You can spot a Snyder film, adaptation or not, from a mile off as they all conform to a similar comic book aesthetic. It’s not surprising that he’s often criticised for his self-indulgent approach to the films he makes, because of the nature of a stylistic director – it either works for you, or it doesn’t. He is a huge fan of the comic books he sources and remains close to the original material, which worked well for his previous films 300 and Watchmen.

For this film he continues this approach, combining high contrast images, non-linear editing and framing techniques that emulate comic book panels. Sucker punch isn’t based on a graphic novel, but it may as well have been.

Unfortunately the problems for the film arise with narrative. Its “dream-within-a-dream” plot suffers in a post-Inception era of cinema where it could never compare and is left unoriginal, ineffective.

To remedy this Snyder has dressed up the action and dressed down the girls. From Steampunk Nazi-zombies to dogfights in the skies above a medieval castle, the pace of the edit and extraordinary visuals of these action sequences are both intense and beautiful.

The film is not without its problems, but if you can look past the laborious narrative, you’ll be rewarded with pure stylistic escapism.