Sucker Punch

A film featuring, amongst other things, dragons, killer robots and zombified minigun-toting samurai should be interesting; particularly when it promises to be something exciting and different, stemming from truly original material for which the advertising insists you will not be prepared. This is a phrase that is actually correct, as I was unprepared for this bizarre mess of a movie.

Director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has, animated owls aside, earned himself a considerable following as the creator of rather violent, visually striking films. Unfortunately, however, he is not necessarily the best teller of tales, which might be why he was so good at working with something as simplistic as the grizzled Spartans, but this, his first original movie, feels flat from beginning to end. Indeed, Sucker Punch largely feels confused and simply does not know what it is, with its opening sequence appearing to be some sort of music video and its central plot of fantasy within fantasy an idea stolen from the infinitely better Inception. Despite this similarity, the two films are otherwise completely different beasts as Nolan’s work was crammed with intelligent, well thought-out ideas and themes, while this does not appear to have many at all. Those it does have completely miss their mark, with its rather bizarre discussions of guardian angels and freeing oneself making little or no sense, and at times seeming rather suspect. Furthermore, it certainly does not help that we never care about any of its characters, who are criminally underdeveloped clichés meaning that, quite simply, we do not care about them, their struggles or the entire plot.

That said though, on a technical level the film works rather well. It looks great, with Snyder putting together a fantastic colour palette, but that can only help the film so much and does not hide its gaping holes or even construct a proper world for the action to take place. Where the film works best is in its fantasy action sequences; although they do not fit well with the rest of the movie, they are the one part that is actually fun. They flow very well, look great and are rather imaginative in anarchic fashion as the girls fight off a host of rather imaginative enemies in scenes that have clearly been choreographed and executed with painstaking precision. The problem is that there are only four of them and the rest of the film looks so tired in comparison, lacking either pace or excitement and as a result feels boring.

Sucker Punch is a clear example of why directors rarely get the money or opportunity to make their dream projects, as they get lost in their own world without making it accessible to anyone else. For whilst this is definitely not as bad as many production line blockbusters like Transformers 2 or GI Joe, it’s an inherently flawed piece that fails to impress.

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