Donxy

Best Snyder movie so far. Sadly it is deeply misunderstood. Movie is way more deeper and complex than it looks like on first glance.

People don't realize Sweet Pea is the protagonist, Babydoll is a figment of Sweet Pea’s imagination. Babydoll does not exist. Babydoll's story is Sweet Pea’s story. Sweet Pea was sexually abused, killed her sister and is in psychiatric hospital in therapy. Babydoll is Sweet Pea's avatar. Way of dealing with grief, with guilt, and way to manage her current situation and overcome it. Babydoll is also Sweet Pea's guardian angel.

Sweet Pea is the only fully rounded character, other girls represent aspects of her psyche. Babydoll represents strength and courage, Amber loyalty, Blondie fear, and Rocket represents guilt. In the third level reality her psyche fights for the things to get her free from her current state. Second guardian angel (the Wise Man) guides her through. To fully recover she needs to get over her guilt (Rocket dies as a symbol), also other girls represent things which she needs to leave behind to fully recover .

Babydoll is one of those things. She is the fifth thing (“The fifth is a mystery. It is the reason. It is the goal. It will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory.”). Lobotomy of Babydoll represents Sweet Pea’s mind of taking control. Sweet Pea needs to sacrifice Babydoll to be “cured”. Escape at the end is a symbol of that process of being cured. That’s why the driver is the Wise Man, he guides her further.

Sucker Punch is Sweet Pea’s journey from “madness” to “sanity”. Movie is philosophical / psychological investigation wrapped in a special effects action-fantasy. As the movie changes realities (mostly in the third reality), Snyder uses more fetishized image of the girls. He uses clichés and cluttered iconography (nazi zombies, sexy schoolgirls). It is a way to detached and disconnected characters from second reality. Second reality, the brothel, is the “main” reality. In which everything happens.

It's a slow-bulding story, with a great cast who unfortunately doesn't get a lot of moments to shine (although I think many will find Lucy Fry a nice surprise like I did!). The suspense is well done, and I did find the movie satisfactory overall. I mean, it's not amazing, it didn't make me jump, but I was entertained, and I got into the characters too. Regarding other comment on this page, I think it's unfair to compare it to Poltergeist. There are many takes on poltergeist/haunted house stories, and this is just another one. The mythology did feel a bit weak, but the story still ran smoothly despite that. Surely, the final 15min would have been better had there been more background on the Anasazi, but really, not too big of a deal once you're hooked.
If I had to mention a real problem with it, is that it's part of that trend which tends to associate children within the specter with abnormal/evil behavior. I get it that taking a "strange child" as a catalyst is great for effect, but it's a disservice to all people trying hard to bring clarity on the issue, you know? It's good for story telling and all, but a bit disrespectful, in my opinion.

I went into this expecting a stupid movie with hopefully a few laughs. I was blown away by not only how funny the movie was, but how well it deconstructed religion, faith, and reason, and how those all need to work together to make our lives better.

For people who thought this movie was stupid - sorry, but you're stupid. If you couldn't appreciate how well this movie showed the uncaring, awful universe - and why we need to tell ourselves stories that make us enjoy it for as long as possible - then you're just stupid. If you didn't see how this movie talked to atheists, how it presented a convincing argument for faith and religion, alongside the perils of both, then you're the one who missed something. If you couldn't see how this movie demonstrated science, reason, and skepticism, and why those are still not enough, then you're just stupid. It showed, beautifully, the power of mind altering drugs, and how some folks are just going to go ahead and do the worst of them, with no regard as to what others have to say about it. That's a reality that we need to accept, and need to stop pretending that we can make go away just by wishing it so.

Within this cartoon universe, the creators of this movie explore themes in a way that I've not seen done before, demonstrating the power of animated story telling applied to adult themes. Yes, the movie has crass humour, some of which falls flat but some of it is tear inducing funny. But if this movie doesn't make you think, it's because you're stupid.

Go see this movie.