MOVIE REVIEW … SUCKER PUNCH

 

Criticising Sucker Punch would be very easy.  Filled with well-endowed chicks bearing guns and a story seemingly written on a chip packet you’d think it would be a waste of time.  Occasionally you’d be correct as there isn’t much in the way of characterisation or consistently engaging plot.  Director Zack Snyder’s visual flair uses the thin tale as a cipher for his creativity.  In this regard Sucker Punch is a success as it provides a pictorial assault on the senses little seen since his previous film Watchmen turned the superhero genre on its head.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is sent to a mental asylum after the death of her mother.  Lonely and depressed she dreams of escape, especially from the clutches of evil caretaker Blue (Oscar Issac).  Upon meeting a group of girls who quickly become friends, she retreats into a fantasy world where she must retrieve five objects which can help her leave her life behind.  Battling dragons, warlocks and robotic Nazis, her real and fantasy lives merge where she comes to discover the real hero she can rely on comes from within.

Generating howls of derision from critics proclaiming ‘shock’ at the sight of women behaving badly, Sucker Punch is no different in tone to 1980’s action films.  Instead of Arnie battling dastardly villains, it’s the girls turn and they do it very well courtesy of Snyder’s imaginative use of CGI.  What’s fascinating is how he infuses so many dark themes throughout and uses Baby Doll’s fantasies to highlight them.  Where Watchmen conveyed the dark side of a hero’s ego, Sucker Punch goes further into the breach of madness from which Snyder’s characters try any form of mental or physical escape.

This isn’t a perfect film and certainly isn’t high art.  It doesn’t need to be – it’s a computer game/graphic novel come spectacularly to life.  Its’ ‘borrowing’ of iconic moments from other films is shameless to the hilt, but it has fun re-interpreting them in its own brashly extravagant style.  The striking gothic scenery and thrashing soundtrack reflect the maelstrom of despair enveloping the protagonists and manages to make the actors performance look better than they actually are.

With the Superman re-boot next on his directorial horizon, Zack Snyder provides a beguiling teaser with Sucker Punch.  Based on its evidence, it should be one to look forward to if a little less noisy and fierce as this film’s gun totting heroines.

Movie Review Rating 7 / 10

Movie Review by Patrick Moore

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