I'm surprised more people don't notice something.
Baby Doll is drug off to the nuthouse after fending off a possible rape attempt by her step-father. The bordello/dance hall fantasy level isn't just something Baby Doll created out of thin air really - it reflects a portion of her reality. Her dancing to hypnotize men isn't shown and it isn't really dancing.
She is being raped. And I don't mean this metaphorically. Her bordello fantasy is very close to her reality - she is an involuntary sex provider and the other girls have been going through it too, possibly for years. That is how she "hypnotizes" the orderlies via moving her body.
And when it's too much for her to cope with even on her first level of fantasy she wanders off into a reality where she isn't absolutely and completely helpless. Every CGI explosion represents a rape and that's where the title comes from I think. The visual selling point of the movie tries to impress but it's just a retreat from a horrible reality. The "rape" scenes sell the movie - and just hide what they are.
We get it - it's not some complex Shakespearean plot we're talking about here and it's pretty laughable anyone would think that but there you have it.
The soundtrack beats you in the face and the first few minutes of the movie, like Watchmen, leads me to think Snyder would be better served by instead applying his talents to music videos.
It's also a profoundly stupid movie with fantasy sequences that don't seem to fit the mind of a girl in the 60s (steampunk soldiers, Tron robots, mecha-samurai?) and that fall apart as the movie goes on. CGI isn't a replacement for a script or acting - despite what George Lucas says.
And haven't we all gotten tired of the slo-mo/speed ramp thing already? It was cool in 300 because it was new, Watchmen used it to show us slow motion broken bones (yuck), and by now we're over it. It's the bullet time of the 2010s - and if this is all Zack's got in his bag of tricks (and I think it is) then the Man of Steel is 169% screwed.
Overwrought CGI, bad wire work, characters with no personalities.
Zack Snyder is as much as feminist as Joss Whedon - the 90 pound girl that beats up everyone - that's their fetish and nothing more. The eventual porn parody will at least be more honest in their intent.
Rotten Tomatoes:
23% Critics liked it
48% Audience liked it
Box Office Mojo:
Production Budget: $82 million
Worldwide: $89,792,502
They'll sell a few DVDs and the broadcast rights but after promotions and advertising it's possible you made more money working your job than this movie made.
Critically despised, audience was indifferent. financial disaster - so it's 0/3 - it's not a winner kids.