If Inception had been written by a hormonal 12 year old boy that just discovered his penis, it would exactly be Sucker Punch. This masturbatory fantasy by hack director Snyder is loaded with spectacular visuals, but what little story there is is taken in bits and pieces from far better films.
Plotline is this: A young woman (Browning) loses her mother to an illness, and in her grief (and a fit of violence from her stepfather who learns he was left out of the will) accidentally murders her sister. In response she's shipped off to an asylum where the sleazy orderly (a greasy Oscar Issac) blackmails her father to pay for her expected lobotomy. The story then twists and turns from there, introducing us to a dreamed brothel type setting where the orderly runs the show and the head doctor (Carla Gugino) teaches the girls to sexy dance and prostitute themselves. Browning's Babydoll and her friends Sweet Pea (Cornish), Blondie (Hudgens), Rocket (Malone) and Amber (Chung) take off to find freedom with the help of a wise man (Scott Glenn).
Loads of action sequences that will remind you of other films follow, with tons of glowing feminine flesh to highlight them. Great if you've just started puberty, but since director Snyder has based his career on cannibalizing the work of others, once confronted with an original idea he hasn't a clue what to do with it.
Acting was decent, Browning continues to mature while being nothing more than simply eye candy, but the same can be said for all the actresses in this stinker. If they're not flashing thigh and butt cheek, they're being slapped around and terrorized.
And in an M. Night Shamalama-ding-dong type twist, whos dream are we really seeing?
Sucker Punch is an interesting concept handled as poorly as it could have been. Too bad.
D
