What I despise hearing all the time is that "Hollywood has nothing new to offer." This simply is not true. The problem is that not much new makes it past the glut of sequels and remakes that the studios feel is far more profitable. So bypassing all that is a screaming frenzy of a film called Sucker Punch – which many have said is based off of a comic. That is however incorrect, as the film is the original brainchild of Steve Shibuya and Zack Snyder. Thus, we are now presented with an original piece of work. Unjustly, I feel the general reaction to it is that it is terrible.

Why?  I found the film to be a masterpiece, not flawless but a masterpiece nonetheless. The closest film I can equate it to is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

No, I am not kidding.

WARNING: SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

We begin with a short insert to the terror that is Babydoll’s (Emily Browning) life. She is powerless, orphaned and left to the hands of a fiendish stepfather. She attempts to defend her sister and fails terribly, accidently killing her. In doing so, she is committed into an asylum. Here we have the unwinding of reality and we have to decide what is real and what is not.

The Asylum -- far from being a healing place for the insane is insanity itself, and nothing experienced is completely false or truth. Here the audience begins to squirm, make mental notes and realizes that this is going to require work. Insert a Giant Black monolith in the form of dance instructor as Babydoll is now introduced to Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino). The patients are required to dance for the pleasure of the Evil orderly Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) and his clients.

Much akin to 2001, some strange outside force must open up ones mind to new possibilities. However, Madam Gorski informs Babydoll that the dance is her only way to be free.

Here we see that Babydoll’s psyche is accelerated and she now picks up her psychological weapons and beats down her enemies internally, with a mesmerizing off stage dance that allows her to access her inner Ninja badass self.