A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility.
That synopsis is the most succinct and understandable way of describing Sucker Punch. From beginning to end, the whole narrative is extremely choppy and difficult to follow. If you want a better mental image, imagine taking Inception mixing it with Shutter Island, and toss in the play-within-a-play scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet--it's that convoluted. One would also thing that considering how sparse most of the dialogue is that it would have more weight to it, but alas most of the lines that are supposed to contain wisdom for our characters (Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, Rocket, Amber, Blondie) are nothing more than recycled clichés that we have heard before.
I wish there was more positive things to say about this film aside from the visual effects, which are rather well done. For those who are fans of the genre, it is really not unlike many traditional Japanese anime except for live-action, which makes some of the over-the-top action scenes jump off the screen that much more. Alas, that is the only redeeming thing in this whole film, so if you're dead-set to see it... wait until it hits DVD--which will likely be very soon.
Trailer