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"Punch" and Booty

The mind of Zack Snyder must be a strange and wonderful place. This is, after all, the man who successfully re-imagined George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" for the 21st century before adapting Frank Miller's revered graphic novella, "300", into a kind of homoerotic period ballet, then filming the "unfilmable" - and even more revered - Alan Moore opus, "Watchmen", until finally trying his hand at animation with "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole". Along the way, Mr. Snyder has become a kind of mad genius of computer-generated scene-scapes. Say what you want about his films (many already have), but they typically look fantastic. His latest, "Sucker Punch", which he co-wrote from his own story, may be the female answer to "300". It's all corsets, stockings and eyeliner between flashes of gunfire and samurai blades. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But what "Punch" may prove, if nothing else, is that this visually imaginative director needs to stick to other people's scripts.

"Sucker Punch" tells the story of Babydoll (Emily Browning), a young pigtailed waif wrongfully accused - during a bravura opening display of uncharacteristically economic storytelling - of murdering her sister. She is taken to the kind of mental institution typically frequented by comicbook villains, full of sneering male guards and clanging, rusted gates. Babydoll is immediately brought to "The Theater", a kind of staging area (and literal theater) where she is able to interact with the other inmates. There she meets Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish, deserving of something better) and, suddenly, the whole place transforms. Instead of an asylum, it's a kind of burlesque brothel, complete with showgirls, satiny backrooms and a Russian madam played with sure, what the hell? glee by Carla Gugino.

Soon Babydoll is forced to dance. But this isn't "Burlesque" - or even "Showgirls" - this is a Zack Snyder movie. So instead of dance routines we get epic action sequences set in random CGI locations (feudal Japan, World War I Germany, some other planet), complete with a wizened spirit guide played with sure, why not? gusto by Scott Glenn. You see, Babydoll is plotting her escape via these visions. So, for those of you keeping track, this is a vision within a vision. It's like "Inception" set in the Moulin Rouge (Christopher Nolan would be pissed).

The problem with the film - and there are many - is that the action scenes are completely without danger. From the get-go, Babydoll is kicked through a wall by a monstrous giant (all the baddies are obfuscated in someway to ensure a PG-13 rating) and she walks away unscathed. With nothing at stake, the scenes quickly become, dare I say it, a masterbatory exercise in fetishistic cartoon violence. But, hey, Mr. Snyder is pretty damn good at that.

Even at its visually-stunning best, without characters to root for (the women vary between 1 and 1.5 dimensions) and a grounding in reality (since it's imagination, they're pretty much indestructible), the film's two-hour running time drags very quickly. And Mr. Snyder makes the mistake early on of establishing that there are five "missions" to complete, which only serves to remind the audience of the length of the film.

It's all wrapped up in some kind of voice-over hokum about angels and fighting for what you believe in (I think). But by the end you've been so pummeled with effects that none of it makes any difference. The real takeaway is that style never trumps story. Yes, Zack Snyder's mind is an interesting place. But in the case of "Sucker Punch", I don't know what he was thinking.