Visually Stunning, Morally Questionable

Rating: 5/10 (23 April 2011)

Five hot chicks in skimpy costumes battle video game monsters: giant samurai, zombie Hun, Lord of the Ring-ish orcs, Terminator-y robots, fire- breathing dragons, etc. In between there's some MacGuffin about a mental institution that's really a front for a strip club that's really a front for a bordello, but that's just filler until the next (admittedly, visually impressive) fight scene. Writer/director Zack Snyder was reportedly in an extended battle of his own with the MPAA over the rating, but what's left is an incoherent mess. (Watch for the "extended unrated director's cut" on DVD in a couple of months.) Snyder may have wanted to make The Black Swan, but what he's delivered is closer to Mortal Kombat. And although the movie goes out of its way to establish that the female lead is an adult, the sight of young women/girls being punched, stabbed, shot, ogled, fondled, and sexually assaulted will leave some in the audience feeling queasy.