"Sucker Punch," the new film by Zack Snyder (who also directed "300" (2006) and "Watchmen" (2009)), is a movie surprisingly not made by an ADD-ridden, hormone-crazed middle schooler. The film has near-nude women, wars, androids, dragons and huge undead samurais. This all adds up to a film that was probably really enjoyable to create. The viewer, however, does not get the same kind of satisfaction from seeing the final product.
The film is far from innovative, as it feels like a mix of a dozen different video-game and action-film scenarios played in fast-forward. This makes "Sucker Punch" energizing, yet predictable at the same time.
The film stars Emily Browning as Babydoll, a beautiful woman who gets committed after trying to defend her younger sister from their malicious and incestuous stepfather. The mental hospital appears almost as if it is from Victorian England: All the patients get treated inhumanely and like prisoners for no real reason.
The viewer does not have much time to get a feel for the setting, though, as the asylum is unexpectedly changed into a seedy cathouse as Babydoll learns to make fantasy worlds in her mind to escape the torment. The doctors transform into dance teachers and the patients become scantily clad ladies of the night. The women get outfitted in revealing, pseudo-schoolgirl clothing that appears to be from a smuttier "… Baby One More Time" video. The girls in the brothel have names like Blondie and Rocket, showing that the writers are not even trying to hide the fact that this is just an adolescent boy's daydream.
I can believe that being locked up in such a deplorable asylum would lead Babydoll to create her own fantasy world. What I do not believe is that she would create such a misogynistic one for herself. It seems more like the kind of world a group of men would think up to sell movie tickets to other men.
Just as quickly as Babydoll creates her own world of prostitution, she makes yet another life for herself. This time it resembles ancient Japan, only if zombies had overrun it. Of course, Babydoll is also given some cool-looking weapons to fight off an army of huge and undead samurais while there.
The movie meanders around after that with some more dreamlike missions for Babydoll and her gang of mentally unstable prostitute friends. These quests earn the girls the skills they need to escape the suffering they face in the hospital and conveniently let them look sexy at the same time.
Jumping around all these fantasy worlds gives the director an excuse to create visually stunning scenes that are honestly the only compelling aspect of this otherwise vapid film. The action is never too intense or impressive, though, as the film goes for a PG-13 rating to sell tickets to a younger audience at the expense of making truly epic fight and war sequences.
As "Sucker Punch" goes on, it gets harder to tell which are the fantasy worlds and which are not — not that it matters much, or that anyone really cares. Snyder seems more content in creating great visuals than creating a compelling and comprehensive storyline. It is the kind of filmmaking that feels empty because it lacks any substance at all to anchor the visuals. Dragons appear and shootouts occur so randomly that the viewer is likely to go from wide-open eyes to eye rolls as the excess continues.
The women are given kinky clothing to wear but little depth. It is probably better to just imagine them as male fantasies rather than actual characters, because very little is real about the dialogue these dolls spew between fighting and looking hot.
Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical" (2006) fame plays one of these bondage babes, which seems like an all-too-transparent attempt to lose her Disney image. Too bad she is not given much to do on screen except look good, because she may have some acting abilities. Sadly, none of the actresses amounts to much more than real-life blowup dolls.
"Kill Bill" (2003) and other vastly superior films have shown that women can be fierce while still having some substance. While watching "Sucker Punch" most people will wish that Snyder had taken some lessons from Tarantino rather than Penthouse Forum.
I admit that I am probably not the target audience for this film, which could be why this review is so negative. "Sucker Punch" is really only for you, though, if you woke up today and mistakenly took a Viagra instead of your Adderall.
