When "Twillight Zone", "Charlie's Angels" and "Naruto" meet each other...

Rating: 3/10 (25 August 2017)

When I started watching this movie I was expecting something different than it actually was. However, I don't feel disillusioned with it because I've had very low expectations. The whole story revolves around a girl (we never know her real name but only a nickname, Baby Doll) who is hospitalized in an asylum after trying to protect her younger sister from a dangerous stepfather (responsible for their mother's death and eager to lay hands on their money). Unfortunately, the shot hits the sister and not the stepfather, who bribes the director of an asylum to lobotomize her, which would make her forget everything, nullifying her personality. From here, the film is lost as it enters a parallel universe, imagined by the girl in order to escape her own reality. The asylum ceases to be a madhouse to become into a clandestine brothel for very rich clients, and where she is forced to dance seductively. With each dance, however, she more deeply imagines surreal worlds of fighting, avoiding facing real life and feeding the dream of escaping.
Visually, the film is very good: high doses of good quality CGI, great cinematography with good framing and some very original camera shots, good sets, consistent and well-crafted costumes. But this isn't enough to make a good movie if we consider cinema's the art of telling a story through images, words and gestures. The script is the biggest flaw in the film: almost everything it shows is imagined inside the head of the main character, but the audience doesn't quite understand the reason that led her to such a mental escape. There is also no effort to articulate this with what happens to the character in real life. We are simply disassociated from reality, and this makes the film complicated to understand. Another problem is the lack of originality in the script, which randomly blends a huge range of influences, copied or reinvented from dozens of other films and series, such as "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings", "Twillight Zone", "Charlie's Angels", "Kill Bill", "Naruto", "Dragon Ball" etc. And everything gets worse when we see theatrical and stylized fighting scenes, clearly inspired by Japanese anime. The way the movie tries to be sexy without getting it is also unpleasant. Emily Browning is the best actress that the film presents, and her character is the one that is properly developed, but she's far from what I would call a sexy woman, and a blonde wig (looks like a cosplay) and a short skirt aren't enough to change that. At that point, she loses to the supporting cast, who compensate some lack of talent with more curvaceous bodies. The soundtrack is good, as it's consistent with the film's retro and punk environment, appearing at the right times and knowing how to disappear when its not needed.