Zack Snyder
Sucker Punch

THE REVIEW

Two sisters happily live their lives until their mother dies, and their stepfather, while reading the will, discovers that she left all her inheritance to the two daughters; this ignites his anger, leading him to kill the younger sister and commit the older one to an asylum, making the doctors believe she was the one who killed her little sister, and, fearing she might tell the truth to the police, he pays the director to ensure she undergoes a lobotomy.

From this point, the film takes another turn: we find ourselves catapulted into a parallel reality created by the girl's mind, whom we find out is called Baby Doll, where the asylum is a brothel, and here she meets four other girls eager to escape: Amber, Blondie, Rocket, and the latter's sister Sweet Pea. The girls at the brothel are tasked with attracting clients by dancing, and while Baby Doll dances, an additional parallel reality is created: an old Japanese castle where she finds a man who tells her that to escape, she needs five objects: a map, fire, knife, key, and a mysterious fifth thing.

From this point, the film is a quest for the four objects: while Baby Doll dances, enchanting the people, the other four girls steal the objects in question; and the hunt for the objects is transformed by the girl into a second parallel reality where they must fight with weapons and swords. Unfortunately, not everything goes well, and the escape attempt is discovered, leading to a series of twists until the sad, very bitter ending...

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this film: knowing the director and having already seen his previous works '300' and 'Watchmen', I started with some prejudice, but the plot holds up well, and the girls' acting performances are quite good. Certainly, the action scenes dear to Snyder are not lacking, including the slow-motion acrobatic scenes, now a trademark of the director; but after a remake, two comic book adaptations, and an animated film based on books, we can say that the first venture on an original subject is, all things considered, well done, and the suspense is maintained throughout the film until the bittersweet finale. The only flaws we can attribute to it are the perhaps clichéd use of the dream/parallel reality (see 'Inception'), or the somewhat flashy action scenes (but never too flashy compared to '300').

That said, I can only hope that Snyder continues in this direction, thus demonstrating that, besides straightforward action scenes, he can also handle the script, gifting us with these films.

P.S. Best line of the film: "Remember: never sign a verbal check if you can't cover it with your ass!"