Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Allow me to first say that, this movie is billed as an adult fantasy (no, not that kind of fantasy!) and has garnered many awards as an independent film as a fantastical achievement in both special effects and imagination.

I saw it a few nights ago with a friend after debating what to see. We ended up settling on Pan's Labyrinth because he really wanted to see it. I might be one of the few, but I have to say, I didn't really like it. It's too violent, too gory and too depressing and I found very little in the story that redeemed it. It felt more like a horror movie thinly disguised as a fantasy due to all the stuff that was happening, ie the shootings, the torture. Also found it didn't spend enough time in the actual fantasy stuff that would have been used to lighten things up. I thought the faun, while he was supposed to be one of the friendly characters in her fantasy, ended up even being threatening at times. Felt like one suckerpunch after another.

Sadly, I cannot recommend it. Let this serve as a warning to those who want to go see it. The trailer is very misleading in leading people to think that this has a lot of fantasy in it, which is really the opposite. It's almost as though the fantasy aspect of it was an afterthought. And after walking out of the theatre, my friend told me he knew it would be violent and gory due to the director's previous works. Had I known this, I wouldn't have went to see it.