Sucker Punch Movie Review


Zack Snyder’s version of Dawn of the Dead, was an excellent zombie movie. His adaptation of Frank Miller’s 300 was too brutal for me and honestly rather dull in my opinion. His version of Watchmen was also over-long and over-complicated. However I was still excited to watch Sucker Punch.
Snyder’s latest offering is certainly an amazing visual spectacle but in short the story is lacking. Snyder has made a good attempt at producing an exciting and thoughtful film and there is no doubting his commitment. It is certainly an imaginative film and it should, to some extent, be applauded for trying to be different. But whilst Snyder was aiming for a story of self-empowerment where a young girl by the name of Babydoll (Emily Browning) is thrown into a fantasy dream-world in order to free herself from the horror of the world around her, what we actually get is something more sexually deviant and worrying.

Babydoll has been forced into living in an asylum and her only possible chance of freedom is to work together with the other inmates to find five items to allow them to escape. Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Amber (Jamie Chung) and Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) all have their own distinct personalities and unique skills that will help them to escape.

Sucker Punch (2011) - Movie PosterAlthough Sucker Punch is somewhat stylised and not really in touch with reality there are still some scenes that left me feeling uneasy. I simply don’t believe that there is a place in mainstream cinema for sexual deviancy. And certainly not, to any extent, in a film that has been rated 12. This rating in my opinion is quite simply wrong. To be rated 12, in my opinion, Sucker Punch would require several cuts. As it is Sucker Punch, I believe should certainly have been at least a 15 rating. But then ratings have been sliding for years and the content of films, be it sexual, profanity, or violence, has been changing over time. I’m not against sex, swearing or violence in films - far from it, I wish there were more 18 rated films with ‘adult’ content but this sort of content should not be in a 12 rated film. Look at Super 8 - recently released at the cinema... should have 12A rated film have a character openly smoking drugs and saying "what the fuck?" - No it should not.

The action scenes on display in Sucker Punch are loud, bold, kinetic and pretty darn epic with a thumping soundtrack to match but is this really enough and does the storyline hold these cut-away fantasy scenes together? In my opinion the answer is not really. They look good and they are exciting to watch but even in a film that deals with fantasy I think audiences need a bit more reality.

The acting on display however is top-notch, especially from Browning and Cornish who really standout. Of course they are the biggest stars of the movie and have both shown in pervious films, their mainstream acting abilities as well as their more artistic abilities.
I remember that when Sucker Punch was released at the cinema that a lot of reviewers and audience members where saying that the title was apt as the film itself was a bit of a sucker punch for viewers. I can appreciate what they are saying and I can understand why many critics reviewed this film harshly however I think that there are strong performances, solid direction and a genuine attempt at making an exciting and interesting film. I do not condone some of the violence as I have mentioned but I think that this film still deserves three stars.
*** / *****

Author : Kevin Stanley