Sucker Punch (Zack Snyder, 2011)

This movie is exactly what it looks like: a series of video game cutscenes without a game attached. A while back I was talking about action movies on a video game forum and I suggested that they could actually do with borrowing some ideas from video games. When Zack Snyder read that comment of mine and then proceeded to make a movie that did just that, I'm not sure he entirely understood what I meant. What I was saying is that action movies are far too padded with dialogue, back story and unnecessary attempts at characterization. What they could use is some stripping down, as many video games have done, so that the viewer can revel in the kinetic pleasures of motion and tension, which film can do exceedingly well, without being bogged down in banality. Unfortunately, Zack Snyder took it to mean throwing a bunch of junk in a blender, pressing "badass" and then showing us the end result. Unfortunately, Snyder makes two fairly egregious errors on his way to presenting Cutscene: The Movie. The first, and slightly less offensive of the two, is that the movie is so joylessly serious. It takes action movie tropes and tries to tie them to a story about female struggles with sexual abuse, then fits this weird stylization to the entire proceedings, which only serves to make this serious undertaking seem ridiculous. There's nothing reclamatory about what he's trying to do here. The women are hollowed out shells of every girl group action trope that exists -- an ugly, brown, fantasy/sci-fi Charlie's Angels, but about how awful rape is, I swear. Okay, maybe that's actually worse than part two, which is that, like 99% of video game cutscenes, the action isn't interesting. It's weightless, lacking anything resembling verve or energy. The girls spin and move through a plasticine world of computer-generated everything, slipping through setpieces like buttered soap. But here games have an advantage. In a game, something is always at stake. There is almost always the possibility of losing. Movies do not have that. So they must make up for that by successfully imparting a feeling of physicality and realness that suggests more outcomes than there are. Sucker Punch cannot do this. Every outcome feels inevitable before it starts.

On a side note, I was surprised to find out this was an "original" idea pitched by Snyder himself. The whole thing certainly feels like the kind of high concept bargain basement comic book writing Hollywood has taken to adapting lately. I would guess that the film's disappointing box office performance will mean that Hollywood won't be as eager to take a chance on more original ideas, when what it should really mean is that they shouldn't be as eager to take a chance on any of Zack Snyder's awful ideas.