Sucker Punch
Director: Zack Snyder.
Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Oscar Isaac, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn
From the director of 300 and Watchmen, SuckerPunch centres on Babydoll (Browning), a young girl sent to a mental institution. Faced with the nightmare of reality, she slips into a world of her own creation, where she joins her fellow patients (including Cornish and Hudgens) in order to escape their fates. In this vivid, violent alternate reality, she finds the strength to survive, and nurture hope in a place where it is in short supply. Snyder has produced a stunning film, creating a world that, before CGI, could only exist in one's imagination. The director has always been accused of putting style over substance in his movies, and here the story is outlandish and fantastic, with echoes of a dark Alice in Wonderland, but engaging enough to keep you interested. The young female cast is reliable, with perhaps Browning and Jena standing out the most, but the real treat is the older, supporting cast - Glenn is superb as the girls' confidant, while Gugino and Hamm have masses of menace as their captors. While not the conceptual masterpieces that are 300 and Watchmen, Sucker Punch is an optical feast, providing all the "wow" moments you would expect from a Snyder film while populating this world with solid performances, especially in the supporting cast. Definitely one for fans of the director, and a strong suggestion that his take on Superman will be very interesting indeed.
