A great movie, but you have to keep your mind wide open to enjoy it.

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2011)

First off, there are A lot of negative reviews for this movie. I know, I've read them. And while I agree and support the fact that Sucker Punch is definitely not for everyone, it's still a great, unique, and entertaining movie. I don't think this is one of those films where people should say "go in expecting nothing but CGI, loads of over the top action, and zero story," to me Sucker Punch was more than that. No other movie has had me lost for words at the end. I've always enjoyed venting my opinions to people straight after I've seen a movie, but this was different. I had no idea what to say. Hopefully I can muster up some sort of explanation that will encourage you to see the movie though, so I'll do my best. Sucker Punch's story is a unique one, again, not to everyone's taste. A girl's wicked stepfather abuses and beats her and her sister, until one day he beats her sister to death. This girl, nick named "Baby Doll" attempts to shoot her wicked stepfather, but fails, and so he puts her in a mental institution. Pretty bleak right? At the mental institution, Baby Doll meets some other girls who agree to try and escape with her. Pretty much most of the movie is spent in this alternate reality in which the girls imagine themselves. There are a few layers of this, and it leaves a lot to the imagination and personal opinion on what is actually happening. As I said, you have to have a REALLY open mind, otherwise this movie will fail you, like the critics who were being far too skeptical. Well obviously, there's the reality. Then there's the second layer where the girls imagine themselves, the mental institution is now a brothel where they work, and the leader of the institution is now a mobster. The third layer is where things get exciting, and Zack Snyder's imagination gets unleashed. For those who don't know, this is his first film without any sort of source material to base it on. To escape from the asylum, our leads need to find 5 items, and each time they go for an item, they imagine this crazy fantasy world with zombies, dragons, robots, samurai, and many other things which aren't normally seen in the same film together. Whatever happens in the fantasy world, vaguely mirrors reality. That went on a while, so I hope I've made the plot clear enough. Some people may not like having to have such an open mind, but the way I see it, you needed it for Inception, and that was one of the best movies of 2010. Same goes with Sucker Punch. I actually really loved the story, it took me a while, but the full effect of the movie came after I'd finished watching it, and I immediately wanted to see it again. But for most, the story wont be the attraction as much as the crazy, fantastical action sequences. These are just insane. Extremely imaginative, Zack Snyder handles his action so well, there is plenty of slow motion and CGI, all used to brilliant effect. The crazy stuff that is actually in this movie, I've never seen altogether in one film before. It's ridiculous, but it works, and the film is worth seeing for the action scenes alone if you're in to that sort of thing. All the acting was great in my opinion, I really liked Emily Browning here. A very broken character, she plays it very well. The music was also a highlight here, I don't usually pay much attention to stuff like that in movies, but here I couldn't help it. Just brilliant, matches the tone of the film perfectly and really enhances the motion often going on on the screen. A lot of it is just covers of classic songs, but again, it all works very well. Wrapping up now, Sucker Punch is DEFINITELY not for everyone. A lot of people wont enjoy this, and I see why. It just isn't to everyone's taste, but I strongly recommend you give it a try. If you wanted to see it, but weren't sure because of the negative response, see it. And apparently, there were a lot of highly important scenes that Zack Snyder had to cut out that will all be available on the DVD release. Every single one. The story is a little hard to grasp sometimes, and I'm pretty sure the DVD release will fix all these problems. So if you're still not sure, wait for that, it will almost definitely be a better, and easier to understand movie.