Sucker Punch
I just got finished watching Sucker Punch. I want to start by saying that I wanted to like this movie.
A movie about female empowerment and overcoming exploitation? Totally my thing! Girls kicking ass and taking names? Cue it up for me! I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is probably STILL my favorite show, nearly ten years after going off the air.
Sucker Punch, I am sad to say, managed to fail in all categories.
It's visually stunning and loaded with action. The imagery is beautiful if apropos of nothing.
Emily Browning is a beautiful woman, though I felt a bit creeped out by how sexualized she was in this movie. I'll grant that she's an adult, but she's not dressed to look like one in this movie. She's meant to look like an under-aged school girl with pouty lips and pigtails - perhaps all of sixteen? - wearing thigh highs and micro mini school girl skirts.
Sounds like something else that I find distasteful and exploitative....
She's pouty and waifish, and every male fantasy combined. Anyway, her character, Babydoll, is exploited in every way imaginable. She's nearly raped by her sweaty, disgusting step-father, then thrown into an asylum as a cover up where the creepy orderly gets her on the fast track to a lobotomy. With an icepick. I'm not making this shit up now. That's the main story.
I hate to say it, but I wanted to grab an icepick and drive it into my own brain.
The next story line exists in Babydoll's head. She's no longer in an asylum, but a sort of prison brothel where her virginity is going to be sold to the 'High Roller.' This high roller is a metaphor for the Lobotomist. So, in order to avoid this fate, she and four other girls trapped in this sicko hell decide to escape.
This is where the third layer comes into play. This is the fantasy within the fantasy, wherein Babydoll and her Four Partners in crime are all some sort of femme fatale death squad that have to complete missions on par with some of the cooler video games I've played in my life. Babydoll gets to have a really awesome Katana and some bitching hand guns. I'll admit, this is my favorite layer to the tale because at least I could enjoy some action. Even if it was pointless. The adventures aren't metaphorical in any way. There's no dream symbolism in them in particular. They're just really cool effects. Visually great, but devoid of any content whatsoever.
The fundamental problem with the movie is that I didn't CARE about any of the women in it. They were all being exploited (though it was all happening in Babydoll's fantasies) in the worst possible ways. Held prisoner, raped, forcibly prostituted, threatened with murder, murdered, and on and on. This should have been a movie that enraged me. I should have been shouting in indignation and ROOTING for the girls to escape this HELL to which they'd been consigned. Instead I found myself overwhelmed with not caring about any of them.
To top it off, the resolution sucks. None of the bad guys get what they deserve. At least, not really.
I would not recommend this flick to anyone. If you don't care about be paralyzed by apathy, then go for it. But I've never seen a movie with characters in such a terrible situation where I didn't feel SOMETHING for any of them. But here it is. I couldn't care less about any of these nameless girls. I couldn't wait for the damn movie to be over. I was looking forward to the lobotomy, as I figured that would mean an end to this girl, her suffering and her fantasies.
Dissenting Opinions? Did someone see something I didn't? If so, please let me know. As I said, I really wanted to like this movie.
A movie about female empowerment and overcoming exploitation? Totally my thing! Girls kicking ass and taking names? Cue it up for me! I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is probably STILL my favorite show, nearly ten years after going off the air.
Sucker Punch, I am sad to say, managed to fail in all categories.
It's visually stunning and loaded with action. The imagery is beautiful if apropos of nothing.
Emily Browning is a beautiful woman, though I felt a bit creeped out by how sexualized she was in this movie. I'll grant that she's an adult, but she's not dressed to look like one in this movie. She's meant to look like an under-aged school girl with pouty lips and pigtails - perhaps all of sixteen? - wearing thigh highs and micro mini school girl skirts.
Sounds like something else that I find distasteful and exploitative....
She's pouty and waifish, and every male fantasy combined. Anyway, her character, Babydoll, is exploited in every way imaginable. She's nearly raped by her sweaty, disgusting step-father, then thrown into an asylum as a cover up where the creepy orderly gets her on the fast track to a lobotomy. With an icepick. I'm not making this shit up now. That's the main story.
I hate to say it, but I wanted to grab an icepick and drive it into my own brain.
The next story line exists in Babydoll's head. She's no longer in an asylum, but a sort of prison brothel where her virginity is going to be sold to the 'High Roller.' This high roller is a metaphor for the Lobotomist. So, in order to avoid this fate, she and four other girls trapped in this sicko hell decide to escape.
This is where the third layer comes into play. This is the fantasy within the fantasy, wherein Babydoll and her Four Partners in crime are all some sort of femme fatale death squad that have to complete missions on par with some of the cooler video games I've played in my life. Babydoll gets to have a really awesome Katana and some bitching hand guns. I'll admit, this is my favorite layer to the tale because at least I could enjoy some action. Even if it was pointless. The adventures aren't metaphorical in any way. There's no dream symbolism in them in particular. They're just really cool effects. Visually great, but devoid of any content whatsoever.
The fundamental problem with the movie is that I didn't CARE about any of the women in it. They were all being exploited (though it was all happening in Babydoll's fantasies) in the worst possible ways. Held prisoner, raped, forcibly prostituted, threatened with murder, murdered, and on and on. This should have been a movie that enraged me. I should have been shouting in indignation and ROOTING for the girls to escape this HELL to which they'd been consigned. Instead I found myself overwhelmed with not caring about any of them.
To top it off, the resolution sucks. None of the bad guys get what they deserve. At least, not really.
I would not recommend this flick to anyone. If you don't care about be paralyzed by apathy, then go for it. But I've never seen a movie with characters in such a terrible situation where I didn't feel SOMETHING for any of them. But here it is. I couldn't care less about any of these nameless girls. I couldn't wait for the damn movie to be over. I was looking forward to the lobotomy, as I figured that would mean an end to this girl, her suffering and her fantasies.
Dissenting Opinions? Did someone see something I didn't? If so, please let me know. As I said, I really wanted to like this movie.