Sucker Punched

That's the feeling you're likely to have after seeing Zack Snyder's latest CG-fest Sucker Punch (alternate opening lines include: a sucker punch is defined as a sudden, surprise punch, usually from behind, an apt title for this train wreck. When it came time to name his latest film, director Zack Snyder went with the feeling the test audience had after seeing this flaming pile of garbage).

The film is setup in three layers (if you've already read plot summaries, you can skip this next paragraph): The real world, the fantasy world, and a series of fantasy worlds set within the fantasy world. If you're confused, don't be, for a film that seems to be intentionally complex and confusing, it is surprisingly straightforward.

The real world is set in the 1960's (I guess, because I don't remember hearing an actual date anywhere in the film. Maybe it was on the form being filled out during the beginning of the film that provides a lot of the details about the main character (She's female AND twenty years old)) where the unnamed protagonist (nicknamed Baby Doll in the fantasy world) has just lost her mother. In a really quick setup, we learn that this guy who we later learn is her step dad (the opening sequence doesn't say this, it's only after he takes the older girl to the mental institution does the audience learn their relationship) learns that he inherits nothing from the mother's death, so he decides to rape his step daughters.

That makes sense, right? That's the only reasonable course of action when bad news is received. During an ensuing scuffle, the main character shoots at the step dad and accidentally kills her sister. I guess. A lightbulb shatters and a pipe bursts, but it was unclear whether the gunshot killed her or if the step dad already had (saying otherwise is using an unreasonable leap in logic given the facts presented in the movie). It could be argued that the step dad had already killed the sister before and it was convenient to pin it on the main character since she was being stuck in an institution anyway.

When the main character arrives at the institution, she is introduced to a skeevy orderly (who runs the place) and overhears the head doctor (only doctor?) telling the girls that the mind is the thing in which we escape to and it is perfect and great in our mind. We also learn here that the main character has five days before another doctor arrives to lobotomize her. Flash forward to her about to be lobotomized and then we're introduced to...

The fantasy world! Set entirely in the main character's mind, she is now an orphan prostitute, the orderly is now a night club/brothel owner and the other mental patients are performers/well...prostitutes. Not a whole lot more character development here, it's really just one more layer of a setup for...

The fantasy world inside the fantasy world! In order to survive at the night club/brothel of the fantasy world, Baby Doll (it's here where they name the protagonist) must dance. In order to dance, she must give herself to the music (awkward scenes in themselves). But when she does, she transports her mind (which she has already transported to this fantasy land. But seriously? In her perfect world, she's an orphaned hooker?) to a fantasy world where she is even more empowered and can fight poorly CGI'd stuff. An old man tells her she must collect things, and then the missions ensue.

Everyone loves to watch her dance, though the audience never really sees why. Kelly said all she's doing is awkward pelvic thrusts.

Back in the fantasy world #1, she decides she's going to escape before the "high roller" comes, so she pieces together an awkward plan (the dialogue is just awful. Maybe some of the worst of any movie. Ever) where everytime she dances (and subsequently there is a new "mission"), one of the other girls would steal an item needed for the escape. None of the plans go off without a hitch and soon almost everyone is dead.

Now, in the real world, it's discovered what the skeevy orderly was doing and all of the damage Baby Doll did while in her fantasy land (she starts fires, stabs some people, and I have to believe those girls did die). Seriously, the lobotomy doctor said he had been coming to the instution for awhile and nobody ever questioned who was actually signing off on the lobotomies? Really?

And, I know he was going for sweet with the ending, but having Sweet Pea escape is weird because, well, she's a mental patient. Baby Doll helped a potentially insane girl escape. If, at some point, it was given that SP was in the same boat as BD (we can kind of assume maybe she is, since in the fantasy world, she followed her sister Rocket to the brothel), but nothing is ever said. So yeah, potentially dangerous mental patient is on the loose.

The dialogue was terrible. It's like they took the most wordy and vague path to saying just about everything possible in ways that are annoying to the mind. Like that. But worse. The acting was about what could be expected, given the script. The whole concept of the film was built around girls in skimpy outfits fighting things, so Snyder tried to build a film around that. It didn't work. The missions themselves are full of action, but the girls (at least to me) aren't particularly attractive (Abby Cornish aside) and the CG that Snyder loves oh so much isn't well done. There were times where the actresses didn't line up right with the CG characters or backgrounds. It's something I noticed with Avatar, but wrote that off because it was in 3D. It's just awkward.

And that's the one word I have to describe this film: awkward.

The only redeeming quality was one of the characters' costumes in the mission world. Sweet Pea's hooded dress thing was pretty cool looking.

The people who liked the film defend their position by saying things like: you just don't get it, you knew what you were getting into based on the trailers, and it's just supposed to be a big, dumb entertaining action-film.

Well, no. I totally got it. It's supposed to about the empowerment of the mind and the harsh treatment of woman. The trailers really didn't hint at the whole fantasy within a fantasy aspect. And it clearly isn't supposed to be a big, dumb action movie because it's evident Zack Snyder really, really wanted us to feel for his characters and to make us think (it did, but only if I could way with self-inducing vomiting so I could leave early). The only time I felt anything was during the Lord of the Rings-esque mission, and that was because I felt bad for Baby and Mommy Dragon.

I would say that I have little hope for Snyder's Superman: The Man of Steel, but he seems to work well when he's using other people's works (Snyder co-wrote Sucker Punch). I think it's better if Snyder sticks to translating other people's works and leaves the writing to someone else.