Zack Snyder has always been a divisive filmmaker. But his most divisive movie to date, which has since been reinterpreted as a misunderstood masterpiece by fans, is making a comeback on streaming, 14 years after it first opened in theaters. With the DCEU and the Rebel Moon franchises both confirmed to be dead, Zack Snyder’s career sits in a strange state of limbo. But many fans are still going back to rediscover one of his earliest action movies. While it might not be as loved as 300 or Watchmen, the years have been kind to Sucker Punch, and its newfound success on streaming is an extension of that.
Sucker Punch is currently streaming on HBO Max, and the 14-year-old movie has gained a second life. Sucker Punch is currently the 10th most popular movie on HBO Max, at the time of writing. Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch was the director’s first movie based on an original concept, with Steve Shibuya acting as co-writer on the film. Emily Browning leads the movie as Babydoll, who is wrongfully locked away in a women’s mental institution. With an overwhelming desire to escape her captors, Babydoll learns to transport her mind to a fantasy world where she’s in control, and hatches a plan to take her life back. The official synopsis reads:
“Locked away, a young woman named Babydoll (Emily Browning) retreats to a fantasy world where she is free to go wherever her mind takes her. Determined to fight for real freedom, she finds four women — Rocket, Blondie, Amber and Sweet Pea — to join together to escape the terrible fate that awaits them. With a virtual arsenal at their disposal, the allies battle everything from samurai to serpents, while trying to decide what price they will pay for survival.”
Sucker Punch is filled with all the Zack Snyder-isms that fans know and love. The visuals are gorgeous. The entire world is tinted with the grey and murky color palette that Snyder uses in almost all of his films. The fantastical nature of the story allows Babydoll and her team to travel between the trenches of World War 2 to feudal Japan, where samurai use miniguns. As a result, the action is phenomenal. And, when it’s all shot in slow motion, it’s a Zack Snyder movie through and through. It’s just a shame that not everyone enjoyed and understood the movie at the time.
‘Sucker Punch’ Has Certainly Got Better With Age
When Sucker Punch was released in 2011, it was maligned by audiences and critics. It holds a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score of 22%. Thanks in part to its poor reviews, the film underperformed at the box office, grossing just under $90 million worldwide. Of the many, many complaints leveled towards Sucker Punch, critics thought the scantily clad nature of the female protagonists being under the control of male prison guards was male chauvinist and sexist.
However, in recent years, audiences have viewed Sucker Punch through a more satirical and feminist lens of empowerment. As a result, Sucker Punch is now considered to be Zack Snyder’s most misunderstood film. “Sucker Punch certainly won’t be for everyone, but there really isn’t anything like it. I think it’s thoroughly misunderstood,” read one recent Rotten Tomatoes user review, while another said:
“It’s one of my favorites & is in my opinion a Cinematic Masterpiece.”
- Release Date
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March 24, 2011
- Runtime
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110 minutes