Movies Features

The Unseen Movie Review - Sucker Punch

By Robert Dixter Mar 26, 2011, 2:21 GMT

03/23/2011 - Emily Browning - "Sucker Punch" World Premiere - Arrivals - Grauman\'s Chinese Theater - Hollywood, CA, USA © David Gabber / PR Photos

The first highly anticipated (at least in my diary) movie of 2011 has arrived. Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch opens this weekend and based on what I’ve seen and Zack’s history this film looks like it will blow my mind more than the time Joey Chestnut ate 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

Zack is the most visual director working today. He is not the most flamboyant but he is the best at making his visuals work for his story. The way he directed action in 300 and Watchmen was so stylized but worked so well within a comic book setting. He likes to slow down and speed up his action to create a really innovative style of showing it. This reminds me of the way Kirstie Alley likes to make love.

The other great thing about Zack’s films is that he doesn’t flinch at violence. That’s not to say that he pours it on for the sake of shock, he doesn’t. He uses violence as the story requires it. The 300 battle scenes are more gruesome than waking up next to Rip Torn, but the film needs that. The violence in Watchmen is the same way. It’s not a comic book film about Marvel superheroes, it’s a complex tale about the need for and the place of superheroes.

I’m clearly not the only person who thinks Zack is a talented director who never sacrifices story for effects. Chris Nolan, ya the guy that did The Dark Knight and Inception, has hired Zack to direct the next Superman movie. I simply was able to offer him the chance to direct my kid’s graduation ceremony from kindergarten.
We can be sure that Superman won’t be as violent as 300, and neither will Sucker Punch. The film is rated PG-13, but watching the trailer you don’t get the feeling that it doesn’t have enough of that Snyder stylized action.

Zack’s past two movies have been based on great graphic novels. Sucker Punch has him working from an original story that he wrote. This will be the true test for him as a director. Can he bring his own work (and not something previously scripted in panels) to the big screen? From what I’ve seen so far in the trailers it looks like a definite yes.

The film also sounds pretty trippy. It’s the story of a girl whose stepfather has her institutionalized where she retreats into an alternate reality. Sounds a lot like a Charlie Sheen biography. I’m hoping it makes sense, but the description sounds like it will allow for tons of cool effects.

How big a fan am I of Zack’s past work? After seeing this film this weekend my next most highly anticipated movie will be Superman: Man of Steel. Chris Nolan and Zack Snyder together? That’s like a geekboy waking up from a dream about Pamela Anderson only to find Carmen Electra running by him in slow motion wearing a red swimsuit.