I thought this was a children's movie and did not pay attention to the rating. Needless to say, I was quite surprised while watching the movie. While the visuals were often disturbing, yet stunning, this movie was just not my cup of tea. I do not like to see children face brutality.
I'm a sucker for fantasy and fairy tale like movies. This movie was totally fantastic. Didnt care to have to read so many subtitles but the story made up for it.
The imagery and fairytale-like story are captivating, but thankfully there is an added depth to this movie that is provided by its allegorical aspects. Friggin great movie
A great concept of fantasy and reality crashing together and the allegory of a wild imagination. Although it can be considered a fairy tale within a movie, this certainly is NOT a children's movie, as there are graphic effects and dark themes: This is what makes the movie standout for the more aimed adult demographic however. Taking place in post civil war Spain, a young girl named Ofelia is facing a difficult time when her pregnant mother marries a ruthless captain. Finding herself cold and alone, she does nothing much more with her time than reading books and filling her head with fantasies. While settling into her new home, she winds up discovering a wondrous fantasy underworld and meets a "faun" who has revealed Ofelia's true identity as a princess. She is then promised that she will see her real father again if she accomplishes a series of grueling tasks. Meanwhile, in the real world, Ofelia has other problems when her mother gets sick and her new father seems to take a disliking for her while war tensions start to take it's toll. Finding herself in between reality and her new found fantasy, Ofelia tries to cope. There is a lot to like about this, and I am pleased to see such an artistic angle taken by new movie makers. It's original and highly imaginative while still thought provoking. Also worth highlighting are some of the creatures, which seemed to be very real, and Sergi Lopez' turn in as the sadistic Captain Vidal. Together they were able to make some memorable scenes. Thematically, it is open for some interpretation, because the film's subject can be viewed as literal or not, but to me it's about how children have trouble dealing with overwhelming problems, and they try to escape it anyway possible. There really isn't much to bash despite some of this ambiguity, as this film is one of the most highly rated movies by critics in the last ten years, and I cannot really refute that.
Well, I wanted to see it, and yes, it is indeed a very powerful, intense and hoorifying expereince. When watcing it, you never quite know where you are...
life is not a magic..not a fairy tale in which we could escape its turmoil in a sudden by way of a magic wand or by the help of a faun..building a world beyond imagination is not a sort of escape
This movie is insanly good. I am not one to like fantasy or subtitles - yet I am still giving this movie a five, so that should say a lot! While I thought the substitles may be destracting it turned out to be a great move as it made you really pay attention to the words and depth of the film.
The actors all done great and I have no complains about any one of them. While as I said I am not a fan of fantasy in most cases, how they tied this one to reality was beyond great and made for one of the best movies I have seen in recent times.
The movie is a masterpeice with amazing effects, actors, storyline, and action. It has everything one could ask for in a movie. It's a must see!
fuck....this movie is amazing! guillermo del toro's master peace oh my god i saw this in theaters and boy am i glad i did! the music the acting the camera movments just amazing beauty...so much... the ending is a tear jerker it truly is! i have so much to say about it...even the FX by DDT from spain even have a beauty to it just all and all brings a tear to your eye and makes you feel like a child and makes you remmber why you love films!
The film is a triumph on so many levels. The special effects are just that, special. Guillermo del Toro is a visionary film maker with a brilliant imagination for creatures and drama. The young lead is also wonderful and holds the film together well.
It was quite hard to follow at times because of the subtitles however i thought it was really good. I mostly liked the performances, the setting and location and i loved the effective use of colour, especially at the end with the gold/yellow/orange and the red.
I was a little skeptical of this movie because I don't really get into horror. However, the blood and gore shown is mainly war violence. I enjoyed the fairy tale story line very much and thought the ending was superb. A beautiful, sad, and poignant film. There were many good points that I found in it that made me love it, which was nice and unexpected.
Excellent, grown-up fantasy movie. The only over Gillermo del Toro movie I had seen before this was Hellboy. I enjoyed Helloy, it was a good hollywood comic-book movie but with a cool weird fantasy twisted sort of thign going on. This movie is more in del Toro's environment, a Spanish movie, not held back by Hollywood and is open to more visonary ideas and atmosphere. This is more compelling, intelligent and emotional then Hellboy. The story has two main plot threads. The main plotline follows a young girl called Ofelia, whose mother is pregnant, the father being a pretty evil bastard fascist Captain Vidal. Ofelia lives in her own little world and she soon enters a fantasy realm where she is the long lost prncess of this underworld kingdom. She must complete three tasks before the moon is full before she can go back to this world. The second plotline is with the servant girl called Mercesdes is helping the rebels who are hiding in the hills. It soon gets dangerous as the Captain soon becomes aware of an informer and starts taking action. Mercesdes forms a strong bond with Ofelia, being a mother figure for her whilst Ofelia's own mum can't be. Both of these story lines are both equally engrossing. Ofelia's storyline is alot more out there and weird. Del Toro does have an incredibly inventive mind. The faun was very well done, the pale man with his eyes in his hands was pushing the weird line. That is probably the biggest negative criticism with this movie, it does sometimes push abit too far with the weirdness, if that makes sense. I do have a tolerance with some things like that, the frog thing was the worse odd thing, but otherwise it was pretty good that side of things. The Ofelia storyline does go to much further depth, espacially the conclusio. You're kind of left with the feeling of like 'Whoa! Did they really just do that?" The best character of this movie is the fascist Captain. The best scene of this movie for me is when the Captain has one of the rebels in the store room and he is interrogating them. The rebel is a stutterer, so Vidal says he will let him go if he can count to three without stuttering. Something so simple yet incredibly hard for the rebel, who doesn't actually complete his tasks and reaches a rather, well, dead end. Vidal is acted brilliantly by Sergi Lopez, injecting the character with a cold chill which makes the conclusion even more effective. The conclusion is surprising and very tense and the ending is fitting and pretty satisfying. All the performances are genuine and strong, particualy from Ivana Baquero as Ofelia. She is very natural, sweet and you really care about the character, which really doesn't help the unsettling feeling of the ending. This is a very good foreign movie that Hollywood would never of had the balls to make.
An amazingly beautiful and imaginitive movie that stays with you for a long time after watching. [Mild spoiler coming up] I loved the fact you can divide the movie's audience into two camps - the optimists who believe the fantasy world was genuine and Ofelia had a happy ending, or the realists/pessimists who felt that the fantasy was just a coping mechanism and not really there. The special effects and models are all brilliantly done and, as a viewer, you become completely and unquestioningly submerged in the wonderful world del Toro has created. Sergi Lopez as the Captain has to be one of the best movie villains of all time - so evil you truly hate him and yet with a genuine feeling, human side that makes his atrocious actions all the more shocking. Ivana Baquero is a revelation as Ofelia - turning in a heart-breaking and understated performance that belies her young years. The violence is very hard to watch at times - although it is never out of context and always plays an important part in the storytelling. Overall a wonderful film that would stand up to several viewings and well deserves the hype that surrounds it.
I had no idea what to expect from this movie. I had thought it was possibly a kids movie but it wasnt really... a lot of it is in Spanish and subtitled in English. Quite a dark movie by all accounts.
I think one of the lasting effects of living with a model making and SFX student is going to be watching films like this and loving them simple because of how excited I know he gets over the models etc. That said I liked this film for more than just that reason. I liked the political stance the film took, it wasn't just a fantasy film to escape from reality for a while, but rather looked at why we need fantasy to escape. The acting was great, Sergi López was particularly good as the Captain, a man I think I truly hated, and Ivana Baquero did a great job in the lead role.
I liked the fact that it was never completely clear whether this magical world existed or whether it was all in her head as a way of coping with the harshess of her reality. Maybe I am synical but I steer more towards the latter, my room mate however did not and likes to believe it really did happen. I also like the fact that this is a fairytale with a much darker surrounding than we are often presented with, much like the many original, darker, fairytales we are now lead to believe are as fluffy as the likes of Dinsey make them out to be.
Overall definalty worth a look, but whether it be to everyones taste remains to be seen.
I love the story of this movie. And I like how imagination that the young girl have.Even there was some harsh scenes to watched but it was great. I love it <3
Horribly overrated, nothing special. I didn't care for any of its uninteresting, unidimensional characters nor its insubstantial, pretentious and foreseeable outcome.
A dark, macabre fairytale, defiantly not one for the kids.The performance's of Ofelia and Captain Vidal are what really stood out to me, plus the amazing effects.
What an awesome, inventive film! Original, suspenful and in parts quite disturbing. The acting is unbelievably good, especially from the person who plays the small role of the stutering character and of course Ivana Baquero, who plays the young girl. The Captain is one of the most horrible, vile villain of all time. You despise him.
A film which has such as emotional hold on you it is unbelievable. This is an Outstanding and compelling drama/fantasy/horror and is my second favourite foreign film of all time (next to Run Lola Run).
Whenever this is on, don't miss your chance to see such a great film. Or buy it, as long as you see it somewhen.
Having dazzled mainstream viewers with Blade 2 and Hellboy Mexican director Guillermo del Toro returns to his roots for this deeply impressive adult fairytale that rates as one of the best films of 2006.
Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Pan's Labyrinth follows the fortunes of young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), as she travels with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to stay with her new stepfather Captain Vidal (Sergi López) at a remote outpost.
But while Vidal spends his days ruthlessly pursuing anti-fascist rebels in the woods, Ofelia discovers the entrance to a strange labyrinth in the forest and befriends a mystical faun named Pan (Doug Jones), who informs her that she is the rightful heir to his kingdom.
In order to regain her place, however, the young girl must complete a number of dangerous tasks.
But as the line between the two worlds blurs, Ofelia finds herself torn between caring for her sick mother and unborn brother and fulfilling her unusual quest.
Pan's Labyrinth derives its inspiration from a number of sources, including - most obviously - the Grimms' fairytales, Alice In Wonderland and some of the imagination of Jim Henson. But it also owes much to the work of Spanish painter Goya (in particular, his gory creation Saturn Devours His Children), the illustrations of the director's favourite Victorian illustrator, Arthur Rackham, and del Toro's earlier work such as Cronos and The Devil's Backbone.
As such, it's a very adult tale that features some truly disturbing imagery, a consistently melancholy tone and some extreme moments of violence. But it's an emotionally enriching experience that has some very important things to say for anyone willing to listen.
The depiction of the hell of war is particularly memorable and occupies a large part of proceedings, serving as a timely comment on some of today's human rights abuses as well as a reminder that monsters aren't merely confined to fantasy. Yet the triumph of the human spirit and man's capacity for bravery and sacrifice is just as effectively relayed via some of the actions of Ofelia and the rebels hiding in the woods.
The director draws some exemplary performances from his Spanish cast, with young Ivana Baquero providing a fearless presence as the determined Ofelia and López revelling in his role of evil incarnate.
The most striking thing about Pan's Labyrinth, however, is its look, which succeeds in mining the depths of del Toro's wonderfully vivid imagination. The film juxtaposes the ugly with the beautiful in exemplary fashion, creating a world that's fun to explore and impossible to forget.
Some of his creations, too, are incredibly striking, such as Pan himself, a horrific Pale Man (both played by Doug Jones) and an over-sized toad that Ofelia must confront and defeat as part of her journey.
All combine to create an experience that is truly unforgettable, a film that confronts the horror of war and fascism within the cleverly constructed confines of a fantasy adventure. It's bold, inspired filmmaking that deserves the maximum praise.
MCT:October 10, 2008
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MCT:September 30, 2008
