The sole survivor of two abused sisters uses her impenetrable imagination to plot her escape from an insane asylum!

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2011)

Director Zack Snyder has been compared to a lot of classic filmmakers since his steady rise to the top of the Hollywood list. His most memorable blockbusters up until now, as you will most likely remember are the 2003 'Dawn of the Dead' remake, Spartan war fantasy '300' and the all comic-book movie shaming 'Watchmen.' Yes, I am a fan of his work but no I do not argue the man's genius in every case.
'Dawn,' I felt was a hastily put-together feature that failed to capitalise where modern filmmaking methods could have improved the original version and the only similarity was that both films had a shopping mall. Still, I like it. What he did improve was the sense of excitement, even though the story had been drastically simplified as an apparently necessary sacrifice.
'300' was not a great film in my eyes and I hated the use of almost two-dimensional looking CGI to portray a historic tale although he had his reasons for making it that way, particularly the influence of comic-book legend Frank Miller. After being treated to Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and the likes, I was left feeling sold short.
Then came 'Watchmen' and Snyder's true colours shone; a true talent for storytelling, a big appetite for character and plot twists and a gift for transferring a sense of sentimentality from studio to audience. In my eyes, this last title was a perfect display of lessons well-learned and skills well-matured.
'Sucker Punch' is literally a return to original form for the director and with all his perfected skills and impeccable eye for detail in tow. Here he tells a seemingly simple escape story, one that allows the audience's imagination to overstep the mark as the film unravels into an immensely complex trip through the daydreams of a tragically oppressed mind.
Baby Doll and her sister are child victims to an abusive step-father until one night, he crosses the line. So afraid for her sister, Baby Doll escapes imprisonment to rescue her sister only to find her dead. Refusing to take out violent revenge, the step-father blames her for her sister's death and has her imprisoned in an insane asylum. She immediately begins to withdraw into the limitless depths of her imagination to escape her grim reality, destined for the lobotomists operating chair, and hopefully to escape in reality.
But she recedes so far that she suddenly finds herself imprisoned in another reality where she is taken in by a group of captive women also looking for a way out. With the aid of a mysterious mentor (portrayed by legend film veteran Scott Glenn) they set about finding the means to escape their captors and tormentors through mind-blowing ventures into fantasy wars where the band of women fight with all the rage they've ever known.
Spending a lot of time entering these dream worlds and fighting side by side to go on with their secret plans, the film occasionally comes back to the second reality where the seemingly primary plot and narrative unfold bit by bit. But it is only towards the end that the story crashes back to reality so abruptly that, with all the plot points in place, we are dragged back to the feature's very title and literally sucker punched over and over again. This review needs no spoiler, it does what it says on the box, yet it generously offers so much more to the open mind and the sympathetic heart.
Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' is so many things at one time yet these things work harmoniously. It's a psychological drama and a chick-flick set inside a man-boy's video game.
Visually, you are inside a video-game of the highest calibre, in fact a mix of the very best there has ever been. But the drama within and around the octane-soaked action scenes and all this leading up to the jaw-dropping conclusion is enough to make even the most emotionally devoid man shed even a single tear. Try to figure out what it all means after you've seen it once or twice and the possibilities keep jumping in your face long after.
Zack Snyder has plenty years of cutting edge filmmaking left in him before he joins the distant-minded and long-past glorious Hollywood crowd but if he can ever top this one with something even more mind-blowing, I'll have to lobotomise myself just to be able to cope.
Accept no imitations!