Imagination Can Be Your Guide

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2011)

At least that's the case with Baby Doll in "Sucker Punch". Being housed in the Lennox House which houses the mentally insane, she plans to escape the facility with four other girls. In the process, the girls need to collect five things: a map of the entire facility, an item that can start a fire, a knife, the key to all the doors in the whole facility, and a mystery that only Baby Doll can retrieve.
What's appealing about the movie is the visual effects and the action scenes. I enjoyed these scenes thoroughly. Ninjas, machine guns, bombs, even dragons are all here to create some noise. The rendering of the alternative world and all the sets are amazing. These two things are definitely the key points of this movie.
However, everything else was average, to mediocre, or even to poor.
The plot was quite simple and I believe that the filmmakers could have done a better job on that. The film opens with a teenager nicknamed Baby Doll (Emily Browning) crying with her sister over their mother's death. Because of that, they have to live with their cruel father. After the sisters' father read his wife's final will and testament, he gets angry and kills Baby Doll's younger sister. Later, Baby Doll is accused of being her sister's killer and is later brought to the Lennox House with her father claiming that she is mentally ill. Baby Doll later meets four other girls: Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), and Amber (Jamie Chung). The five girls then plan to escape the facility. Here's the strange part: the girls later enter their own imaginative world where they fight against the ninjas and others to obtain the five items in the alternative world, as well as in the real world.
Bizarre and simple the plot is, the acting and the script were also cheesy. The acting was unconvincing sometimes and the script sounds awkward in some parts of the film.
The characters also got ridiculous names. I know it's their nicknames, but, a fighting warrior whose tough is named Baby Doll? What? That's not all. Sweet Pea? Amber, Rocket, and Blondie still sounded better than Sweet Pea and Baby Doll.
To point out, there were several unanswered questions that struck my brain through the movie, with answers I'm very curious to find out. Whenever the girls want to go to the world in their heads, Baby Doll must dance to a rock song (I guess) before they can go in and kick ass. In one scene where Baby Doll dances the routine for the first time, she enters the world in her head and fights against three 10-foot-tall ninjas. She jumped around, ran around, screamed in pain, sliced her enemies, and dodged attacks. When she's back in the real world, she received laurels from everyone for her "amazing" dance. The question is, how did she dance? Could she be really slicing the air, jumping around the room, and screaming around in her dance?
That's not the only one. There are more. Another one is that when the girls visit their imaginative world for the first time, why didn't they feel amazed? I know it's their imagination, but, a little "wow" or surprised look. Instead, they look like they've been into their world for a thousand times often.
The last one I want to point out (but I'm sure there are still others in the movie still yet to be discovered) is that how in the world did Baby Doll fight against the ninjas in her imagination, winning the fight, when she's fighting using high heels? If you observe, she fights around using high heels, dodging the opponents' strikes and attacks. I mean, I've never seen a person, fight and dodging attacks with high heels. Imagine Alice from "Resident Evil" running around shooting zombies, escaping from the zombies using high heels.
That's all to discuss about the movie. Overall, "Sucker Punch" is a winner in terms of action scenes and visual effects. However, the acting, script, and the things that made me confused were mediocre to poor. The film would've gotten a low score if it weren't for the visual effects and the action scenes. But because of the two, the film was desperate enough to earn a 7 for me.
In terms of recommendation, "Sucker Punch" is recommended for those who look forward to action scenes, great visual effects, and (possibly) hot girls. I don't think this movie would be suitable for kids because of the violence and the prominence of the girls. But it's up to you parents.
In conclusion, "Sucker Punch" is an entertaining two-hour adventure of stunning visual effects and action scenes, with everything else mediocre to poor.
Prince AJB's Score: 70%