An abused mental patient retreats into a fantasy world to
help her cope with her situation and plan an elaborate escape. ACTION/FANTASY
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Sucker Punch (2011)Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Oscar Isaac, Carla Gugino, Scott Glenn |
When I hear fanboys cry out about how Zack Snyder's creative vision is unparalleled and his version of Justice League will right all the movie's wrongs, I want them to take a good look at Sucker Punch. This movie, along with Batman v Superman, prove to me that Zack Snyder is not a visionary. His work is pretentious and forgettable, not to mention riddled with slow-mo effects that are almost always out of place. He shoves so many special effects into his productions that he ignores the characters and plot, and Sucker Punch is easily his worst movie.
Emily Browning plays Babydoll, an abused young woman who is forcibly institutionalized by her stepfather. We get the feeling that the mental hospital is corrupt and one of the orderlies, Blue (Isaac) is manipulating the patients for money. Babydoll, after learning she's gonna be lobotomized, retreats into a fantasy where the asylum is really a criminally-run brothel that Blue runs, and the other patients are trapped dancers. Okay, sure. But from there, Babydoll goes even further into the fantasy and becomes a fearless warrior who fights giant samurai, Nazi zombies, and armies of demons. What the hell, Zack? Was your head so far up your own ass that you had to shove every teenage boy's fantasy into one story-less movie? Nothing makes any damn sense, the characters are never delved into enough to care about them, and the ending is so damn bleak that you feel cheated. Sucker Punch is a huge misfire that I don't think ever had a chance at being good. The idea is so mind-blowingly out there that I can't see anyone making this work, much less Zack Snyder. An exploration of Babydoll in just the mental hospital would've made for a much more compelling story, but that didn't have explosions, dragons, and babes in short skirts, so I guess a subtle narrative was never on the table. |