‘Sucker Punch’ sends viewers home sore

What is there to say of a film that pathetically borrows from "Avatar," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Harry Potter," "Inception," "The Lord of the Rings," "Showgirls" and "Shrek?" There is actually more to say about "Sucker Punch" than there is space for, but not a single word is positive.

"Sucker Punch" is the latest work from director Zack Snyder, whose previous films include the ancient Greek-themed, CGI-driven "300" and the dark comic book adaptation of "Watchmen." This newest project is Snyder's first attempt at writing an original screenplay for a feature film. The result is dismal.

The film focuses on the attempts of five institutionalized girls trying to escape their sad existence in a mental hospital/bordello and unfolds in several imagined spaces. We are first introduced to Baby Doll (Emily Browning) in a darkened and gothic version of 1960's Vermont. Following some traumatic events, Baby Doll is committed to an insane asylum where she might be lobotomized. The audience is not originally sure of her predicament as the story cuts to a completely different world we assume is playing out in Baby Doll's mind.

This dream is set in a brothel, in which the girls are owned by sleazy whorehouse proprietor Blue Jones (Oscar Issac, who also plays a disgusting orderly in the insane asylum). Deciding they need to fight for their freedom, Baby Doll leads the other girls in an impossible escape plan without being killed.

To steal needed items for breaking out of the asylum, Baby Doll must distract their targets by dancing. Her dance, as she calls it, is her "fight." Each time she dances, we are removed from the brothel and dropped into various video game-like sequences in which the girls must accomplish a mission to make it to the next level of their plan. Beyond this, very little is explainable without becoming lost. Do we care whether the girls achieve their mission or survive? No. These dreams within a dream merely are opportunities for Snyder to blast his audience with more computer-generated special effects than George Lucas has room for in his head and the film should allow.

Indeed, if a viewer does not have macular degeneration prior to entering the theater, they will not be so lucky when they leave. Snyder throws everything at the audience, from constant sword-slashing and explosions to machine gun fire and fire-breathing dragons. There are ogres from "The Lord of the Rings," but who knows what they have to do with the story. Also from "Rings," Mt. Doom is placed in the middle of Harry Potter's Hogwarts. After the samurai-themed first battle and the World War I-inspired tripe, the migraine forms and one wonders if this is what a lobotomy feels like.

Equally unforgivable is the one-dimensional and grotesque use of characters, disgustingly awful treatment of the actors and clichéd dialogue about fighting for freedom. The actresses who star in the film are given absolutely nothing to build on in regards to development. Names like Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) suggest that Snyder either has a lack of creativity or misguided thought. Truly insulting is the portrayal of German soldiers as literal machines and a hint at the ruin of the Catholic Church when a priest is shown selling Baby Doll to the house of ill repute as punishment for her sins. Neither of these personifications is necessarily new to film, but they still are childish and rude. Alienating entire populations of people for the sake of moving forward a story — which has nothing to do with those people — is shameful.

Only sympathy is appropriate when considering the actors. Through the majority of the film, the starring actresses are dressed in garments most likely made from used children's clothing. While watching Browning run around in a school-girl outfit, one questions whether the story is derived in part from Snyder's perverse fantasy.

The writing is atrocious at best. It lacks any substance and someone always seems to be speaking, as if only to fill the air. Even when the screen turns to black, there remains a voice speaking from this trash Snyder wants us to think is a script.

Rarely do films sink so low as to reflect badly on the industry, but hopefully "Sucker Punch" is in fact rare.