Babydoll

So last night I watched Sucker Punch. 

'Babydoll' from IMDB

I was largely watching it as a semi-relevant bit of background before I go and see Sleeping Beauty later today since I was so surprised to find out that the gorgeous but 'cute' looking girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events had grown up to become so breathtakingly beautiful.

Ignoring the rather poor script, incredibly rubbish last 10 minutes and the general misogyny throughout, I would seriously recommend seeing this film. But only if you can watch it on a large screen/projector and have some kind of surround sound going on (I put my computer speakers either side of my bed which was good enough!) I 100% agree with all the reviews that I've read saying that it was written by and for someone with the mind of a 13 year old boy but maybe that is what I am.

I agree with this comment by Andrew O'Hehir that I found on the Wiki page:
"If you want to understand Snyder's central narrative gambit, it's right there in the title. He gives us what we want (or what we think we want, or what he thinks we think we want): Absurdly fetishized women in teeny little skirts, gloriously repetitious fight sequences loaded with plot coupons, pseudo-feminist fantasies of escape and revenge. Then he yanks it all back and stabs us through the eyeball"

 One of the things that I liked most was totally ignored in basically every review: the set design. Even though Snyder clearly relied heavily on stereotypes, other films (without really 'owning it' as Tyra Banks would say) and video games. I didn't really mind because they were the sort of films that I find visually stunning and the kind of video game that actually makes an effort with detail (I imagine Bioshock would have a similar look if it was set in a time about 20 years later than it is.) Someone clearly spent a hell of a lot of time tracking down every little prop for the every set and each room was appealingly cluttered and natural.

Of course there are no good pictures of the set. Everyone just wants to see the sexy girls.

However, I am not going to completely going to ignore the sexism because I am actually just sick to death of the number of rapes you get in films at the moment. Its not even 'edgy' it's just disgusting. And its not 'empowering' even if the rapist gets what he deserves. From the films that have been coming out recently (and even things on the BBC like Luther) you would think that every female can just expect someone to attempt to rape them at some point and unless you have a kick-ass friend with a knife you might as well give up hope. Even if it is integral to the psychological background of a character that they have been raped or assaulted it is not necessary to show if for some pervert to get a buzz. At least these scenes weren't as back as Snyder's other film Watchmen which I walked out of.

Another Wiki-quote:
James MacDowell questions the alleged misogyny of the film, arguing that it does not in fact aim to offer female empowerment, but is instead "a deeply pessimistic analysis of female oppression", because it makes clear that, "just as men organize the dances, so do they control the terms of the fight scenes; in neither do the women have true agency, only an illusion of it."

Yeah... that sounds about right. A pretty depressing film if you look at it from a feminist perspective. But I still liked the pretty colours so I am going to revert showing you some pictures now....

The grey sailor suit. IMDB

There was a bit of Nurse Ratched in Dr Vera Gorski and Rocket is a Billy character.

And a bit of Gogo Yubari (Kill Bill) in Babydoll

Tim Burton's Alice

The battle sailor suit.

Tim Burton's Alice in 'beggar' costume.

Possibly inspired by Dodgson's photograph of Alice Liddel as a beggar-girl?

The glitter sailor suit! IMDB

Mary Hilton Badcock, the model for Tenniel's illustrations.

Natalia Vodianova as Alice, Vogue December 2003

The glitter sailor suit again because I love it.

Natalia Vodianova again for the multiple 'Alice' costumes.

End of stream of consciousness.
I hope that series makes as much sense to you as it does to me.


Footnote type thing:
I liked the steampunk Nazis. I was GOING to relate the plot to the Joseph Campbell's journey of the hero concept (check out Hero with 1000 Faces, its a classic, though a wiki search will probably do) but I seem to be devoting a weird amount of time to one, not particularly remarkable, film. I feel that the film may have had a more coherent structure had Snyder followed Campbell more closely (see Star Wars - actually don't, I don't like that series at all but note its success). Though this would have made the film Even More predictable, it doesn't feel as though groundbreaking originality was the aim.

The one interesting break from the normal hero's journey is that there is an advance upon the usual three act sequence of 'ordinary world', 'special world' and return to 'ordinary world'. There is only the weakest sense of the real world where you are presented with so few facts that it is harder to understand than the fantasy, the 'club' fantasy conforms to normal film plots and so hardly even comes across as surreal and then Babydoll's dance-trance reality adds a third layer. It is simply a shame that these are three very shallow layers so you just end up with a mille-feuille of a film.


I cannot wait to see this:

I <3 Emily Browning


Oh! and one last thing, I just realised that it also reminds me of this video. If Sucker Punch was a British Film, I think it would be a bit more like this: