Confession: I saw Suckerpunch the day it came out. And you are just now hearing about it. That is because I honestly still don’t know what to think. In a world where female empowerment consists of objectifying and sexualizing women and then giving them guns, Suckerpunch seems to be on track to empower plenty of women. It aims to engage themes of feminine oppression and masculine dominance, but goes about it in a way that honestly pleases pig-ish men more than it pleases confident women.
We follow Baby Doll (Emily Browning) as her stepfather seeks to silence her by locking her up. She seems like a strong protagonist at first, standing up to her abusive stepfather in the opening scene. I’d like to note that this scene is beautifully arranged. If nothing else, this film brings it on the soundtrack and visuals. And there might be nothing else. For some reason, Zack Snyder decided that the whole thing needed to take place in a brothel. I honestly can’t see why. What’s wrong with the classic orphanage setting? Maybe it’s a little cliché, but given the number of clichés we have to endure throughout the film (dragon-slaying, robot-Nazis, giant rock-samurai… okay, maybe these don’t sound cliché, but if you’ve played video games in the last decade you know that the only thing missing here is some form of undead), you’d think they could’ve spared us all the painfully raunchy bits. I mean, if you’re going to use the evil step-parent, you’re pretty much committed already. I liked the idea better than the follow-through, something I feared from the beginning.
The trailers made this film seem like it was going to be Calvin and Hobbes if they were 20, female, and a little more violent. Make no mistake; the imaginary sequences are breath-taking. When our protagonist enters her imaginary world we are treated to incredible stunts, vibrant effects, and fascinating situations. It makes us wish that we could live there. And maybe that’s the point; the idea that her real world is awful and her imaginary one is wonderful. But Snyder promised us that these worlds would converge. And when they finally do, we get little more than a disappointing and stale monologue that is nearly incomprehensible. And not in the Chris-Nolan-Blew-My-Mind way, either. More like This-is-My-Eighth-Time-Through-Fight-Club-and-I’m-Starting-to-Understand-Why-Nobody-Talks-About-It.
This is possible the fault of some poor cinematographic choices. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks and I’m still honestly not sure what happened in the Real World. All I know is that I was at points insulted and at even more points disappointed. I think the director’s cut of this film should be the first in history to actually cut things out.
For making promises and going back on them, I give Suckerpunch a 3 out of 10.
