Flick Flak: Sucker Punch

Posted by archifCLICarchive from National - Published on 04/04/2011 at 11:18
8 comments » - Tagged as Movies

Sucker Punch
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Emily Browning, Carla Gugino, Abbie Cornish
12A, 110mins

This is the director who is about to attempt a dark, adult version of Superman, in the vein of all new comic book reboots. Watching Sucker Punch, you can be sure of one thing: Man of Steel will be spectacular. One of the few criticisms I saw made of Inception was ‘if these are dream worlds, why are they so real? Dreams are crazy!’ Sucker Punch is the answer to that question.

The plot revolves around a girl (played by Emily Browning) who is institutionalised by her vicious stepfather, and in Lennox House Asylum she, along with the other inmates, is forced to dance for a range of sleazy and unpleasant men by the sleazy unpleasant man in charge (all of whom are rocking as much make up as the girls in the film). However, her dance holds the power to hypnotise, and though during these times Babydoll (as she is nicknamed) must fight to survive in hostile dream landscapes, in the real world her fellow inmates are able to plot their escape. A mad plot, but one that allows for numerous set-piece action sequences.

These action sequences are where the film excels; when the first one kicks in, the film’s tag-line - “you will be unprepared” - is apt. A snowy Japanese temple, where the Wise Man explains Babydoll’s powers to her, before three giant monstrous samurai attack her. The fight is surreal, bone-crunching, and awesome.

Without a doubt Sucker Punch’s best attribute is its looks. A little of 300’s comic-book style, a little of Sin City, and a lot of anime and videogame style graphics, it has the power to evoke a ‘wow’ from you with each new epic action sequence. As with all Snyder films, this would have been 30 minutes shorter if he’d been denied access to a slow-mo button - while at times the effect does accentuate the uber-stylish looks, it definitely gets over-used.

In this dream-like setting the probably-awful dialogue and slightly iffy acting do not have any impact on the film, which is a bonus. In fact the cast all do their respective jobs pretty well, particularly Oscar Isaac as the menacing Blue, and Scott Glenn as the Wise Man, who gets some gloriously daft lines such as “don’t write cheques with your mouth that you can’t cash with your ass”.

Another thing the film has in its armoury is some really cool music. There are a lot of covers, re-done to fit the dark/sexy feel of the movie, and a few of them actually sung by lead actress Emily Browning, who I have liked since seeing her in A Series of Unfortunate Events. It’s worth Spotify-ing the movie just to listen to some bizarre yet awesome songs.

The film has two problems as far as I can tell, but they are vital. The first is that the film we saw seems jarringly at odds with what was originally conceived. From the trailer I was imagining a spectacularly violent action film with a fair bit of titillation from the gorgeous cast. In fact what we get is a 12A certificate, which means that the violence all feels a bit fake and is carefully aimed and carried out against enemies which deserve it (robots, Nazi zombie cyborgs, dragons, and orcs), and very little sexual suggestion. This is odd given that the film is set in a brothel/strip club and features a cast constantly wearing provocative outfits. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a DVD release of the original, 15 certificate version.

The other serious problem is that, despite all the imagination that is on display early on in the film, the actions scenes get a bit too repetitive after the second or third. For a film that is banking on its ability to continually stun you with outlandish set-pieces, it needed to have more up its sleeve than several too-similar scenes.

Overall I was a little disappointed with the end result. Over the full running time Sucker Punch slightly runs out of the ‘cool’ that so powerfully drives the trailers. It is of course style over substance, and serious style at that, but it just doesn’t quite work as a 12A. It is stunning to look at (in several respects!) and is enjoyable for a while, it’s just a shame that it seems to run out of imagination.

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8 Comments – Post a comment

CeefaxOfLife

Commented 62 months ago - 4th April 2011 - 16:08pm

This film has guilty pleasure written all over it. Great review as always.

neilramsden

Commented 62 months ago - 4th April 2011 - 16:22pm

Cheers! It could be a genuine guilty pleasure- normally that phrase is used even when you shouldn't have to apologise for enjoying it, but this one maybe is a little guilty! I like its ambition even if it does get a bit samey.

SamuelPatterson

Commented 62 months ago - 4th April 2011 - 22:04pm

Haha! " The fight is surreal, bone-crunching, and awesome" made me laugh ver loudly =P Awesome review. Question: what was Vanessa Hudgens like in it?

lolaCLIC

Commented 62 months ago - 5th April 2011 - 09:33am

Fully agree with you. Went to see this last week and I've been looking forward to it for months.

Great to look at but does get boring, too many holes in the plot :(

Perfect review!

neilramsden

Commented 62 months ago - 6th April 2011 - 11:56am

Haha just heard Mark Kermode destory this film in his review. Ah well, it's not for everyone. Surreal and bone-crunching is my idea of awesome :p everything a fun weekend should be. Vanessa Hudgens was not noticeably worse than anyone else? She had a vaguely more interesting part as well.
Does anyone who's seen it have a comment on the whole sexual politics issue? Did you think it was sexist or empowering for women?