A Pretty Disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (27 March 2011)

I desperately wanted Sucker Punch to be good. Any large-budget blockbuster that has the balls to include dragons, mechs and nazi zombies in its PREVIEWS gets bonus points with me.
But Sucker Punch isn't very good. It's joyless and heartless and somehow manages to take itself waaaaay too seriously despite the aforementioned dragons, mechs and nazi zombies. For a movie that should be non-stop fun it's surprisingly dreary. That could have worked if that dreariness had generated any power or depth or emotional attachment, but it doesn't, so instead of being dramatic or epic the movie just becomes boring.
The interchangeable, embarrassingly over-fetishized girls are utterly invincible and never in any danger whatsoever... until the plot suddenly needs them to be, which is cheap and, again, boring. The brothel scenes almost immediately became tedious and I found myself impatient for the next action scene to begin.
Of course the action is fantastically well filmed and the special effects are gorgeous. Snyder is probably the best action director working today. But in Sucker Punch it's all so meaningless and lightweight that I felt more numbed than excited. And that's probably the most impressive thing about the movie: how do you make steampunk nazi zombie zeppelins unexciting? See Sucker Punch and find out!
Sucker Punch really isn't terrible. It's just a typical, brainless blockbuster that squanders its unique subject matter. It could have been so much more.