Has Zack Snyder suddenly become the M. Night Shyamalan of the war comic adaptation genre? The films keep getting wooooooooorse, Zack.
It’s strange that Sucker Punch passes the Bechdel Test for sexual bias in film. Sure, there are puh-lenty of named women characters talking about anything but men. And yet, I find this film in its own way as foul and sexist as pornography. I’m sure some will call this girl-war-battle fantasy empowering. I see it as empowering the same way some Easterners call burqas empowering.
Let me briefly describe the plot of Sucker Punch. Young adult orphan Baby Doll (Emily Browning) … yes, her character name really is “Babydoll,” fends off a sexually abusive foster parent with a gun. She’s sent to a combination mental ward/women’s penitentiary replete with other hot young thangs in standard soft-porn prison issue outfits. Babydoll and her new gal pals quickly realize their lives have been reduced to the daily joy that is unpaid whoredom. Naturally, they devise an escape plan which involves Babydoll pole dancing for a perspective “client” while, once per session, the group can claim a tool for escape. When Babydoll is doing a little dance, making a little love and getting down tonight, the film switches to fantasy world where an armed Babydoll and her sexy friends, now all clad in hot combat outfits, battle a metaphorical enemy. You see, the dance is so intoxicating to the viewer that an alternative reality war world illusion is invoked.
I’m not making this up.
In the fantasy world – and it’s unclear to me exactly whose fantasy world it is; I’m guessing Babydoll’s – anyway, in this world, for a completely unchallenged rationale, these PYT mercenaries have all chosen mortal combat while wearing what can best be described as sexy Halloween costumes. Of course, now that I think about it, I’d be hard pressed to find any female character in the entirety of the film not wearing a masturbation fantasy outfit at any given time. Go ahead, check reel-to-reel. Orange institution issue jumpsuit? Yep. Brothel matron? Yep. Samurai-sword-wielding combat digs? Yep. And if Sucker Punch isn’t constant arousal material for you, my guess is that at some point you’re going to say, “my oh my, is this awful.” And conjuring the image of the basement relegated imagination behind this mess? Even less pleasant.
I’m being harsh here. Let me backtrack. I didn’t find Sucker Punch any tiny bit of fun and positively disturbing in the roles the women in the film play. I would be flat-out lying, however, were I to report that the film wasn’t sexy and the images weren’t cool. A horny 15-year-old version of me might have considered Sucker Punch my movie of the year. I am, however, no longer 15 and it isn’t. And I find Zack Snyder’s lack of growth as a director or a human being … disturbing.
Zack, you are a talented, talented man. 300 was great, despite the crappy message. You have the aesthetic senses of a master. Truly. Be better than this.
Pacing the soft porn is a voice of wisdom, played by Scott Glenn (credited as “Wise Man”). He shows up in every fantasy for, I dunno, girl talk I guess. His running character promotes pithy catch phrases like: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” This odd piece of wisdom, like many of its ilk, seems sage until you realize it’s from the kind of mind that calls all reconsidered positions “flip-flopping”. Thus, I’m left here with a sickening feeling that Sucker Punch is a hidden propaganda film to get horny teenage boys to grow up voting Republican.
I could be wrong, but then, of course, I’d be a flip-flopper.
Rated R, 110 Minutes
D: Zack Snyder
W: Zack Snyder & Steve Shibuya
Genre: Exploitation
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Horny boys
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Gloria Steinem
