Sucker Punch - Blu-ray Review

'Inception, with less clarity, worse acting and more suspenders.'

I don't hate Zack Snyder. Or his films for that matter. I've enjoyed several of them in fact. I'm looking forwards to his Superman film. I've defended him against posts and reviews which seemed to me to have something personal against him. Unfortunately, despite all that, I'm afraid the only thing I can say about Sucker Punch is that it is an awful, awful, film.

Perhaps the first thing to say is that I don't think Sucker Punch is misogynist or sexist in any way, as some have tried to suggested. Nor do I think it is empowering. It is just a deeply flawed action film which happens to have female leads. That's it.

It's main and base flaw is the plot which, aside from occasionally seeming to not make coherent logical sense, doesn't bother with any sense of explanation about what is going on, or why we should care to watch it. It's Inception with less clarity, worse acting and more suspenders.

Somewhere in and amongst it there is Emily Browning, leading us through as Baby Doll, a newcomer to a mental asylum who, apparently, retreats to a fantasy world where she can control people in other fantasy worlds by virtue of her magnetic and captivating dancing. The problem with this? We never see her dance. Not once.

Snyder is too busy whisking us off to the fantasy worlds that Baby Doll creates. They are fantasy worlds which are admittedly gorgeous but they lack any substance or quantifiable depth. If you were doing a World War Two drama you'd spend time creating the world, making it believable and establishing character. Snyder though, isn't creating a World War Two drama, he's creating a World War Two cut-scene, and for it we care not a jot. The world isn't as original as Snyder thinks either. The steam-punk style, occult-ish, Nazis have been done in Hellboy and his other worlds bear distinct similarities to Lord Of The Rings and - bizarrely - I, Robot respectively.

The voiceovers peppering the opening and closing moments hint that Snyder thought he was making something with a message but, like the film, they're unclear. At the start we're told of 'protective angels', at the end we're told to go out there and fight. In between there's nothing to really back either idea up as having any merit or benefit whatsoever. Unclear, impossible to attach yourself on to and, at its worst, slightly pretentious.

Look further...

'this is a director spewing his brains out in glorious fashion and, let’s face it, if this film was subtitled we’d be having a conversation about how Hollywood can not and will not make films like this' - Cinema Scream