"Sucker Punch" Is "Inception" Without Representation

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2011)

"Sucker Punch" comes as a disappointment to me because the previews for the film looked really good. I love action movies, and a film where the heroine warriors are adolescent angst- ridden girls has to be unique. Unfortunately, "Sucker Punch" feels more like a video game or a music video: there are great special effects and action sequences, but they accompany a half-baked story line, underdeveloped characters, and a series of highly-stylized fantasy episodes that come out of nowhere and tie together poorly.
It's as if Zach Snyder made this film as an excuse to show such action sequences, because those sections of the film where girls are kicking ass are very well polished and are great eye candy. What we the audience really need to know is "Why?".
The movie starts off with a pretty blonde girl whose real name we never find out (Emily Browning). Through a montage, we learn that the girl's mother has died, leaving her with her sister and an abusive stepfather. When that stepfather attempts to abuse the younger sister, the blonde girl pulls a gun out on him, but accidentally shoots her sister instead.
In a plot devise seemingly ripped right out of "Chicago" (2002), the girl is sent to a mental institution with other girls her age, where she becomes psychoanalyzed by Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino), the seemingly only well-meaning person to work in the facility. Dr. Gorski tells her students/patients to set their mind free by using their imaginations, and these girls seem to have more vivid imaginations than the good doctor gives them credit for.
In a confusing segway, the blonde girl goes from being in a mental institution to being a stripper in a seedy club. Her name becomes Baby Doll, her fellow patients are also erotic dancers, Dr. Gorski is a dance instructor, and the other institution workers are owners of the club, or pimps. Again, does this remind you of "Chicago"?
Although this strip club is much nicer than the grim loony bin, Baby Doll still seeks escape. Once again, she imagines herself and four other acquaintances yielding swords and guns, and attacking faceless soldiers who stand in the way of obtaining five objects that will help her and the others escape. According to their imagined Obi-Wan-like mentor simply known as Wise-Man (Scott Glenn), the five objects they need are a map, a thing that makes fire, a knife, a key, and the last thing Baby Doll has to figure out for herself.
The plot synopsis is a headache to write about, and you can imagine what it's like to watch it. The truth is, the imagination synopses would have worked so much better if Dr. Gorski had actually TAUGHT these girls how to imagine, rather than just saying things like "Open your heart and let your imagination take you." That quote is not verbatim, by the way, but it's pretty close.
Plus, these girl characters are so underdeveloped that you don't get a sense of how they came up with these fantasies of kicking ass and taking names. It's not unusual for boys to fantasize this way. And yes, you're given a brief back story for Baby Doll, but it isn't enough because she literally doesn't talk for the first 20 minutes of the film. You don't know why she wants to escape, or what she's going to do once she does. Plus, once she kills her sister, which is something devastating and life changing in and of itself, it's never mentioned again in this movie.
Her fellow BFFs with ironic nicknames are not developed at all. Amber (Jamie Chung) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgins) are no more than just pretty faces. Sisters Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) and Rocket (Jena Malone) have a back story, but it's not much of one. You learn that they ran away from home, but never why, how they ended up in an institution, or their ambitions besides leaving the place they're in right now.
Plus, Wiseman just pops up in their dreams, and seems to have no basis whatsoever. Why didn't Dr. Gorski guide these girls in these imaginings? Doing so would have given her far more clout as a mentor.
So "Sucker Punch" is a big miss. Although the action sequences are well made and enticing at times, it's almost as if Zach Snyder made these short films, and someone else tried to tie them together with a really undercooked story line. The ending is just confusing, and feels incredibly weak. A "Chicago"-like song and dance number during the end credits feels just as random and out of place.
In addition to "Chicago", I was also reminded of "Inception" (2010) while watching this movie. While "Inception" had its confusing moments, it had a coherent story line, and at least you knew why people in that movie had the dreams they were having. It was also a lot deeper a story. "Sucker Punch" is just a music video in disguise as a feature film. The more people who make these kinds of movies, the longer MTV is going to go without showing music videos. Why bother, right?