Visually stunning, original, imaginative, and with a soundtrack that would rival the “Forrest Gump” and “Reservoir Dogs” soundtracks of the 90s, “Sucker Punch” still falls short of grasping the title of a good film because of its unclear storyline and eagerness to fall back on the safety net of everything existing within a young woman’s imagination.
Liken this movie to a car crash– you know you shouldn’t be looking, but it’s so hard to look away.
Set in the 1950s, Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is institutionalized after her mother dies and her guardian stepfather with a drinking problem attacks her and her younger sister. Attempting to protect her little sister, she shoots at her stepfather, missing and hitting her little sister, killing her. This sets the stage for the rest of the plot, although at times, it seems as though director Zach Snyder regards the plot as little more than an inconvenience.
Once in the institution and faced with the reality of being a patient of an unwarranted lobotomy, Browning enlists the help of four other patients to escape the institution. While formulating a plan of escape, the team faces challenges that transports it into a different world, one of Baby Doll’s imagination. In her imagination, she has to complete four tasks in order to escape.
The real gem and driving force of the movie lives within Baby Doll’s mind as the visual effects include dragons, giant machine gun-wielding samurai and hordes of WWII-like war machines amongst a backdrop of a planet that shares a strong resemblance to that of Saturn.
Led by Baby Doll, the girls engage in warfare against the aforementioned antagonists in four different segments of the movie. Between these segments, Snyder extends a lackluster attempt to tie the action segments together with a middle reality that leads the viewer to wonder if they missed something along the way.
By the beginning of the fourth task, the viewer already knows what the result would be, each task taking more of a form of a video game with no real consequences. Through level-like repetition, it is difficult to not get bored and wonder if the scene was blurring the lines of reality, or just blurring the viewers’ ability to figure out what was really going on.
Luckily, there comes a point when the viewer will stop caring that the story doesn’t make much sense and just allows himself to be immersed in the explosions and awesome visuals.
Sucker Punch is what it is: a fast-paced action fantasy with great special effects. Marketed as oranges, the movie does one better and serves up orange juice. So for those who are looking for the next great storyline, go read a book.
