That Sucker Punch should have snuck by with a 12A certificate seems quite wrong, given the popcorn sub-porn it showcases. The film opens with a thundering Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (are Made of This) cover, over a scene of implied incest, after which the childlike protagonist Babydoll is taken to an insane asylum to wear tiny, tight sailor dresses and await a lobotomy. While Zack Snyder’s film purports to be about five inmates entering a fantasy world to survive the daily hell of incarceration, this is more about an ogling, lascivious camera than action girl liberation. Babydoll and her girlfriends in leather and fishnets hang out in a brothel, dancing for men, and must complete a series of pointless tasks in computer-animated worlds, from dragon-slaying to killing Samurai warriors. There are also steampunk- style scenes with zombie First World War I Germans. None of this sicko stuff connects whatsoever with the plot, but of course the plot is to please teenage boys with short attention spans, who want hot gun-toting tottie with a touch of sadism.
Punch 12A, 110 mins