Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch has been vilified as an empty-headed confused mess of a misogynistic film. The author himself however has described it as an critique on geek culture's sexism. I think there is evidence to support this claim in the movie, and that its flaw is that it plays its satire too straight.
There is no objective reality in the film
One mistake a lot of the viewers of the movie make, is to think there is an objective reality to the film and that the rest takes place in some dream world. However, this is immediately disproven by the first frames.It opens on the very same stage we see in the "objective reality" of Baby Doll in the asylum. The curtains open and the movie starts. It even gives us some heavy-handed narration about stories.
Given this framework, we should consider the entire movie a subjective experience open for interpretation.
Baby Doll's Dancing
This is the key to my viewing of the film. Baby Doll's dancing is described as so erotic and mesmerizing that it completely grabs the attention of the audience and puts them into a trance-like state.
Note that we never see the dance itself. We are instead transported to some insane fantasy world where pretty girls do crazy sci-fi/action things in impossible costumes. And again, here is the key:
Every transition from the dance to the fantasy world is from the POV of whichever disgusting slob the girls are trying to distract. So in essence, the audience is made the pervert who gets bedazzled by some spectacle. And how is this anything but a commentary on the portrayal of women in "geek media?"
Note that we never see the dance itself. We are instead transported to some insane fantasy world where pretty girls do crazy sci-fi/action things in impossible costumes. And again, here is the key:
Every transition from the dance to the fantasy world is from the POV of whichever disgusting slob the girls are trying to distract. So in essence, the audience is made the pervert who gets bedazzled by some spectacle. And how is this anything but a commentary on the portrayal of women in "geek media?"
THIS. IS. not female empowerment
Another (valid) complaint is that the movie does nothing to empower women, displaying them in a very misogynistic way. I argue that this is the point, and is paradoxically the movie's greatest strength and weakness. It never winks at the audience and lets us know it's in on the joke. It plays it absolutely straight.
It embodies what it's critiquing and takes it hyperbolic extremes. I concede that this makes its message go unnoticed by the majority of its audience, but that might be the titular sucker punch.
