spaceships, and other outlandish fantasy characters. Her fantasies are played out in the film as brief journeys into a fantastic, surreal world. The computer animation and special effects look amazing, and I probably would go see it on their merits alone. However, I have high hopes for the film. I am hoping that it can stand out from other movies in that Suckerpunch will have great acting, great characters, and a unique engaging story, as well as great action and special effects. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, I still have to see it.

I have a cousin that's an English major, who told me that this kind of storytelling is called "magical realism." She mentioned it to me when I told her how much that I enjoyed the film Big Fish. Suckerpunch as well as Big Fish are not fantasy films; they make no attempt to tell a story set in a totally fictional world, such as films like Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings do. Instead, they tell us a story set in our real world where there are no Jedi's, hobbits, or the like. For certain parts of Big Fish and Suckerpunch however, we are taken into fantasy worlds that the characters create. In the example of Big Fish, a dying father tells his adult son the same "fish stories" that he told him growing up about his past. We as the audience see the father's life not through a simple documentary recollection, but one that includes outlandish funny stories about giants, werewolves, and monster fish. The stories also always seem to include a life lesson for the son. Suckerpunch won't be as touching, but I hope that it's a fun mixture of the magical realism genre with a "popcorn movie."

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on literature, and may have very well given you a horrible explanation of magical realism, or one that is painfully pedestrian. In the interest of full disclosure, I would go see it for the special effects and the ladies. However, I appreciate all kinds of films, and I love it when special effects help tell a story, instead of try to replace the story.