10 Movie Messages Everybody Misunderstood

3. Sexism Is Deeply Terrible - Sucker Punch

What Everybody Thinks

Zack Snyder's 2011 critical and commercial dud was ripped to shreds for being perceived as nothing more than a flagrantly sexist, stylised male power fantasy, suiting-up its young female protagonists in skimpy outfits as they battle gigantic CGI creatures for the enjoyment of, above all else, hormonal teenage boys.

This is Zack Snyder, after all.

The Real Message

Sucker Punch may not be a good film, but it's also not really sexist either, and further still, it's actually a rebuttal against the sexism that pervades throughout the entertainment industry - especially in nerd culture.

The bulk of the film takes place in a fantasy world created in the mind of Babydoll (Emily Browning), which she uses to mentally escape from the reality of abuse, violence and rampant misogyny that exists within the asylum where she has been institutionalised (and, at the end of the film, is lobotomised).

In this world, Babydoll and her fellow inmates are reinvented as the capable, kick-ass heroines they cannot be in reality, with this ridiculous fantasy world in turn satirising the soulless objectification women frequently endure in blockbuster filmmaking.

It is effectively Snyder trying to have his cake and eat it too, by giving audiences the glossy digital carnage they expect, and at the same time exposing young teenage boys to the degradation of women they're so often guilty of perpetuating.

Sucker Punch is absolutely a mess of ideas, tones and styles, but Snyder's ambition should be commended, in trying to bring a subversive vision to the masses, even if it's one that mostly fell upon deaf ears with its intended demographic.