Phenomenal ..

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2011)

I came out of the theater thinking, WOW, what a visual treat that was. A definitely enjoyable movie to watch. the story in short is that of a young girl whom her mom dies early on, and she is sent to a mental institution, and it seems dark matters are taking place, she makes new friends quickly and decides to find a plan out.
A simple story that Snyder managed to execute it with style. the editing stood out for me, there was a balanced mixture of music, action, special effects and sound effects here. and then there was the color gradient for the action sequences that gave a surreal feel to it. Im crazy about stop-motion action like the one from 300, so I loved seeing a lot of that here, the action was something like that of a video game or Animation. again, more mixing of fast paced action with slow motion sequences which was an adrenaline pumping experience.
I was also impressed with the girls casted here, the lead role was played by a young actress that i have never known before, but she did an awesome job, and her fine facial features were perfect for the role, she looked innocent yet ready to kick ass. the rest of the cast were also pretty decent and good.
even the art design, the fashion design and the CGI were top notch and looked so professional and real. the way the girls dressed during the action sequences were unique and the weapons they used were really awesome.
So this was a really enjoyable movie for me, phenomenal in every way, however it felt a little short from becoming a masterpiece. and the reason is, the PG-13 rating. During the action scenes, i felt something was missing, and then i noticed it was missing blood splatter. Im not big fan of gore, but just adding a little blood splatter or organ dismemberment would have added more to this in my opinion. Another problem was, during the action scenes the took place in the dream like world, while it was amazing, it lacked intensity and depth. and they probably should have worked on the story more to make the transition to the dream world more realistic and hence more intensity, depth and care for the girls as they fought their way through. it was a bit too simple.
In the end though, I thought this was a successful movie, original and a visual treat combined with a decent story done with style. I won't be surprised if this gets an Oscar nomination in the technical categories like Art design or Sound effects. go see it !