“Sucker Punch,” director Zack Snyder’s latest hyperactive, computer effects-driven action trip, resembles many things: a series of linked, high-gloss music videos; an overlong advertisement for something vague (possibly itself); a video-game concept reel blown up into a big Hollywood feature; a collection of top-tier computer-effects demos strung together along a tiny strand of impenetrable narrative. Visually inventive to the point of excess, it’s all these things and more. Sadly, however, it’s not much of a movie.
Mr. Snyder has developed a reputation as something of a specialist in over-the-top juvenile fantasy. His comic book adaptations “300” and “Watchmen” played out with all the subtlety of nuclear attacks, robbing his considerably smarter source material of all nuance and replacing it with mindless, digitally doused visual frenzy — slow and fast motion, computer-created fantasy sets, and a careening camera as likely to induce vertigo as anything else.
These traits were striking and memorable stylistically, and they helped make “300” a huge hit. They were also total overkill.
Full story: ‘Sucker Punch’ an impotent jab