An Action Flick Not Attached To A Known Brand/Property?! Madness!

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2011)

How dare they spend money to make a comic book movie that's not based on a comic book? Or a fantasy film not tied to a popular fairy tale or book or video game or cartoon? Why do I have to get to know new characters when I could be watching another glorious reboot or sequel? Or even a prequel? Who green-lit this? (Yes, I'm well aware Snyder is doing the re-reboot of Supes next but my sarcastic rant still stands. I'm just happy to see an imaginative movie in this genre that wasn't based off of something in a 1980's Toys"R"Us store.) Look, it's a love it or hate it kind of film.
I get it, now. I see why it provoked that reaction. It's a double-shot of wry, with a pretty metaphor and an obvious message, putting kick-ass girls in all the traditional male roles of kick-assery. The story is framed in two levels of dreaming (you know, like Inception, the first movie EVER to have a dream within a dream), and the painterly, orgasmic action is an ode to Because-I-Can using every toy and poster found in the very finest of comic shops. From Sailor Moon to steampunk, it's all there, sans the already overdone cyberpunk.
It is indulgent, pseudo-feminist, and a giant finger flipped at the stodgy, rehash-happy conventions of Hollywood.