Impressive, energetic, visually brilliant... But not good.

Rating: 5/10 (13 April 2011)

When you cannot be bothered watching anymore critically acclaimed dramas about cocaine or politicians, you decide to inject a little more of the entertainment factor into yourself, and watch some mindless action movie. With half-naked girls. With guns. Inside robots. Killing orcs. And steampunk soldiers. And demonic samurais. That hold gattling guns. Oh, and dragons too. When these breed together with a more-than-meets- the-eye story, it just gets all flat.
I'll give credit for what director Zack Snyder came up with - In the beginning, it looked like it would all work. It seemed however, he got lazy right after the incredible, slow motion opening scene. The first weakness of Sucker Punch kicks in with unnecessary, cringe-worthy dialog.
From that point, it takes time to introduce everyone and their situation. The girls - Babydoll (Emily Browning), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung) all want to escape. So they come up with a plan, a very simple plan - To find a few items that would help them escape. And to get those items, they engage in a distracting dance, which we never see. It is portrayed as a highly stylized action sequence. The sad thing is - despite the fact that they look excellent - they aren't excellent. They do work well with the plot, but that isn't important. The plot did not give any motivation whatsoever for the girls to act so violent.
Sucker Punch is not the film I wanted it to be. It almost worked, but it was rushed in terms of execution. Snyder proved how visionary he is with his earlier films, 300, and Watchmen. He can direct, that's for sure, but he struggles with the writing. With Christopher Nolan, I'm sure he can make the upcoming Superman: Man of Steel a success.