Sucker Punch Review

Sucker Punch

C-

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

    If there were ever a living breathing definition of the saying "all flash no substance" it would be Sucker Punch. A film that gets so wrapped up in eye popping action it forgets simple yet extremely crucial things such as you know Character development (which save for the opening scene there is 0 of) or a plot. Sucker Punch is a 2 hour visual tech demonstration that feels more like a shallow action video game than the interesting sci-fi action film it was trying to be.

 

    The film opens promisingly enough with our main vixen Baby Doll (Emily Browning) pretty much going through a living hell. Her mother dies then her abusive step father kills her sister and frames her for it. This get's Baby Doll put into an insane asylum where the male staff sexually abuses the women prisoners. Baby Doll bands together a group of inmates (played by Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung) with the plan of getting 4 items a map, a lighter, a knife, and a key to escape the asylum. To do this Baby Doll must use her powers of seductive dancing to put the members of the staff into a strange trance and then go into an action scene reality and grab the item they need.

 

    And well that's it. The whole plot from there on in is just a series of action scenes. We never get the chance to care about any of the characters or learn about them at all. There is no development or change in any of the characters at all. All we get is just flat stereotypical action film caricatures. Nothing else at all. Oh yeah and the plot. Well the whole thing is just basically a bunch of action scenes tied together by thin strands of transparent and predictable transitions. Nothing more, nothing more indeed.

 

    Then there is the end. The end that is one of the most cop out unsatisfactory endings I have seen in a long time. I won't spoil it (in case you actually go watch this film) but it's a secondary character that has not been that important all of a sudden being put into the spotlight when said character is not interesting and has no reason for being there other than being a cog in the plan. It is just so empty.

 

    Let's now talk about the main part of the film the action. The visuals are eye popping and pretty well done. My main gripe with the action scenes is that they felt like a video game that I was not in control of. While they are good in being massive set pieces they (like the rest of the film) lack the depth to be anything truly awesome.

 

    After watching Sucker Punch I left the theater empty and disappointed. It was like eating a Twinkie. It looks promising but then you bite in and there is nothing there. No substance just flash. Flash that cheated me out of my $17.50 I spent to go see this in IMAX. Flash that left me empty and disappointed as if I had been sucker punched.