The Geeking: Sucker Punch Review

You guys probably don't know this, but I like over-the-top action scenes with sword and gun-wielding protagonists.

Shhh.

So that is exactly why I was excited to see the movie Sucker Punch. Just take a look at the trailer. Seemingly, all it is is over-the-top actions scenes with sword and gun-wielding protagonists. It has machine guns, dragons, girls in mini-skirts, mechs, orcs, girls flying helicopters, knights in shining armor, oni, girls dancing, steam-work operated clockmen, deranged psychos, and girls. It has all the good things. Theoretically, it is a geek's dream. And with all of these different ... elements one has to wonder how a movie like this can pull it off. So, did it?

Without spoiling this review, Sucker Punch is everything I expected it to be, yet not in a way. If this statement made no sense, perhaps I can try to explain my feelings in the following review. Then again, I'm still trying to sort them out.

From the beginning, we are thrust glaringly into the story of a young unnamed woman, who goes by the nickname Baby-Doll later on. Her mother has died of mysterious circumstances, and now Baby-Doll is left with her sister under the care of her simply evil stepfather. When the stepfather realizes that Baby-Doll's mother has left the significant wealth in her will only to her daughters and not himself, stepfather gets horribly mad. Things go awry, and without divulging anymore plot, "things happen". Eventually, as a way to get rid of Baby-Doll and get the money from his wife's will, he labels his step-daughter insane and has her put into a mental institute, where she will be lobotomized in five days. All of this plot happens within two minutes, I kid you not. It is highly stylized and artistic, and sets the remarkably dark tone for the rest of the story. After this, Baby-Doll discovers that she can find a world inside her own mind, and using this pretend world she attempts to escape the mental institute with the help of her newly found comrades before the five days are up.

Such is the premise of Sucker Punch.

PLOT: What you see is what you get with Sucker Punch. And of course, did you expect anything else? However, for a movie designed to attracted action fans, the plot is surprisingly well thought out. The transitions between fantasy and reality actually make sense, and are believable as believable can get with this kind of subject. Instead of characters just standing there and spacing out, they actually go on missions while imagining they are a part of the fantasy. It adds the to the crazy feel and adds to the suspension of belief a bit more, and I appreciate that.

As good as the transitions are, there are plot moments that disappointed me which could have been avoided. Often, the movie's director, Zach Snyder, seems to take random moments of violence or incredibly sad moments and sprinkle them through out the "reality" part of the movie. These seem to be there only for the shock factor, and unfortunately, they don't do much more than shock. Afterwards, you are left with a sense of loss, because these said moments do not progress the plot, or make it more deep, or even prove a good point. They might have been put there to increase drama, maybe, but the result is a very depressing melodrama that even the certain campiness of this movie can't pull off.

Also, some of the battle sequences drag on a bit. That's right, I said it. And I came here to watch the action scenes. While all of the mind-blowing action is fantastic, sometimes they seem to repeat themselves. Sometimes there are scenes with just the characters cutting through enemies that look exactly the same, through an area where scenery doesn't change, using the same cut and slice techniques over and over again. There are also no interesting character comments. The result is a monotonous drive through enemy after enemy that is really no different than mowing the lawn. The best action scene is actually at the beginning, where Baby-Doll is still learning how to kick butt. Afterwards everyone fights with near perfection, with the occasional "oh no, are we going to lose" moment. While the setting of the action varies, the fighting doesn't seem to change all that much, crowning moments of awesome aside.

The ending is also disappointing, because it could have been so much more. It could have been more fleshed out, but it feels cut short. It feels like the director was trying to make an in-your-face-I'm-being-different-kind of statement, but falls flat because by the end we have no more connection to the story due to all the shock factors. It isn't a bad ending, it just leaves us empty because despite the "wow", there is no though-provoking factors.

CHARACTERS:

All of the female characters are gorgeous. Interestingly enough, nearly all the men are disgusting. Perhaps this is intended to create a background where the female characters look even more gorgeous in comparison. Maybe this is because the female characters don't do much except stand around in revealing outfits and look gorgeous-sorry, run around and shoot enemies in revealing outfits while looking gorgeous. I doubt you would watch the movie looking for character development, but just in case you were, this is not the movie for you. Except for the villain Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac), the characters don't seem to change at all throughout the course of this movie. In truth, I was expecting something, but I didn't get much. With the exception of Rocket (Jena Malone) and Amber (Chung) I didn't care about the other girls a whole lot. I suppose Sweet Pea (Cornish) develops the most, but Cornish lacked the charisma to make the character come off well this time. Vanessa Hudgens' performance of Blondie is darn-right forgettable, for some odd reason. But then again Vanessa wasn't given much to do with her character in the first place. Besides this, each characters have their own charming quirks, and you can distinguish them from each other. You won't hate these characters. You just won't feel for them, either.

The most memorable character is the antagonist, Blue Jones. He is very, very evil, and he gets more evil as the story goes on, resulting in some pseudo-character development, which is a welcome breather. Isaac plays Blue incredibly well, and his is the most explosive performance of the cast.

MUSIC: The sound track is an interesting mix of remixed songs. I recognized "Sweet Dreams (Are made of this) from the beginning, and a few other classics. Each song fits the scene it's in well, and overall I enjoyed the music very much.

AGE RATING: As an extra note, I do not recommend letting kids under thirteen watch this movie. It's one of those movies that deserves a PG-13 rating. It is very dark. There are some intense moments of violence, although I'm more concerned about the whole theme of the movie. Basically all the characters are crazy gorgeous women hired to be strippers by Blue, so there are "moments". I didn't mention that. Yes, that's right.

OVERALL: Despite my qualms, this is a well-planned and well-directed movie. The action is fantastic, although since we don't care much about the characters we don't care how the action falls out. The acting is not bland at all; it is all very dramatic. Characters just weren't well-written. By the end, you'll probably feel a sense of disappointment because while the plot gets tied up, we realize that it could have been more thought-provoking, and we are stuck thinking of what could have been. The music is good. Overall, this is a thrill ride of a movie. I only wish there was more meat.

3 out of 5 stars.