Darkmatters Review: Sucker Punch

"hot stuff"

Sucker Punch (12a)


Dir. Zack Snyder

Starring: Emily Browning, Oscar Isaac, Carla Gugino, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Jamie Chung, Vanessa Hudgens

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (This review can also be read over at FRANK THE MONKEY)

You will be unprepared…

See that cutie dressed as a schoolgirl? The one with the cherry red lips, blonde hair, short skirt and samurai sword? That’s Babydoll and she’s going to take you on a wild ride which will redefine how you experience action films from now on.

"Beauty and the metalic minigun toting beast!"

Zack ‘now working on Superman: Man of steel’ Snyder is a master of visual spectacle mixed with crunching comic book action – as proved in his 300 and Watchmen flicks. With Sucker Punch he is writing and directing and it feels like he is downloading everything he thinks is awesome in one massive brain dump. The cutting edge visuals are still there swirling iconic elements fused from Manga, Sci-fi and Horror – making something unique and breathtaking.


Let’s not mess about here, Sucker Punch is possibly the best visual action thrill ride ever, it will break your heart, raise your pulse and melt your cinematic pleasure receptors. Nothing can fully prepare you for this insanely delicious eye-popping overload of smokin’ hot babes and megaton action.
It hits like a true sucker punch to the frontal lobes and left me reeling.

Plot wise Sucker Punch sees Baby Doll (Emily ‘Uninvited’ Browning) put in a Shutter Island alike mental institution by her wicked, incestuous stepfather after the double tragedy of death of mother and sister. The asylum is full of damaged young women and run by the slimy Blue Jones (Oscar ‘Prince John in Robin Hood’ Isaac) and Dr. Gorski (Carla ‘Watchmen’ Gugino).

In this dank nut house which is a front for a high class brothel, Baby Doll meets and bonds with some of the other girls - Rocket (Jena Malone), her sister Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Amber (Jamie Chung) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens).

"Trench warfare - catwalk style"

The girls are forced to ‘dance’ for male clients who visit the facility and that is where reality gets fractured in that when Babydoll dances – she can escape into a fantasy world. The fantasy sections are where Sucker Punch really comes alive – channelling the very best CGI effects and a videogame vibe (kind of like a darker Scott Pilgrim). You’ll never see quite so many ‘oh man that’s awesome’ moments as you will watching Babydoll and her crew of babes taking on the forces of evil which include giant red eyed shoguns, fire breathing dragons, steam powered zombie Nazis or slick battle droids that look like they’ve escaped from i-Robot.

Sucker Punch is an amazing achievement, standing toe-to-toe with Inception in creating spectacular worlds within worlds. If the fantasies write large here are directly from the inside of Snyder’s mind then he may need psychiatric help before too long…

The whole cast go about the crazy proceedings with gusto and deliver a fantastic freak show of memorable characters including Scott Glenn as ‘Wiseman’ who is a the mystical ‘man with a plan’ leader of the girls in their fantasy battles. But the main attraction is Emily Browning's Babydoll who earns her place in the all time coolest cinematic heroine club, rubbing shoulders with Trinity from The Matrix, The Bride from Kill Bill and Hit Girl from Kick Ass...

If there is a problem to highlight with Sucker Punch it’s that the videogame level format seems lacking a proper ‘end boss finale’ but maybe the sucker punch here for viewers is not to presume that the film can be understood in a single viewing?
As the Wiseman says: “If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything” – Sucker Punch is a film worth falling for and action film fans, geeks and lovers of skimpily clad hot women kick butt should book their tickets now.

Good job Mr Snyder – now please just make sure that Superman has the plot to back up the visual spectacle and it just might be the best film of all time!?

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:


ööööö

(5 - open your mind!)...

Awesomeness ööööö – best. action. scenes. ever?

Laughs öö – patchy acting might raise a smile

Horror ööö – freaky in areas, nasty too

Babes ööööö – Browning is delicious but all the girls are hot

Spiritual Enlightenment ööö – dancing can free your mind...

- - -

Second opinion - try Artist Direct who say "Baby Doll usually begins dancing and singing for some nefarious character and then the girls are either battling a breathtakingly brutal fire-breathing dragon or trying to stop a futuristic train from exploding. They're locked and loaded with a bevy of machine guns, and Snyder blends John Woo-style bullet ballet with old school Kung Fu movements for a style of action that's often been tried but never executed this perfectly."

"nice outfits"

Emily Browning appreciation.

Darkmatters review - Watchmen

Watchmen (18)

Dir. Zack Snyder ‘300, Dawn of the Dead’

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Rorschach's Journal: March 8th 2009: I find myself in the future – somehow a film has been made depicting the incredible events that occurred back in 1985 when this city was afraid of me. It had reason to, I had seen its true face. The streets were extended gutters and the gutters were full of blood. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder foamed up about their waists and all the whores and politicians looked up and shouted 'Save us!'

And I whispered

'no'.




Welcome to the end of the Superhero movie as we know it. Zack ‘300’ Snyder has brought the once deemed ‘un-filmable’ landmark graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons to the big screen and nothing will ever be quite the same.

Watchmen is a nuclear powered behemoth of thought provoking superhero action, breathtaking visual flair and gut churning violence. I was prepared for bitter disappointment because the original comic boasts such a deep vein of rich intermingled sub plots, fantastical imagery and mind bending intellectual concepts – how could it be possibly be effectively captured in just under three hours of screen time? But to my delight and amazement Watchmen delivers on the big screen better than I dared hope. The sheer dedication and flawless attention to the source material is admirable, the vivid way that the original pages have literally ‘come to life’ in jaw dropping high resolution makes this a bona fide visual masterpiece.

For those seeking wham bang no brain action, this isn’t going to be for you because whilst there are some excellent action scenes, this is film that requires brainpower for maximum appreciation. Watchmen is a truly adult themed thriller, set in an alternative 1985 where Richard Nixon has won a third term as president and the Cold War has taken the world to brink of nuclear Armageddon.

After an excellent scene setting credit sequence we witness the murder of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a mercenary / hero with dubious morals and a taste for carnage. His death sets one time colleague Rorschach, a masked vigilante (superb turn from Jackie Earle Haley) on the trial of whoever might be looking to execute masked heroes.
Writer Alan Moore said: "I suppose I was just thinking, 'That'd be a good way to start a comic book: have a famous super-hero found dead.' As the mystery unravelled, we would be led deeper and deeper into the real heart of this super-hero's world, and show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero."

The complex tale includes back story elements of the other ‘Watchmen’ including the only ‘actual’ superhero Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a naked, glowing blue skinned powerful being created in a science-lab accident. Manhattan is a walking talking weapon of mass destruction – used by Nixon to win the Vietnam War almost single handedly, but whose humanity seems to be retreating. Then there’s Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) once Rorschach’s partner, a tech genius who sports a Batman like array of gadgets and wears an owl caped outfit.
Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) on the other hand is Earth's smartest man, who also boosts amazing reflexes and Silk Spectre II (Malin ’27 Dresses’ Akerman) who wears a mean skimpy latex outfit.



You’ll need to pay attention to keep up with the twisting plot elements as the storyline delights in pulling the rug from under the viewer. Don’t go expecting a simple spoon fed structure or a traditional blockbuster ending – we’re in serious end of the world territory here.

Some of the original graphic novel has obviously had to be cut – there will be a soon to be released DVD animated companion of the Tales of the Black Freighter pirate story within the story sub fiction. And we can only hope that there will be additional scenes restored for the rumoured Director’s cut Blu-Ray too.

Then there’s also a Watchmen downloadable PSN game (which from the demo I’ve played allows you to beat the living daylights out of convicts as either Nite Owl or Rorschach) and some tasty free Watchmen items in Home to nab. But most importantly to get the most from the movie, I can only really recommend that you swot up on the original graphic novel. It is the must read authoritative Old Testament without which we might never have had The Dark Knight’s New Testament…

Highly recommended, an intelligent choice for those who can handle extreme violence, superhero sex and challenging thinking. Repeated viewing essential.




Arbitrary Darkmatters final rating of: ööööööööö (9 - Excellent)

Darkmatters quick reference guide: Action 9, Style 9, Babes 8, Comedy 7, Spiritual Enlightenment 8