It has been quite a while since I have seen a movie that left me feeling so conflicted afterwards. Some arts of Sucker Punch I absolutely loved, other parts I thought were awful. In brief the movie had great cinematography, wonderful acting, great sound & special effects and so forth. As with all things my opinions and this little review of Sucker Punch will be horribly biased. Spoilers also may roam freely, you have been warned.
One of the things I really despised about the movie was Babydoll as portrayed by Emily Browning. No problem with the actress herself, but this was a character I could not like. As would be revealed later int he movie, Babydoll was not really meant to be the 'main character' per se, but rather a vehicle to help move the plot along. It may have been intentional thus that her character was so flat and lifeless in the movie; such that she could serve as a form of living furniture in essence for the other characters to be developed around.
I am certainly very fond of the two layers of pseudo-reality that existed within the movie. My only complaint here is that we do not know how certain actions (like the girls getting shot & killed) would be translated to in the outer layer. Perhaps they did die, perhaps some of them just got put in something akin to solitary... we don't really know for certain.
Absolutely loved the Rifts (not the MMO, the Paladium Games RPG) feel I got from the 2nd layer of pseudo-reality in the film. Also gave me a very strong 40k vibe as well. Good stuff that. Makes me hopeful that someone will eventually make a big budget 40k movie at some point. Perhaps something centered around the Imperial Guard or based on a novel series like Guant's Ghosts.
This is a hard movie to try and recommend to anyone. I still don't know myself whether I like it or hate it... all I know is that I will be thinking about it for a month perhaps. While a very well-made movie, it is hard to know if it will have lasting appeal or not. At least for the moment, I do not feel it was quite as good as either 300 or Watchmen.
Still more than willing to see other movies made by Zack Snyder. Hopefully he handles Superman well.
