Zack Snyder's Weakest Film

Rating: 2/10 (29 July 2011)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! I watched this film cold; other than a few (sorely regrettable) deadpan recommendations, I otherwise had high-hopes for the feature. Snyder's previous success - Watchmen - (which I absolutely adore) blew me away. Why shouldn't Sucker Punch? Largely, poor-scriptwriting, poor-narrative and poor-characters are to blame (in my opinion).
Our leading-lady Emily Brown is as gorgeous as ever... but so is the rest of the cast: puppishly-cute to the degree of warm treacle poured all over a blade. Not to mention their infantile names - chiefly, Baby Doll and Sweet Pea - these knife-wielding babettes are anything but. Although Baby Doll *should* be the protagonist, she rarely speaks. And when she does, it feels like a device to further progress the plot, rather than divulge/expose some inner secret, feeling or pain. Not that I think a teary moment would have changed my opinion of her, the opening sequence just isn't enough. When the film ends on Sweet Pea - a character I barely know - I don't really give a damn.
Why? Sucker Punch's almost-cliché manipulation of reality feels like a B-grade homage (and it's too soon) to Inception. We start off in the dark and gloomy reality leading up to Lennox House, delve into a shared-delusion of prostitution/racketeering and end up fighting mythical battles on imaginary fronts within the imagination of someone else's imagination...
Are the characters in the brothel the true characters of the crazies living in Lennox House? Probably not. If, somehow, they were to integrate this reality into fact, it would have been much more dark, sadistic and probably more heart-wrenching. Is this all inside the head of our protagonist? How can it be, she's not insane - she was put there by her father! All of it takes place in-between a lobotomy's final blow: and I can understand the flashback "life-before-your-eyes" sequence... but it just didn't quite work for me.
What did? Donnie Darko's ex, that's who. And Scott Glenn. They're pulling one huge star behind them both, simply because they appear the real deal. Who doesn't want a Scott Glenn caricature/"angel" helping them fight for their sanity (an entirely flawed premise to begin with, think about it...) So when Jena Malone's character gets stabbed by an angry chef (think 300 without the-teeth-and-chains-guy). And dies. That's where I lose interest. Dialogue-wise, this beauty really had the most to offer - even if it was riddled with cliché.
Blah.
There's so much potential in this film, but it gets overloaded with eye-popping sequences and scantily-clad women that you just can't take it seriously. Maybe that's the point. But it's dealing with some pretty deep issues that shouldn't be satirised.
2/10