Sucker Punch

When I first read about this movie sometime last year I quickly became very excited. To me, "Sucker Punch" seemed like the most unique, original, and creative film I had read about or seen in awhile. When I saw the first trailer...my excitement rose a hundred levels and each week my anticipation grew larger and larger until I walked into the theater last Friday, saw the film...and cursed Hollywood for their smooth advertising techniques. Sure "Sucker Punch" might look like a top notch action extravaganza on the outside, but on the inside...there couldn't be more wrong with it.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) has a harsh life. After the death of her mother, her evil stepfather decides to kill Baby Doll and her younger sister so that he can acquire everything in the mother's will. Baby Doll defends herself with a gun but when trying to kill her stepfather, she accidentally kills her sister. After these terrible events, the stepfather sends Baby Doll to the Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. Here he bribes the head of the asylum Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to have Baby Doll lobotomised so that the truth can never get out.

In the five days that it takes the Doctor (Jon Hamm) to arrive, Baby Doll retreats into a fantasy world where the asylum is a brothel owned by the mob and she is a newly arrived dancer. When practicing her dancing her mind takes her to imaginary places, the first is Japan where she meets The Wise Man (Scott Glenn). The Wise Man tells Baby Doll that she can escape if she finds five items: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a fifth secret item that requires "great sacrifice." From there, Baby Doll and her four partners proceed to kick the butts of anything from robot Germans from World War I, to dragons, to massive rock samurais with Gatling guns in hopes that they can escape.

Before I saw the film, I thought that the story looked incredibly original, creative, and just plain awesome. While watching the film my opinion completely changed. While it is original and creative it is also disorganized, random, and confusing. Director Zach Snyder has proven that he is very capable of visually creative and stunning films with his past works like "300" and "Watchmen," but it seems that he is trying to cram many little elements into one film and make it look good. While some may agree that Snyder has succeeded with this in the past, it is a different case for "Sucker Punch." Sadly watching prostitutes fighting imaginary robots and dragons with an old man that says random things at random times that make no sense ends up coming across as stupid.

The second problem with the story is that it is just confusing. There were many things about the plot that I had questions about and by the end of the film, none of them were answered. In fact, there were several major plot points that I did not fully understand until I read over the plot description the next day in an attempt to answer questions I still had. RED FLAG! The film fails to present a clear story that is easy to understand (those that I saw the film with will say the same).

The one redeeming thing about "Sucker Punch" is the action. This is the only part of the film the met and even exceeded my expectations. No matter if the film is good or bad, Zach Snyder can do action and he can do it well. But only twenty minutes tops had the slow-motion explosions and sword fights that I loved the most and the other hour and forty minutes could never hope to hold up the film.

I wanted to enjoy "Sucker Punch." As I sat in the theater I tried to enjoy it as much as I wanted to but I couldn't. The outlandish and confusing story proves that you can't just have a bunch of hot girls, guns, and explosions to make an entertaining movie. I give it one star out of four.

"Sucker Punch" has a running time of 109 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic material including sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language.