Sucker Punch Review

"For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know." - The Wiseman

The promos for Sucker Punch made me think two things, "it would be the ultimate adolescent nerd boy fan fiction on the silver screen" and "it looks totally ridiculous." I really don't know what people were expecting. It was clearly promoted as big dumb fun. Did you notice that Zach Snyder's descriptions of the film before release were utterly vague and confusing, most of the trailers gave not the slightest inkling as to what the story was but plenty of TA&A. It's a prime example of modern day over hyping of films, which happens on a very broad level. If you watched the theatrical trailer for Sucker Punch and expected anything more than a sub-par plot layered under a face fucking of CGI and fine figures, you watched the wrong trailer.

Well, first thing's first. I will give the premise, so bare with me. Sucker Punch's story is told through the fractured point of view of Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a young woman who is set up by her malicious step father and imprisoned inside of a shady mental institution. As she waits for a lobotomy, Baby Doll retreats into 'Inception-esque levels' where she will work through her traumas to save herself and fellow tormented patients. Okay, so she mainly sees her mental institution setting as an even shadier gentleman's club, where her and the other patients are dancers forbidden to leave. The level below this one is what we came for, a series of nonsensical scenarios meant to symbolize the far less exciting mechanics of her gentleman's club level escape. And it's around this time, I stopped waiting for something more and just let every last firework fly high and fizzle out until it was over.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is an absolutely horrible movie. It had a lot of potential, but Snyder didn't have a clear idea about what he was doing. I would complain a little about the rather lack-luster special effects, but to be honest Snyder's CGI is always pretty lack luster. But being an apparant expert on that kind of thing, he is able to use it very well even if it isn't that good. The same can't be said of his script (which he co-wrote). Fundamentally, the story has its heart in the right place, but it is very, very, very, very poorly executed. I will end mine and everyone else's excessive bitching about the story only existing as a weak linking of all of the action scenes. The dialogue was pretty universally cheesy or flat. The movie attempts again and again to try to make itself character driven, but it doesn't quite pan out when, for the most part, the characters are just barely above cardboard and we are unable to compel any emotion toward them. I suppose when a movie goes balls out with insanity for 70%, the other 30% that attempts to be serious just feels kind of awkward. As for the levels of consciousness, the order of importance seemed disorganized. We cut away from the very gothic mental institution like five seconds after we get there and are introduced to the very bland misogyny club section. I wouldn't be surprised if Snyder chose to include the club section more solely because the set was more colorful. The single transition from the institution to the club was very abrupt almost like it was a next scene and not a transition, but all transitions from the club to the Snyderverse occur when the Baby Doll character prepares to perform an intoxicatingly magnificent dance that brings all, even the villain, to tears. An intoxicatingly magnificent dance that we never see; I assume Snyder wanted to include something in his director's cut. What he really fails on is this female empowerment theme that is constantly addressed while being contradicted at the same time by poor examples of empowered women (whose wardrobe screams jail bait). I will try to cease from describing what I think the director should have done now.

Now for the acting. This is a rare occasion where I have little to rave about. Like I said, whether or not the cast was extremely talented or not, the characters were weak and the story they were placed gave them very little to do other than shoot digitally polished cartoons and look sad. Emily Browning, an actress who hopefully will be getting bigger and better roles, plays the messianic Baby Doll character in a sort of lovely way, but, again, she mostly just looks at the camera with a bit of a pout. Thanks to Hollywood magic, Browning does manage to come off as a very appealing image for the modern action heroine. Abbie Cornish no doubt brings the most acting chops out of the female leads; though the situations were almost hilarious, she still managed to convey emotion. Jena Malone plays the fierce yet innocent girl of the group, to which she is portrayed as sweet yet damaged. Malone has played this kind of role many a time, and has done it much better. Vanessa Hudgens, who is looking better and better to me as time goes by, seemed to be doing well acting-wise and even had me feeling for her at the end of her arc. She was however little more than an additional teammate. Jamie Chung was pretty, but the attempts to give her character an arc were pretty empty so she ended up being additional teammate 2. Carla Gugino does not appear with her usual charisma here because I had no idea what to make of her character. Oscar Isaac plays the main villain, Blue, a head orderly in asylum level and a ruthless gangster in club level. Isaac's performance is one of the movie's highlights. He is so unapologetically, seriously over the top that he should smoke a filtered cigarette and twirl his moustache. Scott Glenn comes out of nowhere as the Obi Wan Kenobi of the girl's action adventure scenarios; I enjoyed this thoroughly. Even more out of nowhere is Jon Hamm, who I think got lost on his way to the set of Mad Men and just decided to be this movie's looming threat.

The action scenes, I will say, are fun as hell. I knew they would be. It's pretty much why we all went to this thing. As he is prone to do, Zach Snyder gets lost in his own little world of nonstop slow motion, epileptic rushes of color and motion, and plenty of Michael Bay degree explosions. Still the settings were cool, the effects cartoonish yet exciting, and the action was pretty damn awesome. The shogun scene was really cool. The Nazi Zombies scenario was especially interesting to watch, with a lot of fast paced martial arts and gun fu. The dragon and train scenarios, however? There's excessive, then there's EXCESSIVE, then there's Sucker Punch's action scenes. Still, if you just turn your brain off and watch a bunch of shit get rocked than you won't be entirely disappointed. Where he fails at storytelling, Snyder succeeds in atmosphere. With the use of a unique soundtrack and very crystal clear visuals, he creates a dark and rebellious mood. Emily Browning's vocals and Snyder's visual style in the opening sequences are haunting. New versions of songs such as Pixies "Where is My Mind" and Bjork's "Army of Me" are employed carefully well. This combination, though particularly amazing, makes the movie seem more like a music video, however.

Will you like Sucker Punch? It's hard to say. I will say don't expect too much from it. Well, a better answer is don't expect more than what you see from the trailers. Overall I saw the film as admittance from the director that he is a one trick pony, especially if this is supposed to be his passion project. It's the same magician doing the same tricks with a few tweaks instead of a new act. There is very little real passion within this movie. It is merely an engine for a series of blood pumping video game cut scenes and vivid soundtrack bits. Good editing, action, and visuals cannot save a movie, though. Sucker Punch was no 'experience' like, say, Inception or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which I would never compare it to. My mind was fully prepared and not at all blown away. It is a meh movie. Just "meh." I'm sure if you are tripping or drunk it will be far greater than it actually is, but I was neither so...

Two and a half out of five dragon eggs. This is a pretty underwhelmed review from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.