Review #142: 'Sucker Punch' (2011)

Zack Snyder has directed a couple of quite good films (Dawn of the Dead (2004), and Watchmen (2008)), but this debut as the story/screenplay co-writer, shows that he is more of a visual stylist than one for narrative complexity. Snyder's formative years in television commercials has shown through his film career; fast editing; the oh-so-tired and cliched use of speed and slow motion in action sequences. In Sucker Punch however, the narrative/visual structure works on this with self-contained sequences, amounting to a series of commercials. The "adverts" (or even music videos) are fantasies of Baby Doll (Emily Browning). What these dreams are structurally also, are levels in a video game. To get to the next level, she must complete the task.

Baby Doll is being incarcerated into Lennox home for the mentally ill by her "evil" step-father. A lobotomy is ordered. This is where she delves into her imagination, constructing a world where she is imprisoned in a bordello and controlled by men who make them perform for them. Escape is on her mind. When Baby Doll is forced to "dance" for the audience, she goes even further into a dual fantasy where she is given orders by "Games Master", The Wise Man (Scott Glenn). These game-level "bosses" are visual cliches in themselves. Baby Doll and her appointed gang consisting of Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jenna Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung), must battle giant monster-samurai on level one; German zombies in CGI WWI on level two; lord of the rings-like orcs and dragons on level 3......and so on. These fantasies of Baby Doll's are constructed as a device (in the bordello she is simply dancing), which make a simple task such as stealing a lighter off a dumb cook, is turned into a fight for survival from monsters!

This is absurdly expensive, derivative nonsense. It's an awful brickolage of visuals that have been on our screens for the last decade. The game-like structure is utterly ridiculous (yes, this type of structure was used to good effect in 2009's Scott Pilgrim vs The World, but that film played as pastiche), and Sucker just uses this device as a means to project dazzling computer effects. They make no narrative sense. Is her dance visually like the fighting in her fantasies? Even if you did want to hide from the reality itself, why would you construct over-elaborate fighting levels just to get a map? These questions are irrelevant, the main concept behind this movie is the perverse collection of fantasy dolls that make up the gang; all short skirts, underwear and stockings. It's a teenage boys wet dream, the product of a juvenile mind. As a teenager in an adults body, I have to say it was nice. However, the film did not have any excitement to it. The characters were bland facsimiles of genre regulars. The action was so similar to so many of these type today, it was hard to care about it, and became tedious very quickly.

Directed by: Zack Snyder
Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn
Country: USA/Canada

Rating: **

Marc Ivamy