Opening 31 Mar 2011
Directed by:
Zach Snyder
Writing credits:
Zach Snyder, Steve Shibuya
Principal actors:
Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung
Director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Dawn of the Dead) is back at the helm, directing a screenplay by Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya, with Emily Browning in the lead, supported by Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Oscar Isaac.
Sucker Punch tells the story of Baby Doll (Browning) who is institutionalized by her stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) after accidentally shooting her sister in an attempt to save her from his abuse. In order to cope with reality, her mind travels to an imaginary world in which she has been taken to a glamorous brothel, where she and other captive girls devise a plan to escape from Blue Jones (Isaac) and his lackeys. Within this alternate reality she travels deeper into her mind every time a new part of the escape plan has to be put into action. In these instances, Baby Doll and her team of skimpily clad heroines dive into different perilous scenarios, from giant samurai duels to WWII steam-punk zombie Nazi battles. The whole movie, with its enormous CG installations, psychedelic music and girls in corsets, is blatantly aimed at young, computer gaming guys, but even these seem to agree that this movie is a disaster filled with flat characters and an absolutely unnecessary overload of sensory stimuli. Too much epic slow motion, too much epic battling, too much epic everything, and a script that had the audience cringing and involuntarily laughing in discomfort. (Rosella Vaughn)