Movie Review: ‘SUCKER PUNCH’

I think everyone can agree that when you saw the trailer for Sucker Punch you figured that this would not have much of a story but would only exist to pummel us with extravagant eye candy.  An expectation was made with the trailers that we would be treated to high quality action sequences, hot women and maybe something more. 

Zack Snyder’s track record has films that may not have a lot of cinematic merit but more with entertainment value and pop culture references.  I liked the Dawn of the Dead remake, but I disassociate it from Romero’s film.  300 as dumb as it may be was very entertaining and made sandal films exciting again. Lets face it, that Spartacus show on Starz wouldn’t be around without 300.  Then Snyder came out with Watchmen which I thought was pretty faithful to the epic comic.  However, one could say that Snyder’s success with the film geeks over these films has plenty to do with the source material which were already planted pretty firmly in geek culture.  The reason I mention this is because his previous film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, while adapted from books, didn’t make a huge impact at all.  The reason that I typed up a lot of this paragraph is to let the record show that he has built his career on adaptations.  Sucker Punch is his first film that is original.  It is based solely on ideas out of Snyder’s head.  This is important because he knows where the story started from, it is his job to convey it to the audience and in this position, he is the best man to do so.

Sucker Punch tells the story of a girl by the name of Baby Doll (Emily Browning), I assume that is not her god given name, who is admitted by her evil stepfather into an insane asylum after her mother’s and sister’s death.  Not because she was crazy but because the stepfather wants the money left by the girl’s mother to her daughters instead of him.  Baby Doll is the only one in the way and the way it all plays out, he is in the position to actually deceive many that Baby Doll is crazy.  This all happens within the first 5 to 7 minutes of the film.  From there, we meet Blue, who is your stereotypical bad authority figure in an asylum.  The stepfather essentially pays Blue (Oscar Isaac) to make sure that Baby Doll is given a labotomy to forget everything, especially the incident that happened prior to the admittance.  At the asylum you have Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino) who tries to reach the girls in her own unorthodox methods.  Yes, it has a fairy tale sensibility to the story.

From what you gather in this film, the girls of the asylum have their own made up world where they are dancers – kind of like burlesque dancers but they don’t mind getting dirty with the clientele in the rooms created behind the stage – at a old timey club.  Baby Doll is the virgin figure in and Blue becomes the demanding club owner.  Dr. Gorski takes on a mentor role for Baby Doll and the other dancers/psych patients.  Baby Doll can’t dance or she seems like she can’t.  Gorski gives her a pep speech and that’s when Snyder uses his first cheat.  He shows Baby Doll slightly sway her hips then cuts away to reaction shots of the dancers/psych patients.  We never see Baby Doll dance.  Instead of Baby Doll dancing, she is “fighting”.  Gorski mentions to the term and you are supposed to connect with the fact that she is fighting for her freedom.  This is where Baby Doll is entered into an alternate reality of actually fighting video game esque bosses to acquire items.

I guess that was my biggest issue with the film.  Sucker Punch should have never been a film.  It should have been a serialized story in any medium other than film.  But another problem isn’t just his structure but his development.  This will be one issue that people will bring up.  Some people will ask “Well, what did you expect?  It’s a film with cute girls in awesome action sequences.  You don’t need a story.”  I beg to differ.  I don’t mind a nonsensical plot or story to show off some bad ass action sequences.  However, you need to have a small inkling of emotional tie to these characters.  You can either develop a background or use the archetypes of characters to progress forward in a film.  BUT YOU NEED SOME CONNECTION!

I had no connection to the characters.  I could care less if they died or not and the film takes itself seriously but doesn’t make the effort or deserve the credit to be taken seriously.  Sucker Punch is a product, not a film.  This product begs for geeks to like it by throwing in all sorts of geek culture in it.  Japanese culture, World War II culture with steam fueled mechanical Nazis, a mother dragon housed in a castle surrounded by Orcs that walked off the set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Sucker Punch is a complete waste of money and film.  I was bored by the action sequences.  You know the end result of every sequence before it starts, as long as you are familar with generic film history.  Therefore, you are only left to be visually assaulted by hyper kinetic images constructed by someone who has been given every trick/toy in the film book.

There is a theme of control throughout the film that address females in storytelling.  I admire what Snyder was trying to do, but he got lost and so did the message.  Snyder doesn’t tantalize us.  He just blows his load on sequences and expects us to like it.  Sucker Punch isn’t the worst film of the year but it is poorly constructed that includes some of the most boring “action” sequences I have seen in sometime.

Obviously, this is just my opinion.  But to those who like Sucker Punch ask yourself, do you like it because it brings up all these geekisms and culminates it into a film or do you actually like the story and the whole enchilada?

Leave your comments below, because this flick will be talked about by film nerds for the next couple of weeks.