Sucker Punch Review

Sucker Punch  
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malon, Jamie Chung, Vanessa Hudgens Carla Gugino and Oscar Isaac
Release Date: 2011-03-25 08:00:00
Quick Take: Purists, stay away
                         
Let me begin by saying some nice things about the film’s soundtrack, which is as much a character in the film as its five feisty babes. The film’s main protagonist Emily Browning belts out Sweet dreams are made of these (original by Eurythmics). Her throaty voice adds well, a sucker punch to the proceedings. Another song that knocks you out is the psychedelic Search and destroy, sung by Skunk Anansie. Carla Gugino and Oscar Isaac too exercise their vocal cords by crooning Love is the drug. The song appears in the end credits. The most haunting of all is the I want it all / We will rock you mash-up performed by Queen with Armageddon aka Geddy.
                                           
The point of this sucking up to the film’s music is that parts of it remind you of rock music videos. Director Zack Snyder’s visual manipulation, his jugglery of colours, zany camera angles and out of this world SFX imagery will appeal to the post MTV generation. Snyder’s film is a goulash of genres. Steampunk, Space SF, Lesbian fantasy, Manga, Sword and Sorcery, Western brothel, bodice rippers… you name it, you got it. Its Middle Earth meeting Gotham City set in some future Jupiter moon.
                      
The plot revolves around Emily Browning’s character being locked up in a ’50s kind of mental institution (when frontal lobotomy was the favourite cure of brain doctors). How she uses her hyperactive imagination to mastermind an escape plan forms the crux of the story. Snyder hasn’t made a film in the real sense of the word. His film doesn’t follow a linear path from point A to point C to tell a coherent story.  Instead, he’s gone on some final fantasy, taking on cues from films like Shutter Island, Inception, Lord Of The Rings and even Black Swan and turned and twisted them around to create a fever-filled landscape reminiscent of Alice In Wonderland. He’s like Tim Burton on dope, smoking some serious shit and daring you to make sense of it all. You come back from the film with your brain feeling battered like a boxer who’s gone 12 rounds with Sugar Ray Leonard. You’ve been sucker punched but still want to go back for more. Our advice is to watch the film in an IMAX theatre. It will add more power to your viewing pleasure.