Viewer: Sucker Punch to the Face

Rating: 2/10 (27 March 2011)

Director Zack Snyder's ("300," "Watchmen") latest film, "Sucker Punch" can be described by one word: bummer. Snyder is known for making films with very detailed, enthralling visual splendor. However, he proves that visuals are not enough to successfully create a good film. Starting with a brief back-story of a girl known as Babydoll (Emily Browning, "The Uninvited") and ending with an attempted metaphorical message, the plot is lost in the midst of action. Babydoll's story takes place in 1955 with the death of her mother leading to the attempted rape of Babydoll and her sister by their Stepfather (Gerard Plunkett, "2012"). In order to stop her father from succeeding she tries to shoot him, but accidentally misses shooting her sister instead. She immediately drops the gun and begins running, however, she cannot escape the clutches of her Stepfather. After the police come she is taken to an insane asylum for girls known as the Lennox House. Her Stepfather pays off one of the orderlies named Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac, "Robin Hood") to forge the signature of Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino, "Watchmen") to have her lobotomized by the Doctor (Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"). While in the mental institution, Babydoll meets fellow inmates Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish, "Limitless"), Rocket (Jena Malone, "The Messenger") Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens, "High School Musical"), and Amber (Jamie Chung, "Grown Ups"). Immediately following, Snyder takes the audience deep within Babydoll's mind creating an "Inception-like" mental design of three layers. In the second layer Babydoll transforms the mental institution into a cathouse where her and her companions are just a group of entrapped prostitutes. In this mental state Babydoll is taught to dance by Madam Gorski, taking her one level further for the duration of her dance. In the deepest level she is given a mission by a Wise Man (Scott Glenn, "Secretariat") leading her to escape the mental hospital. Together Babydoll and her fellow inmates complete a set of five tasks in hopes of escaping before Babydoll is given to the High Roller (Also Jon Hamm) in the brothel synonymous with her lobotomy in reality.
It goes without saying the only reason anyone should see this film is to see Snyder's renowned graphic grandeur. Snyder mixes of light and dark with vibrant colors to distinguish the inner most layer of Babydoll's mind from the blandness of the rest of the film. Here Snyder creates entertaining action sequences in the backdrop of his graphic effects and has a little help from Jena Malone and Scott Glenn's performances.
"Sucker Punch" is synonymous with a rolling ball of flaws attributed to a variety of different shortcomings. The film starts with very weird character development as Babydoll acts as nothing more than a mime until she finally speaks 30 minutes into the film. The viewer is also hit immediately with an over the top soundtrack playing a different song every five minutes undermining the integrity of each scene. The casting for the film is almost as random as the soundtrack with a wide range of B-list actresses coming from a variety of different backgrounds. Exhibit A: Vanessa Hudgens. What were you thinking Snyder? "High School Musical" to "Sucker Punch"? Need I say more? While, along with the fact that Emily Browning and Jamie Chung may as well be labeled as unknowns, Oscar Isaac and Carla Gugino are out of place in this film. Also, it really is sad that the best actor in the film, Jon Hamm, is only in the film for a minute or two. This combined with a very poorly written script massacred the film creating horrid situational clichés and predictable outcomes.
One-dimensional characters and an ending reaching for metaphorical meaning vastly overshadow Snyder's special effects. Therefore the only special thing about Snyder's latest film is the fact that the viewer gets "Sucker Punched" in the face as the film goes down as one of the greatest letdowns of 2011.