Firstly I didn't realize this movie was directed by the same person who directed 300 and Watchmen. But I guess it didn't matter who directed this movie since the story line needed a lot of work. The movie is set in the 60's, when mental health care was still antiquated. The story involves a 20 year old girl "Babydoll" who is wrongfully committed to an insane asylum after her stepfather accuses her of killing her younger sister, when in fact it was the stepfather who killed her younger sister. This all happens after the mother dies and the stepfather realizes the inheritance was given to the two daughters. Here comes my first confusion: why did the stepfather kill the younger daughter? What could he possibly gain, it wouldn't have helped him gain the inheritance, unless there was something else written in the will that wasn't revealed in the movie. Once inside the insane asylum the asylum's orderly is bribed by the stepfather to perform an outdated procedure, lobotomy, to make his stepdaughter become mentally disabled for real. The main plot revolves around Babydoll obtaining various items that will help her escape. This is where the fun comes in, there are two levels of fantasy involved with the majority of the film with minimal amounts of time spent in the real world. The first level of fantasy is a mob run brothel where Babydoll and other pretty girls work to please their clients. They plot to escape and this part of the fantasy reflects what is going on in the real world. Babydoll does an erotic dance, that sadly never gets seen on screen lol, that distracts all the men in the brothel when she takes center stage and the other girls work to grab their items to escape. When she fantasizes that she is dancing she goes even further into another fantasy that reflects the struggle to obtain the item. In these fantasies she enters worlds inspired by other works of fantasy like anime and video games. The worlds include a samurai world, an orc fantasy world with dragons, a sci-fi fantasy with robots and a steampunk battle against zombie Nazi soldiers. Why do I have to explain all this? Because the plot seemingly tries to be interesting and convoluted but it's really not and aside from the fantasy the events in the real world part of the film are senseless. In the end after grabbing all the items needed for their escape Babydoll and one other girl almost manage to escape but given that there is no easy way out Babydoll sacrifices herself as a distraction whilst the other patient manages to escape. Spoiler: Babydoll gets lobotomized and becomes a mindless soulless person. The orderly immediately feels immense remorse for having ruined a girl's life permanently and he gets arrested for having forged the psychiatrist's signature allowing for the lobotomy procedure. I feel like this film had so much potential but it just had to end in a way that was sad and wrong on so many levels. I guess Babydoll payed the ultimate sacrifice to allow her friend to escape. It was a waste of all that effort into all the special effects for such a downer of an ending. All the pretty girls in the movie too, so pointless in the end though. Chick named Jamie Chung was in it, saw her in another movie too. She seems like quite the B-movie actress given her past record, although her next upcoming appearance is in Hangover Part II, which I'm looking forward to and I'm definitely watching. Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame (not that I've ever seen it) was in this movie too. To summarize my disappointment in this film I would have to say that it needed better writers, even a minimally creative plot would have helped drive the action better.
Edit: I feel I may have misunderstood the story but it doesn't really matter, I still don't like the story. After reading this the story makes more sense but I don't know, the feeling of the movie still doesn't sit well with me: "
Its about escaping to your mind as a coping strategy so you won't have to face your much more grim and darker reality." Oh and the soundtrack was actually good.
