MOVIESucker Punch
CAST
Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish
Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish
RATING
PG-13
PG-13
March 25, 2011
DIRECTOR
Zack Snyder
STUDIO
Warner Bros. Pictures
RUNNING TIME
1 hour 50 minutes
STARS
**1/4
REVIEW:
Babydoll, dealing with the deaths of her mother and sister, is forced into an asylum to be lobotomized by her money hungry stepfather. While in the asylum, Babydoll befriends many inmates, and joins up with them to steal five items in order to escape from the asylum and be free. To do this, Babydoll creates numerous fantasy worlds in order to get the items. However, the girls have to do this in five days before Babydoll is scheduled to be lobotomized and lose everything that really matters in her life.
There's no better way to describe this movie than this upcoming sentence: 'Sucker Punch' is like a 'Star Wars' prequel if one of them was directed by Zack Snyder. The movies look good and have very attractive women, but they suffer from weak storytelling and bad acting. The only difference between the George Lucas prequels and Zack Snyder's film is that Snyder is a big fan of slow motion sequences. Not only was it overused in his previous films, but Snyder uses it in this movie to a point where you just can't stand it for the rest of this two hour visual effects spectacle. Really the best thing to compliment about this movie is the visual effects, which are absolutely breathtaking. Those visual effects, plus the big screen scope of this film were the only reason to have seen this on the big screen. Other than the look of this movie, there's nothing much more to say about this movie, except for the film's menacing villain played by Oscar Issac.
While the film presents a very talented cast, including Carla Gugino and Vanessa Hudgens, they play very uninspired characters that go absolutely nowhere in the movie other than just looking bored. This is the type of acting that we would get out of some cheap horror film or Direct-To-DVD B film. Emily Browning, who plays Babydoll in the film, seems very emotionless and bored in this movie as the girls are fighting to survive. Of all of the other girls, my least favorite was Sweet Pea, played by Abbie Cornish. In my opinion, she just seems like Katherine Heigel if she was in action thrillers. The two women play the same dumb roles in each movie they're in, and they're even not that good at playing that. Even though she, along with the other girls weren't good, the worst characters in this movie were Carla Gugino as Madame Gorski, the woman controlling the dance studio, and Scott Glenn as The Wise Man, who's description is in the name.
Gugino uses a Polish accent to play a woman who apparently is a mentor to the girls as they are strippers. This character is not inspired at all, and for the most part was very annoying. The Wise Man was also an annoying character to me. He was just one of those one liner characters that had nothing much to say except for somewhat motivational advice and ending every conversation with "and one more thing..." He even does this towards the end of the movie, which really got me irritated. Overall, about 85% of the characters in this movie were uninspired and not very well acted. That goes to say that the other 15% of main actors were actually very good. Those actors were Oscar Issac and Jena Malone.
Oscar Issac plays Blue, the owner of the asylum/strip club. As you could guess from what he is, Blue is the main antagonist in 'Sucker Punch.' Issac's portrayal of Blue was menacing, suave, and just plain evil. I loved this character mainly because he could possibly be as suave as James Bond, yet as evil as any Bond villain that liked to rape and abuse women. He may well go down in my top 5 villains of the year. The other character who I want to give credit to is Jena Malone as Rocket. Rocket is not only the youngest of the ensemble of girls, but she in many ways is the coolest one, and the most heroic. She is the first of the girls to actually fight for the others, even if her sister Sweet Pea is against it throughout. Because of her heroism and awesome fighting skills, Rocket is my favorite of the hot women in this movie.
The other main problem with this movie is the storyline. Not only is it odd to comprehend, it is also very confusing at times. Just like 'Inception,' you lose focus on what is a dream and what is real, but for all of the wrong reasons. Other than all of the sequences involving retrieving the five items needed to escape the asylum, there are two settings we keep switching to without even realizing it. The first one is the asylum that Babydoll is imprisoned in. The second one is a strip club where the women dance to satisfy the "customers." You never know what world you are ever in, except if you carefully notice how the setting looks, whether it looks glamorous or if it looks dirty. Also, I hated how (SPOILER) many of the characters die at the end of the movie. I understand that it's supposed to be symbolic at the end, but it just got me irritated that barely any of the girls actually escaped. (END OF SPOILER) If you're looking for a cool fantasy flick with a smart storyline, then go watch something else, because you're not going to get anything like that from this movie.
To summarize this lengthy review, 'Sucker Punch' was a very disappointing fantasy movie that could've been something way more than crappy acting, bad storytelling, and too much slow motion. Obvious from this review I am not the right audience for this movie, and I know people who actually like this flick. To those who like 'Sucker Punch,' good for you. I respect anybody's opinions on movies, but I'm just saying that I'm not a fan of this movie. I bet that this movie will gain a cult status like how 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Rocky Horror' have in the past four decades, but for now this is just a pretty smelly piece of trash to run amok. The way I feel about this movie is probably the way everyone else feels about 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.' The only thing that many will get from this movie is that they got suckered out of $1-$5 for this movie.
