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Almost everybody you see will tell you that this is a great fantasy movie with stunning visuals... They're wrong. This is a great war drama with little done to the visuals awkwardly mixed with a bad fantasy movie with great visuals.
It's really sad to see what would have been an excellent movie about a girl having to cope living with an evil stepfather and losing her mother have about 15 minutes of unnecessary fantasy elements thrown in for...I don't friggin' know why.
Don't get me wrong. Maybe the fantasy elements could have made a great movie. They are as visually appealing as you can get and the scene with the eyeless monster is creepy as hell. There's just so little of this part of the movie that you really can't tell. It really seems this should've been two movies or had the fairy tale parts cut out.
Whenever the satyr and his world are not involved this is a very engrossing movie. Somebody needs to let Del Toro know that he can make a great film that is also realistic. I'm too tired to finish this review (it's not like I'm getting paid for it). Just watch the film. I give the war drama portions 5 skulls but the fantasy portion 2 skulls. So...3.5.
This movie was a real work of art. It doesn't have that much gore (except for a couple of violent parts), but that's not what matters. The sheer amount of creativity that went into this is astounding.
Posted By: Protecious at 2:28pm, September 30, 2008
Well directed, well acted, wonderfully visual film that ends up being a very good dramatic fantasy that i feel is way better than any of the lord of the rings films.
the only thing that stands out in this film for me was the creatures , the film shite the story shite and ending shite infact its shite . dont care how uncool it is not to like thisfilm its bollocks , the geezer with eyes in his hands coooooooool but thats it , if this makes me uncool then fuck it im uncool
"Set during Franco's mopping up exercise after the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a wonderful, dark fairy tale that, in a metaphor for Spain itself, teeters on the edge of nightmare dreamscapes of corruption, violence and the death of innocents.
This film is definitely not for young children. Although the fantasy sequences are gorgeously realised, and are fairy tales in the truest sense (in that they are dark, fey, dangerous and violent), most of the story (about three quarters of it, in fact) exists outside of the dreamland, in the even more frightening (and sometimes shockingly violent) world of a real life struggle of ideas and ideology.
Sergi Lopez is excellent as the brutal (and possibly sadistic) Falangist Captain tasked with routing out the remaining leftists from the woods and hills of Northern Spain. Into this precarious situation come his new wife (a widow of a former marriage, who is carrying his son) and his stepdaughter Ofelia (played to absolute perfection, by the then 11 year old, Ivana Baquero).
Uncomfortable with her new surroundings, suspicious of her stepfather and desperately concerned about the worsening condition of her mother, Ofelia uncovers a strange alternative world, and the chance to escape forever the pain and uncertainty of her everyday life.
Thus the film alternates between the world of Civil War Spain and the increasingly bizarre, dark and frightening world of the Pan's Labyrinth. As the twin plots progress, they intertwine, with the tasks of Ofelia becoming the choices faced by a Spain at the crossroads. The poignancy of the film lies partly in the fact that the victories of the child are reflected so starkly by the failures of the adult world.
Apparently Pan's Labyrinth won a 20-minute standing ovation at Cannes, when it was shown. This may be a little bit over the top. I suspect when the furore has died down some will choose to swing the pendulum back and criticise it for its more obvious faults. Much of the film is derivative. There are few ideas in the film's magical dreamworld that haven't been seen before. There are also few ideas in the film's depiction of the Civil War that can't be read in Satre or Orwell; can't be viewed in Picasso's Guernica; or can't be watched in Land and Freedom.
For all the evident truth of these observations, to accept them would be to entirely miss the majesty of Pan's Labyrinth, which doesn't lie in its originality but its absolute mastery of execution. People will watch Pan's Labyrinth in a way that most won't watch Land and Freedom. In doing so, they will also discover a world of fairy tales which existed before Disney sunk its claws into them: a dangerous world, where nothing is as it seems and every step is a possible death – a place which may leave even adults shivering under the duvet, part in terror, part in wonder. And all this backed up by the finest cinematography I've seen.
... This is easily... a must see..." --j30bell (j30bell@yahoo.co.uk), imdb.com
Sometimes I wonder if critics even notice anything except the cinematography. I mean, I think I could film someone pooping on a guinea pig, but if it were filmed with a beautiful camera the critics would love it. Because other than nice camerawork, this movie has nothing going for it. And I mean NOTHING.
First, I’ll start with the boring factor. This has to be one of the most boring movies on this site: no doubt at all. DO NOT think this is a fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings mixed with Saw-like violence. There are literally only 4 fantasy scenes, and each last maybe 10 minutes tops. The rest of the movie is nothing but boring conversation.
Secondly, I was told by countless people this movie was violent. And trust me when I say this: if you’ve played any T-rated video game, you’ve seen more violence in 5 minutes than there is in this entire movie put together. It did not even earn its R-rating, much less be considered a “hard R” as I was told. Also, the violence is NOT in the fantasy sequences, it’s in the war sequences . . . which made it seem like a toned down (but darker) Saving Private Ryan. And that’s not a good thing.
Third, the cliché factor. It is falsely called an “original” movie by critics. I’m sorry, but there is nothing to see here that you haven’t seen in PG-rated movies like The Chronicles of Narnia or E-rated games like Zelda. The ending was such a cliché I wanted to slam my fist into the TV because I was so disappointed.
So why do I give this movie a 5? Because as much as I hated the movie itself, I agree strongly with the idea behind it: fairytales are bloody, dark, and for adults as well as children. Guillermo Del Toro failed miserably with this movie, but with his ideology, his skill, and his memories of a traumatized past, I know in the future he can make something that is truly stellar.
But don’t expect this to be that movie. Try again, Guillermo.
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