Writer: Syahida Kamarudin

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Watch this if you liked: “Watchmen”, “300” & “Kill Bill Vol. 1”

All style and confusing substance - that is how to sum up what "Sucker Punch" is all about.

Jointly-written by Steve Shibuya and the director Zack Snyder himself, the movie tries to be metaphorical, fantastic, badass and thoughtful all at the same time. 'Tries to be' is the perfect explanation for it because instead of all that, it has achieved only what Tim Burton had with "Alice in Wonderland" - a very sour and slightly confusing effects-laden movie.

From the visionary director who brought the movie lovers "Watchmen" and "300", it aims to be slightly Lewis Carrol-esque but a gung-ho one at that. However the lack of everything else other than the effects that director Zack Snyder is well-known for and the back-story of five girls in stripper get-up fighting off monsters and orcs in a land of make believe, the film fails to be more than what seems to be a man's fantasy or a comic geek's wet dream.

The movie boasts an ensemble of talented stars from Emily Browning ("The Uninvited"), Jenna Malone ("Pride and Prejudice") to Abbie Cornish ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age"). However, the movie's lack of good script and solid character development makes it a painful and easily-distracted watch. More painful to the reviewer's eyes would be Vanessa Hudgens' performance as the street-smart Blondie. The "High School Musical" darling is too saccharine-sweet and too mellow to convince anybody that she can work a machine gun. Besides that, there is also a twist towards the end of the movie. However, whether it is a shocking one or not is entirely up to the audience to judge for themselves.

If one is to rate this movie based on the visual effects alone, "Sucker Punch" deserves full marks. Although certain scenes look familiar (for example, the plane-chasing dragon scene is too similar to "Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire"), it is still a magnificent show of stunning visuals, creative set designs and spectacular actions; especially scenes involving Brown in Japanese school girl uniform using her katana to fight off enemies. Although if viewers would like to think about it, slow motion action sequence in the age of fast-paced action movies in the likes of "Inception" and "The Bourne Trilogy" tend to be overrated and annoying most of the time. The background scores accompanying each fight scenes are also excellent, ranging from Def Leppard, Bjork to the catchy mash up of Geddy's "I Want it All" and Queen's "We Will Rock You".

In short, this highly stylised movie suits those who are already obsessed with Snyder's other works ("300", "Dawn of the Dead" and "Watchmen" among the few). And for the rest of the human race whose idea of a good time is a no-brainer movie that pretends to be intellectual, they are very welcome to watch. But truth be told, it is much more logical as a game for one's game console rather than a feature film.

Cinema Online, 24 March 2011