Sucker Punch

Jethro’s Note: Hold on here! I’m still trying to make sense of this film. And now, you want me to review it? OK, let’s see what I can do.

A few movies that emphasize style over substance just kindly ask the audience to go with the flow. A few others that do the same just beat the audience over the head with its production values. Sucker Punch, director and writer Zack Snyder’s first original film, is the latter type.

What story is in here involves Baby Doll (Emily Browning). Yes, that is her real name, apparently. Anyway, she’s sent to the mad house by her wicked step-dad. It turns out the mad house also doubles as a cabaret show where the inmates are the stars.

With the aid of her fellow inmates, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Julie Chung), Baby Doll hatches a plan to bust out. Her performances on-stage are told exclusively on-screen as epic battles with ghostly samurai, zombie soldiers, dragons and killer robots. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.

Its over-the-top fight scenes are well stylized, I can tell you that. After a while, though, the mess of sound and sight becomes just that. To make matters worst, it's also over-serious; as in, quite over-serious. Whatever uplifting message comes at the end about “your mind can set you free” just becomes lost in the chaos.

It’s a video game that just won’t let you quit. For another film, that would’ve been part of its charm. For a film like this, it becomes its tragically fatal flaw. In other words, it's just Sucker Punched itself.