Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is sent to a mental institute (by her evil step dad after her Mom's death and her sister's accidental death) to be lobotomized in five days.   She slips deeper into fantasy worlds like a bordello night club and a steam punk world where she fights undead German soldiers (and dragons) with the help of four girls (Sweat Pea, Rocket, Blondie, Amber).  She must get five elements together to escape including a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a mysterious fifth element.

The trailers play this one up as a fantasy action film, but the fantasy action scenes only last less than thirty minutes of the film.   I found myself hoping for the next steam punk scene because the institution and bordello scenes bored me.   These scenes just lacked a certain energy the fantasy scenes had.   I just found myself looking at my watch several times.   Also one of the action scenes had too much shaky camera action which can give the eyes of some a headache.  

All of the above brings me to my point.  SUCKER PUNCH would have been a good movie if it just embraced the steam punk world with mecha suits, undead German soldiers, dragons, robots, and chicks in revealing outfits.   The music works with many sequences and it is another good thing about the movie.   Instead we get a heavy handed philosophical film that isn't good at nailing it's point about freedom and reality.     SUCKER PUNCH makes me feel like I was sucker punched out of $6.25.    The film has to be the worst film I have seen this year.  I loved Zack Synder's previous films, but SUCKER PUNCH is a mess that is just like cruel and unusual punishment to some viewers.    The film will split people.  Some hate it and others think it is a deranged Zack Synder version of Alice In Wonderland. The marketing misrepresented the film and instead many will be left disappointed by this clunky mess.

The Extended Cut feature eighteen minutes of scenes cut back into the movie including a  song and dance sequence which was partly included in the end credits for both versions of SUCKER PUNCH.   The new scenes include two extended battle sequences for the Trenches and the Dragon castle in addition to a few small additions.   Still the Extended cut can't fix my feelings for this film.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

MAXIMUM Movie Mode which is a two hour exploration into the movie with access to still galleries, the director walking on screen and talking about scenes in the movie, Picture-In-Picture commentary which features cast and crew interviews in addition to training footage, VFX footage, and behind-the-scenes footage.  I wish one could view the extra material and video commentary separate from the movie too.

The following extras are only on the Blu-ray/ DVD combo:

Original Sucker Punch animated shorts-

FEUDAL WARRIORS, THE TRENCHES, DRAGON, and DISTANT PLANET

SUCKER PUNCH: BEHIND THE SOUNDTRACK

FINAL ANALYSIS:   SUCKER PUNCH is still a train wreck as an extended cut even though the Maximum Movie mode is a cool feature.

this DVD review is (c)6-30-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com