Sucker Punch (Two and a Half Stars)

U,S.: Zack Snyder, 2011

Great visual effects. Lousy script. That seems to be a consensus on Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, even among some people who like it. And I guess I’d agree. Sort of. The movie is too incoherent and confusing to be really counted a success, too brilliantly executed on many technical levels to be dismissed as worthless trash. And even if that’s what’s wrong with many big studio movies today — they tend to give us stunning technique and visuals at the service of half-baked scripts or woefully unrealized ideas — well, stunning technique is nothing to sneeze at. Sucker Punch has it.

But what is this complex, flashy, elaborately designed, rock-’em sock-’em show about really? Freedom? The World of the Imagination? Or just Babes with Guns in Hot Pants?
(more…)