Some of the Mugshot crew and I went to check out SuckerPunch last night. It was awesome and awesomely bad at the same time.
To be perfectly fair, the movie wasn’t as bad as what some people have said. The storyline wasn’t as straight-forward as it could have been. And the CGI effects were up-to-par (when it comes to Zack Snyder creations). And it’s abundantly clear that the movie is single-handedly keeping the domestic eyelash extension industry afloat.
…BUT… The movie set a new standard for lack of character development. You never get a sense of why characters are in the situations that they are in. Aside from the general “escape” plan, the storyline does not offer the opportunity for salvation for most characters.
Halfway through the movie, I was convinced that the script was written by a focus group of 13-year-old boys. Steampunk? Orcs? Dragons?
The characters get dropped into situations without any sense of rhyme, reason, or logic, and the deus ex machina used ad nauseum is “imagination”.
Which brings me to my last point. As somebody who is older than 15, this movie was very average. But if I saw this when I was a high school freshman, I would be absolutely blown away. SuckerPunch would have the “nostalgia” factor that a lot of crappy movies that I saw in high school have come to adopt.
In short, see this on IMAX because the movie is not that great without the full benefit of effects. Otherwise, just skip it.
As a side note, I never would have expected Jena Malone (the protagonist from “Saved“) to star in an action flick.
A+ if this was a director’s demo reel.
B- as a major studio production.