SUCKER PUNCH (2011) - Extended Cut

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenplay: Zach Snyder & Steve Shibuya

Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, Jon Hamm

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for thematic materials involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language

After her mother's death, a young girl, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), is sent to a mental asylum by her abusive stepfather. When she finds out that she is going to be labotomized by the institution, she plans to escape the facility. Together with four other girls she met in the asylum, she embarks on adventures into an imaginary incredible fantastical world, fighting their way against demonic samurai, World War I German soldiers, orcs, up to dragon, in order to find five items that will become the key to set them free.

This is a guilty pleasure movie. Seeing Zack Snyder's amazing visuals into his created fantasy world, with five beautiful chicks as the main selling point, it seems to be a fun film and a complete package to watch. And with the budget of US$ 82 million poured by the studio, it showed that the filmmakers were not just playing around with this project, as the studio must have expected a big return too from this supposed to be very promising and nicely packed package. I watched the Extended Cut version, which is 17+ minutes longer than the theatrical version. Even so, I cannot tell you whether this extended cut is a better version (I think it should be), as I never have a chance to watch the theatrical version myself. For sure, I was very much awaiting for this movie, as I like Zack Snyder movies and his visionary visuals, and I will tell you what I feel about this movie into 3 segments.

1) THE VISUAL

You should know what you expect when watching a Zack Snyder movie. To experience great visuals must be one of them. His films are always rich in visuals (300, Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole). He also has his own style, in which he often uses slow motions in his fight scenes. And watching Sucker Punch was another good experience. The tone of the colors, the special effects, and the stylistic fight scenes in his imaginary world were a great feast of visuals. That's what I love about Snyder, as he always delivered astonishing visuals.

2) THE CAST

Well, beautiful girls usually sell. And to mix them in a fantasy world with incredible visuals is a dream comes true for some people. For guys, it will be even difficult to differentiate whether it is Zack Snyder's visuals or the pretty girls that gives the most attraction at the first place. With the beautiful and sexy cast like Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung, what more could you expect. Are they the strongest beautiful cast available? No, as I can imagine other better ones. Are their actings good? Not bad, but very average I must say (for sure, Ms. Hudgens acted pretty bad with her constant smiles, even though I like her in High School Musical). Emily Browning as Baby Doll? She played her role decently and was very nice to watch. Anyway, these actresses served their purpose and their appearances here were sweet like candy, especially in their tight outfits, which made them another feast for the eyes that blend in well with the already perfect visuals. And the most important thing, they kicked asses.

3) THE STORY

Now, here is the mess. The great visuals by Snyder was not supported with a good story. This is the first original story written by Snyder for his movie, even though I like his idea here, but I don't think he delivered his script well. Everytime Baby Doll entered her fantasy world, which was showed when she danced, it felt like playing a videogame, where she and her gang fought their enemies. However, after some times, it became quite tiresome everytime we see Baby Doll started to dance, as I think the fantasy world she was about to enter was somehow distracted the story. It was becoming an obligation that we have to go through one by one. The idea of an imagination inside an imagination was interesting though (reminding us with a dream inside a dream of Inception), but again, it was not depicted effectively and well enough due to the weak story. The background music throughtout the movie, which was quite a lot, was nice to hear, gave this movie a stylistic feel.

Whether there are good or bad reviews, for people who are desperately want to see this, I believe they will watch it eventually anyway. And for some other people, this is the kind of movie that could be watched again and again for some reasons, and become their cult film. I don't think that this is a totally bad movie, it was still entertaining. Great visuals, bad story. If just this movie has a better script, it may have become a better movie. By the way, US$ 89.8 million of total worldwide gross was not good enough for a US$ 82 million budget movie, as it was not yet including marketing and distribution costs. It is unfortunately one of this year's big flop. But isn't it what a cult movie always did? (MJ)