Saturday, April 23, 2011

My review of Sucker Punch



This is such a difficult blog to write because in essence I am going against the popular choice. All my favourite movie reviewers have given Sucker Punch terrible reviews (Shaun de Waal from the M&G, the NEWYORKER Film File). Even www.rottentomatoes.com rates the movie at 22% (based on critic reviews) yet surprisingly 55% of the audience who participated in the survey (59 908 people), enjoyed the movie. So, perhaps there is nothing wrong with me after all and finding this movie enjoyable does not imply that I have a fetish for schoolgirl porn or French maid ensambles. To begin, check out the trailer for Sucker Punch if you have not done so already.


When I saw this trailer, I though that this was going to be my 'Kick Ass' for 2011. In a year that Super Heroes re-emerge on the silver screen again ( Thor, X-Men : First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America), will this movie, created and directed by Zack Snyder, the man chosen to resurrect Superman in 2011, deliver a 'sucker punch' to the industry. It did not live up to all my expectations which were admittedly quite high but I still found it to be a highly entertaining movie.

Despite its obvious flaws (the plot is pretty much what you see in the trailer, 5 girls in a mental institution attempt to break out but while undertaking real tasks to aid their escape, they imagine the tasks to be battles being fought in a fantasy realm), this movie is a visual and auditory masterpiece. Regardless of how it does at the Box Office, I am very confident that when released, the Blu Ray Disc for Sucker Punch will  become a best seller. This movie will become the demo disc people will use to show off their home entertainment systems.

The plot appears to merely be a device for getting from one action sequence to another and I believe that it is in these sequences that the movie excels. Zack Snyder has put an obscene amount of detail into each CGI frame of the fantasy parallel universe that this group of heroines find themselves in. These sequences accompanied with the perfect music reminded me at times of Kill Bill. I know that Snyder is no Tarantino (yet!) and I am purposely not explaining too much abouththese worlds and the battles fought therein because what then would be the point of you watching the movie. One reviewer explained it best when he referred to the fight scenes as "an absolute nerdgasm".

I recommend this movie to anybody looking for escapism. For those who want to watch a movie and just enjoy it without having to think too much about social injustices or modern family drama etc. Relating to the plot that is so often criticised, even by myself, I think the movie is smarter than it appears to be and the more you think about it after the movie, the more things start to make sense. The only time that I will enjoy this movie more, is when listening to the directors commentary on the DVD. This will explain some gaps in the plot and also shed some light on the many metaphors found throughout the movie.


No comments:

Post a Comment