• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Abbie Cornish (left), Emily Browning (center) and Jena Malone star in Sucker Punch, directed by Zack Snyder.

Mar 24, 2011 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

Zack Snyder’s action-fantasy Sucker Punch, which has looked somewhat promising in promos for its otherworldly visuals and strong females figures, is one of those instantly disappointing films where the first five minutes foreshadow how bad the rest is going to be.

In a slo-mo intro with no dialogue, Babydoll, played by Emily Browning (The Uninvited), has an altercation with her sadistic stepfather that results in the death of her young sister. Babydoll’s stepfather pins the death on her and sends the 20-year-old pigtailed blonde to a mental institution for women in a remote part of Vermont. There, Babydoll re-imagines the facility as a club/bordello, where she discovers, under the tutelage of Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino), that she has the ability to dance so seductively and intensely that—as onlookers become mesmerized to a standstill—her mind takes her to a fantasy world where she can fight like a warrior. It’s the kind of premise that Michael O’Donoghue’s character in Manhattan might have pitched:

DENNIS: I’m just about to direct a film of my own script, and the premise is, this girl gyrates so great—

In her dream world, Babydoll finds herself in 15th Century Japan, where she fortuitously wanders into a temple housing a Wise Man (Scott Glenn) who bestows her with weapons and five clues to her freedom. She must secure a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a final, unidentified mystery item. Upon her return from a sword battle with giant, monster samurais, Babydoll convinces four other inmates to join her escape. Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), the maternal figure of the group, is the most reluctant, while her younger sister, Rocket (Jena Malone), is the most game. Sweet Pea and Rocket have the slightest trace of a backstory in the film. The other two girls in the group, Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung), have none. On paper, Sucker Punch could be a hybrid of Girl, Interrupted and any classic escape adventure, but director and co-writer Snyder has no interest in revealing why these girls were locked up or what they expect to find on the outside. Viewers just know that being locked up sucks, and that’s enough for Snyder.

Once the girls band together on their quest for the items that will free them, they’re transported to a series of hostile territories where they must combat creatures of all kinds, from steam-powered German soldiers to cyborgs and zombies. These sequences are the redeeming parts of the film, the candy at the center. Scenery and weaponry from World War I, World War II, Vietnam and sci-fi are fused on the battlegrounds for dazzling visual incongruity. The fighting, which occurs both in flight and on soil, is raucous, and the explosions are spectacular. It’s too bad that the action isn’t continuous throughout the film. Instead, every battle is followed by a return to the club, where the girls express their misery and solidarity with tears that come off as forced and dialogue that drags. Watch the film slow to a halt as Snyder attempts a 180-degree pan while Sweet Pea and Rocket converse at their makeup mirrors.

For a film in which girls dressed in heels and miniskirts fire automatic weapons at a fire-breathing dragon, Sucker Punch is far too solemn and painfully lacking in humor. Browning’s stoicism suppresses any inkling of charisma. Cornish, who’s been excellent in intimate films such as Somersault and Bright Star, is out of her element here. Oscar Isaac, as the club owner and evil captor of the girls, seems to be having some fun with his role until a monologue goes off the rails. The rhythm is so clunky in the scene that Isaac’s words seem improvised on camera. Jena Malone, as the spunky Rocket, is the only one who brings an emotional spark to the film.

Much has been made about how the film’s actresses went through three months of intensive physical training for their roles. Why couldn’t Snyder have put that kind of effort into his script?

http://suckerpunchmovie.warnerbros.com

Sucker Punch is screening in selected IMAX theaters.

www.imax.com

Author rating: 3/10