Unexpectedly, it is as good as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2012)

It's rare to see another film of this genre (i.e. of action and pretty chicks) that qualifies to be listed in my movie/ favourites list.
Aside from its amazing graphics, the storyline and the way it is being carried out are consistent/on par with the best of very serious, thought-provoking movies. The negative ratings given to this movie were there because I believe the viewers did not understand the movie, which should be watched through a difference looking glass.
Anyone who paid attention to the plot and appreciate the purpose of the role of the dreams will realize that it did not need to be a full-blown sentimentalism, emotional trainwreck/depressing storyline and SuckerPunch does not intend to present complicated character developments as expected of 'real, serious movies' because it is not made that way.
There is no need for the actors to deeply colour the message with dramatic emotional acting performances. There are already tons of realistic psychological movies dealing with similar subjects very heavily, a fine example would be One flew over the cuckoo's Nest.
This is a story on people struggling to make things easier by escaping from reality. This is a story that intends to be purely focused on the characters' STATE OF MIND, and nothing else externally. The alternate realities themselves fulfil all those purposes; the realistic expectations that I would very much expect from a well-made thought-provoking film are also present in this one, but in a different way. This is a modern-version of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, influenced by the structure of graphic novels and in particular, Japanese-manga style of storytelling. I am really stunned by Snyder's decision to present such an unorthodox ending which actually made me really happy to include this movie in my list. Such ending will definitely put many people off.
I did not expect it to be a tearjerker too. Such a movie, if we ignore the fact that the actors are Westerners, is fundamentally a serious Japanese anime/manga material because the structure and especially the storyline is made akin to it. The only flaw I would like to point out is that the plot is not sustainable enough to maintain its suspense towards the middle-end part of the story. The battle scenes on the train fell short of expectations as compared to the previous 'dreams'. It is not a flaw in terms of plot, but it is the CGI technical aspects that failed to catch up to the plot's demands. Fortunately towards the ending, no more CGI was necessary.