my kids used to burst into tears whenever they saw steve van zandt

If people with Experience X are saying, repeatedly, that Text A accurately/meaningfully/with a high degree of success speaks to their experience of X, then their reading should be acknowledged and respected. This is particularly true if you

1. do not have Experience X, and/or
   
2. have only consumed Text A second- or even third-hand, where they have consumed it first-hand.

ughhhh basically one of my triggers is people telling me that I'm imagining it/making it up/being melodramatic and while I haven't, I don't think, reached the point where that's becoming a severe issue for me, I can see this whole discussion heading there. SERIOUSLY HOW IS THIS DIFFICULT. Particularly if you haven't actually SEEN the film in question. Also, gosh it's good to know action movies aren't a valid medium for the examination of trauma and rape culture and women can't possibly have violent feelings about their abuse.

In related news, HEY LOOK IT'S A REVIEW OF SUCKER PUNCH THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME WANT TO PUT MY FIST THROUGH EVERYTHING!

This is, in fact, the most important part of the whole film, and it's the part that's gotten lost in all the other criticism I've read. Babydoll is not insane, nor does she go insane. And the visual metaphors employed in the film are for our benefit, not hers. They are not a "coping mechanism" for Babydoll, nor is she "retreating into a fantasy world." They are a way for us to see this world. They are a way of illustrating her plan to the audience in an intriguing way that isn't just "Hey, if we steal the key and get the map from the office, we can get out of here." That movie would've lasted five minutes and would've been boring as hell. Or worse—just like every other escape movie ever.

Well done, Tor, well done.

Also I made a Sweetpea icon. YESSSSSSSSSSS. Strike that, I made TWO Sweetpea icons, and this one is even BETTER.

OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL. Like, I have already gotten into the habit of disclaiming just about everything I say re: Sucker Punch with an explanation of how this hits not only my narrative buttons, but my srs bzns trauma-related buttons as well. Plus it is actually a really fucking awesome action movie, objectively. So everyone should read my thoughts on this movie while keeping those two things in mind, that it's objectively a great action movie (which is a genre that not everyone likes) and that it hits so many of my personal buttons that it's hard if not impossible for me to really deal with this on an objective level just yet.

And as silly as this sounds and embarrassed of myself I am for saying this, I am not actually sure I can deal with a lot of criticism of this movie right now. Partly because a lot of the things I have seen complained about hit a couple of very deep-seated issue-related buttons for me, such that I end up taking criticism really really personally. To the point where, kind of hilariously, I have even been considering taking a few days away from LJ/DW until whatever initial discussion there may be has died down. Yes that is how ridiculous I am, w/e w/e I do what I want.

That said, inlovewithnight tells me that there has already been some stuff surrounding this movie in fandom that will enrage me, much of it from people who haven't even seen the movie! And, okay, first of all, leaving aside the deeper issues I have, this is not going to be to everyone's tastes, simply because it's very much a straight-up action movie (baked_goldfish and I agreed after last night's viewing that leaving aside the politics of it, this was quite simply one of the best action movies we'd seen in ages) and again, that's a genre that not everyone's into! So if you're not into action movies you probably will not be super into this. And as for the ~issues~, I will absolutely acknowledge that plenty of people have trauma that will manifest in ways that make this movie unviewable for them! But I would like to state clearly the other side of that coin, that it's possible for people's trauma to manifest in ways that mean this will be an extremely satisfying and, hell, therapeutic movie for them. Brains are complex! No two traumas are the same! We all deal with it in different ways and respond to it in different ways!

...oh god that was only supposed to be a few sentences of defensiveness. /o\ Long story short, I totally understand being critical of this movie, from a pure cinematic POV and from a feminist one, but I am not sure I am capable of dealing with that because of the ways that it resonates with me (I love action movies and also LOL ISSUES). I realize it is silly but that is part of the fun of being crazy. I hear people be like "but the costumes are gross" and I have to fight really hard not to yell YOUR FACE IS GROSS, SHUT UP, THIS IS FUCKING ART, I AM GETTING DEFENSIVE SO HARD I'M ABOUT TO BREAK MY MACBOOK FUCKING AIR!!!!!!! Yes, again, I completely realize this is irrational and hypocritical, but guess what, that is how the crazybrain works! W/E W/E I DO WHAT I WANT, at least I am working to confine this to my own journal! :D? :D?

OKAY HAVING GOTTEN ALL OF THAT OUT OF THE WAY.

( Some observations from my second viewing. Very specific plot-type spoilers. )

Which...hm. That reminds me so much of this post that I am really going "huh" to this.

More on the costuming! Like, we were discussing them, and inlovewithnight said "they were just dancing the line of exploitation so furiously that I think they finally just obliterated it entirely". To which baked_goldfish responded "yes, the costumes were skimpy -- but also, they were tearing shit up," which is also key, I think. Like, sex as means of enforcing power is such a central theme in this movie that it seemed obvious, to me, that reclaiming sexuality would be a part of kicking ass and reclaiming agency. Plus, also, like, part of why I love Buffy so much is that she is allowed to be traditionally feminine and still be a hero. Like, Ripley is great, but she never really resonated with me the way Buffy and Sailor Moon did, because I had the same problem with her I had with a lot of the heroines of books I read, where I felt like the message was that in order to be a female hero who kicks ass, you had to eschew femininity.

( More on the costumes and gender in this movie in general; only mildly spoilery and mostly just cut because tl;dr. )

In short, this movie is actually very conscious that its fantasy sequences look like shallow fantasy empowerment, and that is exactly what they are supposed to seem like, because this is not a movie about fighting hard enough to prevent them from victimizing you: it is about recovering after they victimize you.

...actually, looking at all of that, and my "the point is you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't" take on Blondie's death in particular, not only is this movie about the patriarchy and misogyny, it is even more specifically about rape culture. Which, holy shit, not only did a dude make an action movie about rape culture and make it awesome, that dude was Zack fucking Snyder. I am not sure what to do about all of this.

OH MAN I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS MOVIE, I CAN'T EVEN. Okay it is time for lunch. And then possibly I will bake something. IDK. Also, burntcopper pointed me towards a streaming copy of the soundtrack. So if anyone wants to listen to that, just go here and scroll through the carousel until you get to it!

Ughhhh where are all the icons, I need them. ALL OF THEM. Maybe I will even try my hand at writing fic? IDK where to even start with it, though, because there is SO MUCH FIC that needs to exist for this movie.

( THERE IS A SUCKER-PUNCH TRAILER OUT. )

I actually did not find out until just now that Jon Hamm is also going to be in it, because the press has been entirely on the female cast. NGL, it was really fucking cool that of the six-person panel at Comic-Con, the only dude there was Zack Snyder. I am actually willing to give him a chance on this movie, first because he made a freaking big-budget genre epic with an all-female cast and that is really fucking awesome and is something I want to support (especially in light of how, say, Disney won't even let Rapunzel be the main character of her own damn movie; Snyder doesn't seem too concerned that he's going to ~alienate male fans~ by doing this movie and in fact the issue never even came up during the Comic-Con panel), and second because a lot of the problems with 300 and Watchmen sprang from the original texts (that is, the many ways that Frank Miller is a douche and the fact that Watchmen just is not suited to being a movie), whereas this one is original and thus is supposed to be a movie from the start, so you won't have, say, the problems of translating Watchmen to a medium it's just not supposed to be a part of. Also, 50s mental health as horrific setting, FUCK YESSSSSS.

If you're not interested, just move on along; I am way too excited about this and have already deleted some petty remarks about the reactions I've seen already (there was Photoshopping on the posters, can you imagine?) and I really don't want to argue or listen to snide remarks. No, it won't be for everyone, but if like me you like movies with explosions, dancing, or lots of ladies, it is going to be right up your alley (IT HAS ALL THREE :DDDDD) and you should talk to me about it.