More than a popcorn flick, but far from perfect...

Rating: 6/10 (27 March 2011)

For the most part, I enjoyed SUCKER PUNCH. Visually, the film is amazing, as Snyder's films always are, but I feel he's getting a little too comfortable with using his "trademark" slow-motion/bullet-time effects in EVERYTHING he does. I really would like to see him do something without that as a creative crutch. It worked well in 300 since it was primarily an action film, and WATCHMEN was long enough that these effects were merely occasional artistic flairs, and made sense. In SUCKER PUNCH, there's too much of this and it stands out, primarily due to the back-and-forth nature of this film's narrative structure, jumping in and out, from reality to fantasy, whereas these effects only appear in the fantasy segments. Otherwise, I liked the story (a positive message told through a very down beat story) and the film also benefits from a good, throwback, high energy, edgy pop soundtrack. The narrated bit at the end, however, was a tad heavy-handed.