I Liked Sucker Punch (2011) and I Don't Care

Ok I wanna preface this by saying this isn't intended to be an essay, nor is it meant to make you change your opinion on Sucker Punch. Like at all. I just unexpectedly really liked this movie, and I want to vomit up a word sludge, cause that's what SpaceHey and blogging's all about (I think). Also if you read this, you need to have already watched the movie first, cause spoilerssszz and also I am not giving context for things. MOVING ON!

Arguably, Sucker Punch is Snyder's most misunderstood film. A lot of people hate it, and to be soo honest, I can empathize with them. But clearly, they don't get it. At first glance, Sucker Punch just looks like a hyper-stylized action fantasy filled with over-the-top battles and scantily clad women. Which,, yeah, it is exactly that, BUT there is more to it than meets the eye. 

“I’m always shocked that it was so badly misunderstood. I always said that it was a commentary on sexism and geek culture. Someone would ask me, 'Why did you film the girls this way?' And I’d say, 'Well you did!' Sucker Punch is a fuck you to a lot of people who will watch it.” - Zack Snyder

With the context given by Snyder's quote above, we can now understand that the movie deliberately weaponizes its aesthetic to trap the viewer in their own gaze, forcing them to confront the question: Why are you entertained by this? The movie is not glorifying objectification; it’s mirroring it back at the audience.

Think about it, ok? Walk with me. The movie hypes up Babydoll's dancing a lot. The characters make it clear that whatever routine she performs up on stage, or on top of the kitchen table, will enthrall men in a lustful trance, distracting them for a period of time. So much so, that it turns into a weapon for her. We will get into that later. What I'm saying is, her dancing is fucking crazy good, right? But the movie never shows it. We’re denied that voyeuristic satisfaction. Why? Because it’s not for us. We’re not supposed to enjoy their performance! We’re supposed to question why we wanted it in the first place. The fantasy battles that replace them, they’re the only escape these girls have in a world that’s already taken everything from them.

The movie takes us to multiple sets. I like to call them "realities"; the asylum, the brothel, the fantasy battle worlds. Each "reality" represents how the Babydoll copes with trauma and regain control. After watching the entire movie, I assume that the asylum is her first reality, the true reality, and the brothel is her second reality, where things that happen there sort of correlate to things that happen in her first reality (recurring faces and names). The fantasy battle worlds, her third reality, is how she copes. It is a way to momentarily grasp the situation she has been thrust into involuntarily. Remember how I said her dancing becomes a weapon? Well yes!!! She has to feed into men's lust to weaponize it. “You have all the weapons you need. Now fight” isn’t about literal weapons. It’s about internal strength and agency, even in impossible circumstances.

In the end, Babydoll gives up her chance to escape. She lets Sweet Pea leave the brothel by herself, saying that it's the only way. She gets punched and wakes up with the High Roller, who tells her that he'd like her to give herself to him because she wants to. He wants her to lose her virginity to him because it is something she desires, and he promises her freedom. That scene--her giving herself to him--is her final act of control. Again, the second reality mirrors her first reality, where she chooses to be lobotomized. “I have all the weapons I need” now means self-sacrifice as rebellion. It’s the only agency she has left.

Now truly, I could go on about the question of whether or not Rocket, Amber and Blondie truly existed (not Sweet Pea, because we saw her in the first reality), or whether Babydoll truly existed. We do know that the second reality correlates to the first reality, as I have mentioned. The fact that Babydoll started a fire, got another girl killed, etc. actually happened in the first reality, so we do know that the second reality correlates to her actions in the real world. Some people theorized that Babydoll never existed. She’s a projection of Sweet Pea’s internal struggle--a fantasy persona she creates to process her trauma and plan her own escape from the asylum. If Babydoll is an aspect of Sweet Pea’s psyche, then Sucker Punch becomes a story of "internal liberation" where Sweet Pea created a persona brave enough to do what she couldn’t, then let go of that fantasy when it was no longer needed.

See, the layers of this movie are exactly why I liked it so much. The cool visuals and girls with swords are a plus, of course, but that's not all there is to it. It’s about pain, and survival, and the ways women navigate systems built to exploit them. It’s about sometimes you have to play a role just to make it out alive. And yeah, maybe not everyone catches that on the first watch. That’s fair!! But the bitches that get it, get it.