Sucker Punch film review

Sucker Punch, the latest Sci–Fi/Fantasy offering from the critically acclaimed Watchmen and 300 director Zack Snyder, stays true to its name and somehow lives up to and falls short of its own hype at the same time.

The intro of the film is pure Snyder, and follows the exact same formula as Watchmen with a sort of dramatic music video sequence which makes the rest of the film seem dull in comparison. This is not to say that the rest of the film isn’t well written. It just seems that the intro has the right blend of Style and substance whilst the meat of the movie lacks the latter.

After the very theatrical performance of the intro, the film goes into a bit of a lull. The main character is sent to an asylum, and it becomes clear why this movie will go down with the male audiences a bit better than the female ones. “Babydoll”, the main character (or not, watch the movie to have that explained), begins to retreat into her mind and imagines the asylum as a “gentleman’s club” with risqué performances and ties to corrupt government officials and such. The women are all scantily clad, and that is only the beginning.

During the first dream sequence, we see the female lead start to dress in a sort of “catholic schoolgirl”  fashion and fight off a bunch of massive metal samurai warriors.
Wait…what?

That pretty much summed up the audience’s reaction, well at least those of the audience who had not gone online and watched all the teaser trailers.
Whilst the movie definitely becomes more exciting from this point on, it lacks the brooding nature of the intro and therefore falls short in my opinion. Snyder has to be commended for his well thought out action sequences and daring costume choices, but it would have been nice to have seen the interesting set of characters become more well developed.

Oddly enough, my favourite character was that of the “good” male lead, played by Scott Glen. He delivers the movies most memorable line in the entire movie, and is one of the characters that do not need to be explored, since his mystery is what makes his character intriguing. So kudos goes to Snyder for knowing to not go into the old man’s meaning in a direct manner.

“Just remember, never make a deal with your mouth that you can’t pay for with your ass”
In conclusion, Sucker Punch is a movie which a lot of people will not get, and will create a strong fan base amongst fans of Snyder’s work. The pacing may not have been spot on, but this is definitely a movie which you should try, preferably on the big screen.

Rating: 70% -  CH