I think to be hot and have a sword is a universal desire.

Lowkey Suckerpunch is a love letter to any person that imagines intricate stories and music videos when listening to music 😅😅

I absolutely made Sucker Punch my personality when I was a wee little black girl. Something about the escapism of a bleak world into the fantasy of being a badass and looking pretty in it, just hit me a sorta way.
Now as an adult, I do understand that sometimes the problems of that film are harder to ignore. But I will not lie, the train sequence breaking between the layers of reality still gives me goosebumps.

When i was a teenager I loved this film so much for the entire reason of "I want to be a cool girl in a mini skirt that fights dragons."

Sucker Punch always felt like it was trying to say more but didn't stick the landing, so I had a bit of a soft spot for it despite it's failings.

I'm an incest/csa survivor. I remember sitting in the theater to watch this movie with my family at age 11. It was both thrilling and terrifying. It kind of felt like the movie was reading my mind-- i was an anime lover (naruto, bleach, sailor moon) and would go into DEEP dissociative fantasies in anime worlds as well as harry potter, percy jackson, etc. In my fantasies I would manage to escape or fight my abuser/the story's villain. I rewatched the movie recently after remembering how much of an impact it had on me as a kid. I guess part of what was so weird about watching this movie as an uncool almost-middle schooler was that it gave me such a weird feeling of both narcissism and shame. like, it kind of felt like the movie was about me but it was about this aspect of me (my sexuality/sexual abuse) that had to stay secret. And, that I was so deeply ashamed of. There was actually a ton of weird synchronicity that i wont get into details on cuz i don't wanna feed the creeps... but I guess being part of an abuser's fantasy and watching a sort of male fantasy on screen will have similar elements.
Then the end of the movie, well, idk how others read it but to me i took the message as: babydoll is too fucked up to live, so she gives someone else the chance. definitely messed me up... my abuser died just a month later and even though that most likely literally saved my life I felt a lot of survivor's guilt. But I can't say i hate the movie--- i think it was pretty thoughtless but in a way that allowed it to honestly access this cultural fantasy (that is influenced by and influences reality) and just slap it onscreen without much alteration. and there is value, and a TON to analyze, in that direct line to society's unconscious. this was also the first time i had ever seen a canonical (or at least HEAVILY implied??) incest survivor onscreen, and it was honestly so exciting just to have confirmation that this thing existed at all? or was 'normal' on some level? As much as I am all for critique and scrutiny of work portraying csa/ sexual violence in general I don't want that critique to stop work getting made--even if that work is imperfect, this is a topic that is so rarely openly talked about and especially in a way where people are actually honest about their emotions/desires/fantasies. (poor things debate comes to mind). I want better art on this topic but also just more, yk?

Daaaamn, my 14 yo self feels SO vindicated with this essay, because yes, wanting to be hot and girly is not mutually exclusive with kicking ass, while being powerful is not mutually exclusive with bonding and cooperating with other women. You can want and have all of them, god damn it.

To me, Sucker Punch is about maladaptive daydreaming. Are the sailor suit action sequences "feminist"? Not really, but in all my fantasies as a child/ teen post-sexual assault, I would inhabit the same kind of cartoonish avatar in my mind's eye. I'm also reminded of Lady Gaga's Artpop-- her meditation on male gaze vs empowerment vs trauma. "You can't use my mind, but do what you want with my body." It's about coping, not being a perfect feminist.

I truly think Emily Browning was the prototype for the visual of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad!

I, too, am a Sucker Punch apologist. We exist, we have valid points!

The soundtrack and warped story telling is why I adore this film. It was like a hyper feminine and non-techno-Orientalist Cloud Atlas.

I strongly believe that instead of remaking films that were already good, we should just remake movies that failed but had great ideas. Zack is a hack but he takes risks and i respect that!

Tbh I actually never found sucker punch “sexy” the way ppl claimed it was. Even the brothel parts to me always felt ominous threatening and sad. It was the first pg 13 movie I ever saw (at age 9, with a friend) and it was also the first time I heard about what a lobotomy was… I didn’t sleep for a week after that lol

I think one of the unapplauded strengths of Sucker Punch is how well it lends itself to analysis in a way many modern action films don't. the timeline of the film is also interesting as it's hinted that the lobotomy has already happened or is currently happening and the asylum level is also a fantasy.

I never noticed that BoP is also a group of 5 women led by a blond in pigtails. Sailor moon really is every where

I've battled mental illness my entire life, and Sucker Punch was my first glimpse into what women like me faced in the 50s and 60s. The layers and fight scenes allowed me to not be overwhelmed by the despair of the reality. In fact it left me feeling empowered enough that I can confront this part of history with a somewhat healthy detachment I would otherwise lack.

I feel like American McGee’s Alice series almost hits this.

Sucker Punch was a movie I loved immediately. I truly got it within my first two watches and even more as I talked to my friends who understood the movie as well. I was too young to have seen it in theaters, but I watched it ab six years ago and I’ve been a Sucker Punch apologist ever since. I truly adored the casting, the set and costume design, the music- everything drew me in and the characters & story just took me the rest of the way.

I completely understand the criticism and why it failed when was released. I personally regard Sucker Punch in a similar way of Jennifer’s Body, where it was marketed to the wrong audience (pre-teen & teenage boys) and is now beginning to get more of the respect it deserves in the mainstream as the right audience is finding it (and admitting to liking it). Again, a lot of the criticism of the film is very valid, especially bc of its limitations as a film made by a man who loves his convoluted arcs. That being said, I love it!

Babydoll and Sweat Pea are the same person. The ending where she sacrifices herself so that the other can escape is actually a fantasy to mask the truth, which is that she was lobotomized. At the beginning of the movie you get a hint of this when Sweat Pea is with the others on stage, wearing a wig and dressed very similar to Babydool about to be lobotomized. Or at least that is my personal appreciation, which ends up adding another layer in terms of the psychological analysis that the film shares.

Sucker Punch was a critique on the pseudo-feminism of the "Grrl Power" movement.  These women were trapped in a system and sexually abused by men (The bordello layer was there to abstract the sexual abuse they suffered), and the women seemed to gain the upper hand by turning this exploitation into a powerful dance that could dazzle and control their abusers by using the male gaze against them.  However, in the end, this fails because it ultimately reinforces patriarchial power relations. The message is that the patriarchy can't be defeated using the tools of the patriarchy.

Frustratingly, the movie does not make this as clear as it should because at release, it insisted on giving Babydoll a happy ending.  In the original, deleted ending (I know, I know), Babydoll meets the high roller, who is basically a unicorn who explains that he will never get what he really wants, which is ALL of her.  He's acknowledging that the patriarchy is a barrier to genuone connection between men and women, and that her very liberation would put her out of his reach. Then the hammer is dropped and the lobotomy is complete.

I LOVED this movie, but I get why others dont.