Sadly far from anything anyone expected

Rating: 2/10 (17 April 2011)

I remember watching the trailers of SUCKER PUNCH with teenage glee; chain gun wielding samurais, zombie soldiers, action girls, you name it. This movie seemed like anime, video games and action packed ultra-violence combined into an original story as crazy and visionary as INCEPTION directed by Zack Snyder, the guy responsible for 300 and WATCHMEN. This was a dream of a movie and I was willing to spend money on the ticket.
And then I watched it.I hate to say this about one of my favorite directors but I think Zack Snyder is beginning to lose his touch. My biggest complaint is that the film was dumbed down to a PG-13 rating. PG-13 movies are not bad (INCEPTION) but I feel that Snyder's style can do a lot better in the R rated zone, not in the kid friendly-action level. Not EVERY movie has to be in PG-13 and thanks to that Snyder's visions of action packed violence are not fully unleashed.
The story has a great premise but it's the script that falters. Most of the lines the girls say are predictable and clichéd at times and to make matters worse, they were acting as emotional as a block of wood. Despite the interesting cast of characters, not one of them gets really attached to the viewer since they're just standing there looking cool and pretty holding whatever weapons they have.
And now on to the film's main selling point: the heavily advertised four different battlefields each featuring different enemies ranging from a train full of robot soldiers to dragons fighting Word War II bombers. While awesome to look at, sadly, even the action wasn't good. The pacing was too slow obviously lacking the Snyder style adrenaline and violence viewers got to see in 300 and as mentioned earlier, the action could've been a lot better if Snyder chose to keep the R rating instead of demoting it to a PG-13. It's like DIE HARD 4 all over again; SUCKER PUNCH doesn't even feel like a Snyder film, it only LOOKS like it. To make matters worse, the dream sequences seemed forced; without them the movie would've been an average prison break movie and nothing would fall.
Hate to say this but the most entertaining parts of the film were OUTSIDE of the action packed dream realms; you know there's a problem with an action movie if the non-action scenes are more entertaining than the fight scenes.
Overall I had high hopes for SUCKER PUNCH and in the end they were all for naught. I wanted to like this film so much but I couldn't. The story was weak and the action was just sad to look at. The PG-13 rating shot down any potential the film had in realizing its full potential as an action film and the script could've taken the time to at least be improved. I just hope that Zack Snyder returns to his old self in future films since it's expected that the next SUPERMAN won't be a heavy R rated film.