Remember that episode of “The Simpsons” when Homer was given free reign to build a car and ended up throwing every idea he had into the car? After watching “Sucker Punch”, I get the feeling that Zack Snyder is gonna get a friendly note from the studio proclaiming that they have no brother. The film isn’t the most horrible movie ever made but it serves as a great example of a “visionary director” being over ambitious, miscasting torpedoing any emotional connection with the characters and a script that could have used a few more rounds of rewrites. And don’t EVEN get me started on the baby dragon!
While I could spend tons of your time going over why this film isn’t all about female empowerment, as Snyder has said in defense for the obvious exploitation of having scantly clad women wielding big ass guns, I think Angie Han has already sufficiently destroyed that defense over on Slash Film. But let’s leave that whole thing out. The only other thing I will say is that, for the most part, the main actresses in here were pretty bad, with the only savior being Jenna Malone, and that was only because she seemed somewhat likeable as opposed to everyone else. Cursed by a bad script? Maybe. But perhaps better casting may have elevated the film. The only shining light was Jon Hamm but as his part was so throw away, even the might of Don Draper himself couldn’t pull this out of it’s tailspin.
I’m not gonna lie: there are times in this movie when it works REAL GOOD. Bjork thrown over a dope action sequence? I’m hella gonna pay for that. And there are more where that came from and they are enjoyable to watch. In the impressive visuals department, this film doesn’t come up short at anytime. Unfortunately, the script that Zack Snyder drafted up is such a mess that these action sequences mean absolutely nothing in the context of the rest of the film. In the past, I’ve successfully turned off my brain and just enjoy a dumb ol’ action movie but this one tries so hard to make you care about these characters that it contradicts everything it has going for it. On an emotional level, which Snyder decides to dip into, it just doesn’t work. The storyline, the connection between characters, the weird father figure that does absolutely nothing… it’s all something that tries so hard to be meaningful for the sake of being meaningful and it clearly shows, painfully so. This is the kind of film that I’d expect from a high school kid who was tasked with making a film that both won action film afficionados and would win Oscar gold. Snyder is really talented at action sequences but as you could have probaby guessed, not so much at crafting an Oscar winner.
I’ve seen far worse films in my lifetime and I’m even going to say that there will be far worse movies this year, but to see a director like Zack Snyder, whose previous endeavors were held in high regards by this guy, create something like this makes me sad and although I haven’t counted him out quite yet, it has caused me to worry a little about his next film. I hope he doesn’t fuck up “Superman” this badly.
EXPOSED!… finally!