Pan's Labyrinth review. Spoilers soon enough

Started by Gryphon, January 23, 2007, 01:22:35 PM

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Gryphon

This little sleeper was seen last week but I haven't had time to do a full review till now. First off the bat when my group of fifteen got there forty minutes ahead of schedule there was a line to escalators. Got to the point where people couldn't get off of the thing and we had to jump over to the stairs to avoid getting sucked into the machine. I honestly thought that since the movie was a spanish movie with english subtitle's it would push people off. Nope. Apparently rave reviews gave it enough of a boost to get normal people to watch it.

Anyway as I said before this movie takes place in Spain and guess what? They speak Spanish. Subtitles are in English and quite honestly I still think they couldn't pull off a english dub without destroying the movie.

My thoughts: No matter how scary and creepy the monsters are I found that in a head to head competition one thing was abundantly clear. The real monsters are more dangerous, scary and ten times worse than any fantasy monster.

There are numerous points where the audience will be quite vocal. It is to be expected. Go with the flow.

Some things I have to say: Didn't they have a paramedic who could take care of that? I mean you called him out for some work earlier. So why not for this one?

HEADSHOT!

Remember folks. After you stab someone twist the knife. It does more damage. If the person is that dangerous leaving them alive is a grave mistake.

Huh. Going to have to wait for the credits for this one. Look at the stick insects names.

With all due respect to Mabb in this world the fey folk are dangerous and treacherous beasties. They are not good nor evil but neutral and whimsical. Beware...

Plus: Although the special effects are far from the overblown hollywood extravaganza I can definitely say that the 'little magics' you'll run across more than make up for it. The effects are appropriate enough to fit and make the world seem that more realistic.

Great characters. All of them are memorable.

Negatives: The movie is quite frankly ambiguous. All the time it makes you doubt several things. Like if all this magic is in the mind of the heroine or not. There is evidence on both sides that magic is real and that this is all one big giant delusion. Also the movie will make you ask yourself wait. Is that guy supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy? And finally the biggest ambiguity is the ending. You'll literally be asking yourself "Am I suppose to be happy? Or am I suppose to be sad?"

End result: A good movie though you'll have to ask yourself 'who is this movie aimed at?'  . I seriously recommend that children not watch it. The scenes are violent and bloody enough to cause... problems for most people. The way the movie ends makes deep thinkers and adults tend to be... unhappy.

If nothing else I'll be here to field questions. I have some more information about the various mythologies in the movie. But I'll wait till more people say something before I bring them up.

Shadrok

 


Melpomene

Personally, I loved this movie~ It had gore, fairies, Nether Worlds, and like, so much more. It was an awesome dark fairytale, so imaginative and creative. Though, the subtitles continued to call Pan a 'faun', where it sound be 'fawn'. >.>;

Caswin

"Well, we've already got an R rating - let's go all the way for the heck of it! :D"

I generally don't like movies that act like that.  Pan's Labyrinth was no exception.
Quote from: DamarisThis is the most freaking civil "flame war" I have ever seen in my life.
Yap yap.