Stunning visuals don't save the garbage Inception wannabe "plots"

Rating: 2/10 (5 April 2016)

This film is terrible on so many levels that it hurts to even remember it. I can't believe that so many other reviewers are so dense and mindless that they'll defend this movie adamantly. No, it is not "misunderstood." It is not a complex art film meant to be viewed with an understanding of some deep external context. This movie was sold to us as "300 but with badass women" and instead we get "I wish I was Inception but good luck finding the story in this pile of debris...oh, and here's some random fast-paced feminine butts and CG explosions to stare at so you don't feel like you were completely ripped off by the trailers."
There are those who say it's a glorious film that bathes in the light of strong female empowerment. Excuse me, but did you and I watch the same movie? I won't drop any spoilers but the "non-Inception" story AND the "Inception level one" story are so strongly the opposite of female empowerment that no one who isn't looking at the film through rose-colored glasses can hold it up as such. So much of this film is riddled with grossly unrealistic caricatures of evil males brutalizing fragile and helpless young women; an ideal feminist tale this definitely is not, yet many reviewers and even the actresses themselves have somehow eaten this lie up and regurgitated it ad nauseam.
For a moment, let's ignore the fact that both men and women are shown as hyperbolic representations of stereotypes. Let's ignore the lie told by the trailers showing an awesome CG-laden action extravaganza with awesome female heroes. The plot...isn't! This entire film attempts to be "psychologically deep" and fails so miserably that it is simply confusing and reeks of "artsy for the sake of artsy." Sucker Punch is the prime example of failure to execute the Inception style of story layering. There is essentially zero actual connection between the layers. There is one actual story that very little of the film spends time on and that is not explained or developed enough to be satisfying. The remaining chunks of the film focus on a completely different story that doesn't matter and a story within that story that matters even less. The connections between these three completely different plots are tenuous at best. It's difficult enough to write a single detailed plot and maintain continuity and consistency, so it comes as no surprise when this travesty tries to coarsely mush three mostly unrelated plots together and ultimately leaves them on the kitchen counter to rot.
The only reason I gave this film more than one star is the fantastic visuals within the action sequences. We were sold a film that was a sort of video game-like steampunk/fantasy 300 film with strong women that vaguely remind us of Samus Aran and that's what we all wanted to see. Granted, there are some serious problems with the action itself such as the obvious invulnerability of our heroes, but the visuals are hugely successful as eye candy. Everything else in the film resembled a dropped vase glued back together by a three-year-old, yet the action visuals are a work of art that could easily stand on their own. Even the plot underlying the action could have worked with a lot more thought and a lot more screen time.
This movie was supposed to be great. It wasn't. It developed a rabid fan base of mindless and tasteless movie-goers, but it seems like anything terrible that hits the big screen manages to vacuum up a pile of those. Don't waste your time seeing this. You can probably find the action stuff on a video site somewhere if you're interested in seeing those parts, but if you watch the actual film, you'll regret it and you'll never get that time back. If you want an attractive, strong female lead that is given excellent character development and beats the crap out of everyone that wrongs her, you're better off re-watching Kill Bill, because Sucker Punch doesn't even come close.