Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” is a pastiche of bad-assery, sword and gunslinging, with a fair amount of latent sexiness entrenched with an overwhelming sense of female empowerment. But does that make is a “good” movie? Yes and no, and here’s why:
Pros:
1. The visuals are amazing. Most theater-goers will probably critique the overuse of slo-mo action sequences that practically drip from every frame of this film. But the fantasy worlds that Baby Doll and Co. inhabit while “battling” to get the things they need are sequences of utter beauty. The filme literally transports you to places that are both strange and familiar, and in this context, makes the sequences quite enjoyable. It’s almost like fusion cooking meets fusion cinema, so if you’re into that sort of thing, this will definitely grab your eyeballs.
2. The actresses look HOT. Structure is thin, plot is fantastical, but the overall sex appeal that is inherent here works pretty darn well. Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung — whether they’re in the reality of the asylum, or in the fantasy of a burlesque/sex parlor — look really hot doing whatever it is they’re doing. but don’t let the tight bustiers and legs fool ya, these actresses bring the best of what they’ve got and you will find yourself rooting for them in the course of the film.
3. Hot women shooting guns and blowing shit up. This probably should go with the above reason, but I feel that it deserves it’s own category. The actresses look and feel like they really do use these guns and swords as if it’s second nature. Plus, its an action film where the men are the weak ones, and women are the true force to be reckoned with, which makes for a nice role reversal of sorts in this type of hybrid-genre.
Cons:
1. It already feels TOO familiar. We’ve seen this all before: a girl struggles to come to terms with her fate, and then does something about it before it’s too late. The hero journey is also mixed in with this film, and that too feels like it’s something that’s been done to death before. Also, if it were to have come out before “Inception”, I would have said that this film breaks ground in the idea of layered storytelling. However, it’s a few months past, so now it feels more like a combination of “Alice in Wonderland” meets “Inception”.
2. It’s live action that should have been a cartoon. Sometimes animation can get away with things that live-action cannot, and this film falls into that category. There’s a balance between being too visceral and too over the top, and 45 minutes into the film, it’s just too much. The film itself is trying to send out a message, but it gets lost in itself which then makes the audience go through the motions of the hero’s journey even though we already know the outcome. Again, this film would have been better if it was a Japanese anime than flesh’n blood actors, simply for the fact that the genre itself feel better suited in that arena, where fantasy and escapism is expected in the shadings and harsh lines of that type of animation.
3. The ending goes out with a whimper. Again, I won’t give it away, but the ending feels like it was supposed to be as anti-climactic as it felt. Then again, if everything was so hyper-intense, and you leave the audience with something so plain, it begs to question why I have been on this two-hour journey in the first place. Don’t get me wrong: if you ever see it, you’ll understand what I mean. It’s just that something in the back of my mind is telling me that it could have been done better. It just needed a little more gas to get it to where it needed to go.
In Short:
The film is visually stunning, but lacks the substance to keep the whole thing from coming apart. Hot looking women shooting guns might be enough for some, but I expect more from Snyder at this level of the game. This film will play great in the background, and has some really cool action sequences, but if you need more, then you might need to go elsewhere… 
