Sucker Punch

With saying the name Zack Snyder. You should know just who I'm referring to. The guy who did the amped up zombie remake Dawn of the Dead. Also the beloved or much hated Watchmen. Though could he strike with a sharp knife or barley cut into our imagine with a dull knife?

Young baby doll must protect her sister. After her mother unquestionably dies. Though some maddening tries. She fails and is committed to a mental hospital by I assume her step dad. Inside she goes through steps to free not only her self but her mind and others. In this fantasy world she meets a strange leader simply named Wise Man. Who tells her in order to escape she must find and retrieve five items. These scenes are a blast to watch. Touching from anime elements to dragon medieval days. The main highlight would have to be the world war 2 segment.  Baby doll and 4 other women battle.....wait for it. Nazi Steam-punk Zombies! It's quite an awesome sight and based on that idea. I wanted to see a whole separate film based on that.

The acting from the cast is overall solid except from Carla Gugino. I've seen her acting great before. Though here she's just quite flat of a character. I really enjoyed the Wise Man played by Scott Glenn. I wanted to see more of his character on the screen other than just stepping in from time to time.  Not to mention they use Jon Hamm to play more of a cameo being a doctor/high roller. While seeing his performance in the film "The Town." I was convinced they cast him for the wrong part. Instead he should have played Blue Jones the gang leader. Who is played by Oscar Isaac. Which he does not do a bad job he just does not provide the fear his character should have had. The other women are all basically the same performance rolled into one. No stand outs in that crowd.

The main problem lies with in it being a weak story. Zack, did direct Watchmen. So I know he can follow a already great story. Though trying to make any sense of this film is a very easy task but finding a reason to care is not. Characters are tossed around like footballs. Yet their just fine with no real threat. Also each of the fantasy scenes seem to top each other until the last one. Which seemed to be lacking in the creativity section and there is no big climax to be found. The one thing I did want to see or at least get a taste of would be Baby Doll's dance. We only see her start and finish it with everyone in the room having an astonishing look upon their faces. Why keep teasing us if your not going to let us indulge? I do enjoy slow monition. When used at the right time and not often. That's something quite of the opposite. As their is slow monition used every 5-10 minutes it seems. Even the whole intro segment feels to be filmed in entirely slow monition. In question is how much shorter could the film be if played in normal time I wonder?

With the film running at the two hour mark. Seems way over done about half way through. Visually it's quite a film. Everything else it lacks fully. Empty characters and a small story without any depth might leave most people leaving with negative taste of what Zack has to offer. If this is what a Sucker Punch feels like. Then your strike Zack had the right speed but did not even hurt when landed.