Review: ‘Sucker Punch’
Say this for "Sucker Punch": It's almost exactly what you think it's going to be, and it doesn't pretend to be remotely good for you or even socially redeeming. In that way, "300" director Zack Snyder's gonzo action-exploitation flick has a certain purity about it that's almost commendable: I can't think of a big-budget movie this profoundly trashy and campy in years, maybe ever. If it was much fun, "Sucker Punch" would have really been something. But because it's not, you mostly stare at it, amazed that somewhat allowed this movie to happen at all.
Though the film's visuals would lead you to believe it's based on a graphic novel, "Sucker Punch" is an original idea from Snyder, with a script by him and Steve Shibuya. But in truth, the idea isn't all that original: It's a plot that's perfect for an old grindhouse film. A 20-year-old naif (Emily Browning) is sent away by her evil stepfather to a mental institution, where she meets up with several equally fetching young women also incarcerated. Dubbed Baby Doll, she is about to lobotomized when she zooms into a fantasy world in which she and her fellow babes/patients (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung) go back and forth between a burlesque club (in which they're the prize entertainment) and different alternate realities where they fight (in skimpy outfits) different fantastical enemies in order to acquire the tools they need to escape the asylum.
If that plot description sounds not unlike levels of a videogame, you're on the wavelength of what Snyder's tried to accomplish with "Sucker Punch." Many movies of the fanboy variety get dismissed as "videogame films," but few of them so consciously try to evoke their aesthetic as "Sucker Punch" does. Baby Doll has to go from world to world defeating a slew of unique baddies -- Zombies! Robots! -- and she triumphs by grabbing simple totems (a key, a map, a knife) that will be used down the road in her adventure. Plus, these alternate realities don't follow the rules of gravity or physics: She and her cohorts do amazing flips through the air and can smash into walls without so much as chipping a nail.
Using the same hyper-stylized approach he incorporated in "300" and "Watchmen," Snyder makes "Sucker Punch" the eye-candiest movie of recent memory. Much will be made about the pretty young things running around wearing thigh-high stockings, but the teen-boy porn doesn't end there: We've got fire-breathing dragons, we've got wall-to-wall goth-rock, we've got slow-motion shots of spent shell casings tumbling to the ground as weapons fire with an orgasmic rhythm. And we have cleavage. We have lots of cleavage.
On one level, it's easy to admire Snyder's utter shamelessness. And for a little while, "Sucker Punch" has an enjoyably junky quality that makes you hope it's going to be a silly, knowingly brainless hoot. Along those lines, the movie refuses to feel guilty about its tawdry urges, declining to pretend to be some sort of halfhearted ode to female empowerment. Instead, it really is just about sexy young women dolled up and kicking ass.
But unfortunately, Snyder is not someone who's known for his light, playful touch. Whether it's the zombie apocalypse in his "Dawn of the Dead" remake or the urban rot of "Watchmen," Snyder treats his movies as if they're deathly important, and to be fair you can sorta understand his thinking: Videogames have done quite well advertising their product as highly melodramatic, otherworldly confrontations with life-or-death stakes. But over the course of its running time, "Sucker Punch" is unrelenting as opposed to cathartic. The characters never evolve beyond their toned physiques, and there's an endless supply of Profound Speechifying (mostly done by Scott Glenn as some sort of Yoda-like sage) that you quickly realize we're supposed to take as gospel.
It's hardly an original concept in movies to have characters retreat into fantasy worlds to escape their horrible realities. But whether it's "Brazil" or "Shutter Island," these films tend to understand that the characters aren't truly "escaping": There's a poignancy in their realization that no matter how elaborate the fantasy, it's never powerful enough. That doesn't happen with "Sucker Punch": Snyder never seems to really care what Baby Doll's fantasy life says about her or any of her fellow inmates. Like most of the creative decisions in "Sucker Punch," the main question Snyder seems to have asked himself is, "What would be the most awesomest thing to have happen here?" And then that's the thing he does.
Walking out of the press screening, I got the distinct impression that most of my colleagues utterly despised "Sucker Punch" and its base impulses. I can't say I was ever able to work myself into that much of a lather about the film: Humorless and empty as "Sucker Punch" is, there's something almost innocent and oddly genuine about it, too. I don't think Snyder's pandering to an audience: I think he is that audience. Consequently, "Sucker Punch" is actually pretty fascinating: It's Snyder uncensored. Like it or not, these are the types of movies he wants to make, and it's somewhat remarkable that a studio allowed him to do it. Too bad it's not any good.
Grade: C
