Monday Morning Talkback: Let's Hear About Sucker Punch
Oh, dear. It seems that you decided to ignore popular opinion and spent your hard-earned money on Sucker Punch over the weekend (or, more likely, it seems that you didn't). Are you mad? Do you feel betrayed? Do you need somewhere to vent your frustration? Hey, maybe you liked Sucker Punch and want to vehemently defend its merits? Well, great! Let's talk about it! I promise, your friends at Movieline won't let the steam powered World War I-era German zombie soldiers hurt you.
Obviously, you've entered a spoiler-filled zone, so if your intention is to still see Sucker Punch, this probably isn't the place for you. But you're welcome to stay! Just don't complain, because you've been warned. So, then, for the rest of us:
· Was there any rational story in this movie whatsoever? I'm all for alternate realities, but not when we're told upfront, "Yep, this is a dream sequence and there are no stakes... at all." Which leads to another question...
· For all of the eye candy on screen, why was this movie just so... dull?
· In the first few minutes of the film -- when a shadowy looking Jon Hamm shows up to give Babydoll a lobotomy, only to have the scene immediately cut to some sort of stage play in a nightclub -- was your first thought, "Oh, I see, she just had a lobotomy. Oh, good, the next two hours are going to be a fantasy sequence"? Followed by -- after she retrieves the map (in her quest for the map, fire, knife, key and herself) -- "Oh, god, I really have to sit through four more of these?"
· Should Snyder have made the lobotomy part of Sucker Punch a shocking reveal at the end? Think about that for a second: The movie is exactly the same, only it's less transparent that everything presented on screen is in the wild imagination of a young girl. Maybe Babydoll does have the power to transfix people with her dancing while she enters another reality! Without knowing all along that these are just the thoughts of a girl strapped to a chair who is about to be lobotomized, wouldn't that give the action sequences some much needed gravitas? (Yes, if you're wondering, I do feel like I'm stretching right now by pretending there was really any way to salvage this film.)
· The ending. So, let me get this straight: a lobotomy is performed on Babydoll by Jon Hamm, with Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino) in the room, even though both of them are against doing the procedure? And Gorski is well aware that Babydoll is having the procedure done and is well aware that she didn't approve of the procedure. Wait, what? Wouldn't Gorski have spoken up? Maybe asked Jon Hamm, "Who approved this? Me? Um, no, I didn't." Yes, this movie has a ton of problems, but a forged doctor's signature? When that same doctor is in the room for the procedure? Come on, Zack Snyder, get in the game.
· Even if you hated Sucker Punch, were there any redeeming qualities? For instance, I liked some of the music. See! That wasn't so hard! It almost feels therapeutic.
· Did you like Sucker Punch? There's nothing wrong with that! Let us know why, though.
· I am not a woman, so I find it hard to comment about whether this movie is empowering for women or not (even though I kinda did comment). A case could be made that a male calling out Snyder for feeling that this movie is empowering for women is just as bad as Snyder (who is also not a woman) thinking that in the first place. So, if any members of our female readership would like to chime in on this, we would love to hear from you.
· If you didn't see Sucker Punch, why did you stay away? Did you have any interest before the reviews flooded the Internet on Thursday and Friday?
· And the big question: Are you now worried about what Zack Snyder is doing with his version of Superman?
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Comments
If a man doesn't like watching half naked girls fight Nazis etc. they're a homosexual? That's such a weird thing to come out with. (BTW I'm a homosexual man and loved watching them kick the Nazi's ass, but according to your logic that makes me.. straight? My mums going to be so pleased.)
I liked Sucker Punch. I really liked the music, and I liked the story. Ok, true, the characters weren't well developed throughout the film, but there wasn't time for it. I think that the time spent on the alternative realities was more important.
It makes perfect sense. Survivors of trauma (like Babydoll) often escape into their imagination in order to survive. It makes sense that a girl who has been abused all her life, accidentally killed her own sister, and gets trapped in a mental hospital would escape in her imagination to another world where she does have power. Because in this one, she never has and never will.
The first layer, into the world of the brothel/night club makes sense because it's more easily translatable into what's happening in her own life in the mental institution. The last layer, where she's a badass who can kill Nazi zombies and defeat dragons is a coping mechanism. She can imagine herself as having power, and being strong, and able to fight.
I don't think it's about women empowerment, I think it's about the mistreatment of women. It isn't that women are powerless, or worth less, it's just that women do get abused and hurt, mostly at the hands of men. It happens. Obviously not all women have to face such situations, and obviously not all men are violent, abusive, assholes. But it does happen, and the movie is about that.
It's a story of a girl trying to cope with what's happening to her in the only way she can: by escaping into her own imagination. It's how some survivors of trauma coped with their traumatic situation. It makes sense.
I like that this movie showed that. I mean, it's horrible, but abusive, nightmarish families do exist, mental asylums were pretty awful places in the 60s (around the time this movie was set?), and the sexual slavery of women still exists to this day.
The movie portrays that. It doesn't necessarily say what to do about it. Maybe the call to "fight" at the end?
In any case, I liked it. It had its flaws, but it shows the darker side of this world from the perspective of the victims, instead of being a fun, commercial, pointless flick.
I mean, the concept is even stated in the movie itself. Dr. Gorski says it: "You control this world. Let the pain go, let the hurt go, let the guilt go. What you're imagining right now, that world you control, that place can be as real as any pain."
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