I personally have decided not to see it, because I don't think I'd like it, which makes me sad, as I usually like scantily clad hot women with guns blowing up robot zombie dinos...when I'm not watching Peter Greenaway adaptations of Shakespeare.
I also decided not to go see this movie after reading a lot of reviews and figuring out that the violence was so stylized, and the plot so hard to follow, that different reviewers came away with a different idea of what happened in the plot not due to clever plotting, but just due to confusion. For instance, I found several reviews that stated that the main character did not kill her sister, but was framed for it; several other reviews that stated that she accidentally killed her sister and was framed, and one review that claimed that her stepfather killed her sister and framed her for it. I've never seen a bunch of people who write about movies for a living be so confused about the literal plot of a movie, during a part of that movie where events supposedly aren't supposed to be ambiguous. I keep feeling like maybe the critics wished the director should have passed out Cliff's Notes at the screenings, just so they could get their bearings on what was supposed to be happening at the most basic level. And it's not like critics don't like or can't get ambiguity or unresolved plot points or complex timelines in movies--see also Inception, the Sixth Sense, Memento.
I really see a lot of people wrestling with the question of how much this movie contributes to rape culture, even though a lot of the movie critics don't always frame it in those exact terms. There's a *lot* of talk about if it's better to be portraying something onscreen or offscreen; there's a lot of talk about how portrayal of rape may or may not equal commentary on rape just by itself.
I've wrestled with this question a lot myself, as a huge fan of the Kill Bill movies. It's not like those films don't glorify immense violence against women, or don't depict rape. But I feel like those films actually show some moral and emotional consequences of violence and rape, how those actions echo through the lives and deaths of the characters, and show how violence and rape can twist people until they lose themselves in their own anger, and show how they can be taken out of that anger by having people to care about and care for them, and having a genuine reconciliation.
I even believe that the main plot device of Sucker Punch--disassociating into a fantasy world in order to escape abuse--is a very valuable one to show, critique, and dissect, and the fact that Sucker Punch shows some of that is a reason why I am personally so interested in this movie--disassociating like that can get you through a lot of rough times and abuse, and be very useful for the times you need it. But I don't think that Sucker Punch shows anything except that initial disassociation, and it doesn't seem to really be critiqued as a useful escape mechanism, except perhaps (possible spoiler) in a deus ex machina sense, which I think cheapens the whole idea of having escapism from abuse be your plot device. I think a very good movie could be made from these elements. I don't think Sucker Punch is it.
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1/4/11 17:45 (UTC)I also decided not to go see this movie after reading a lot of reviews and figuring out that the violence was so stylized, and the plot so hard to follow, that different reviewers came away with a different idea of what happened in the plot not due to clever plotting, but just due to confusion. For instance, I found several reviews that stated that the main character did not kill her sister, but was framed for it; several other reviews that stated that she accidentally killed her sister and was framed, and one review that claimed that her stepfather killed her sister and framed her for it. I've never seen a bunch of people who write about movies for a living be so confused about the literal plot of a movie, during a part of that movie where events supposedly aren't supposed to be ambiguous. I keep feeling like maybe the critics wished the director should have passed out Cliff's Notes at the screenings, just so they could get their bearings on what was supposed to be happening at the most basic level. And it's not like critics don't like or can't get ambiguity or unresolved plot points or complex timelines in movies--see also Inception, the Sixth Sense, Memento.
I really see a lot of people wrestling with the question of how much this movie contributes to rape culture, even though a lot of the movie critics don't always frame it in those exact terms. There's a *lot* of talk about if it's better to be portraying something onscreen or offscreen; there's a lot of talk about how portrayal of rape may or may not equal commentary on rape just by itself.
I've wrestled with this question a lot myself, as a huge fan of the Kill Bill movies. It's not like those films don't glorify immense violence against women, or don't depict rape. But I feel like those films actually show some moral and emotional consequences of violence and rape, how those actions echo through the lives and deaths of the characters, and show how violence and rape can twist people until they lose themselves in their own anger, and show how they can be taken out of that anger by having people to care about and care for them, and having a genuine reconciliation.
I even believe that the main plot device of Sucker Punch--disassociating into a fantasy world in order to escape abuse--is a very valuable one to show, critique, and dissect, and the fact that Sucker Punch shows some of that is a reason why I am personally so interested in this movie--disassociating like that can get you through a lot of rough times and abuse, and be very useful for the times you need it. But I don't think that Sucker Punch shows anything except that initial disassociation, and it doesn't seem to really be critiqued as a useful escape mechanism, except perhaps (possible spoiler) in a deus ex machina sense, which I think cheapens the whole idea of having escapism from abuse be your plot device. I think a very good movie could be made from these elements. I don't think Sucker Punch is it.