Pan’s Labyrinth is a pretty film. Gorgeous cinematography, great locations, intricate make-up (bad CG, but it’s only really noticeable once). Guillermo del Toro does a decent job directing the film but has these really annoying transitions–the back of someone’s head frequently becomes a tree in the forest in unending pans. His script is competent and, well, heartless. I was trying to work up some suspense, but since del Toro ruins Pan’s Labyrinth’s suspense in the opening shot, maybe it’s appropriate. Pan’s Labyrinth could have been a really good war movie, but instead del Toro mucks around in fantasy. Bad fantasy.
I was hoping Pan’s Labyrinth would either use the fantasy elements as a metaphor (it does not) or would be a descendent of Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast. Unfortunately, it’s neither. Instead, like I said before, it’s heartless. Only one of the characters is at all human and she’s just human by default. The rest are unbelievable, except maybe the bad guy (until the end, anyway). The lead character, the precocious girl, goes from being wise beyond her years to being inconceivably stupid. Del Toro never spends any time figuring the character out in any real sense, so there’s not even a surprise (by the time she got stupid, I’d already given up). There’s also absolutely no suspense in the film, thanks a) to del Toro giving everything away at the beginning and b) just some lame plotting.
The performances are fine, but not worth enumerating. Something does need to be said for the graphic violence, however. Instead of attaching any real emotion to Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro makes it frequently bloody to get the audience interested (Paul Verhoeven talked about this method in regards to Robocop–if you haven’t gotten the audience to care with actual character development, blood and guts can do it).
Pan’s Labyrinth is so artificial it’s hard to be particularly disappointed. While it’s boring and empty, the war aspect is so full of potential, you can just sit and imagine the fantasy thing being gone and the movie being good. Maybe it’s because del Toro doesn’t have any M. Night Shyamalan moments… well, until the end, but who cares by then? It’s almost over.
CREDITS
Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro; director of photography, Guillermo Navarro; edited by Bernat Vilaplana; music by Javier Navarrete; production designer, Eugenio Caballero; produced by Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuarón, Frida Torresblanco and Álvaro Augustin; released by Picturehouse.
Starring Sergi López (Vidal), Maribel Verdú (Mercedes), Ivana Baquero (Ofelia), Ariadna Gil (Carmen), Alex Angulo (Doctor) and Doug Jones (Pale Man).
Related posts:
7 responses so far ↓
you’re a retard
It was a pretty good movie, I think the reviewer is a simpleton. He keeps going off and off about the “war aspect” of the movie. Also; to reply to his query; there were plenty of metaphors (and one big one). Go play with some toy tanks and take an English 101 course to learn about metaphors.
Glad to see someone else who found the movie as dissapointing as I have. Why the film has had such universal acceptance despite what I see as many flaws is beyond me.
I tend to agree with the reviewer, although I’d rate the film a little higher.
I, too, expected the fantasy world to be some form of metaphor for what was happening above, but it wasn’t.
The well-fed girl’s insistance on eating something after being told quite pointedly that to do so would be extremely dangerous, was indeed stupid–even incomprehensible, under the circumstances.
I expect one reason the film is so popular among self-appointed “intellectuals” is because the “bad guys” are fascists.
While it’s only marginally alluded to in the film, the “good guys” were essentially communists–little, if indeed any–better than their adversaries. Unless you’re a self-appointed intellectual.
I don’t believe this reviewer saw the same movie I did. It was brilliant from start to finish, albeit a tad brutal in violent detail, hence the R rating. And to the comments above regarding the “well-fed girl”, she was sent to bed without her supper that night and was hungry. It was however one of those “how could you be that stupid” moments, but forgivable in an otherwise mesmerizing film.
Huh? 212 reviews of the movie on MRQE and this one is about the only one that labels the film poor? To each his own, I guess, but you’re so far out on your own, you’ve, well, put yourself in a fantasy world!! LOL!
C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding. This is one awesome movie - a very dark fairy tale and certainly one for the ages. I’m sorry but i do not agree with your review. But at the end of the day cinephiles are an opinionated bunch and film review is a subjective pursuit - so i’ll still stick with you site.