Pan's Labyrinth
 

Anyone see this? They finally showed it at my local theater last week and man, what a fantastic movie. It is in Spanish and subtitled, but one of the best movies I've seen in a long time and totally deserving of it's Oscar nominations. It's simultaneously tragic and wonderful, gut wrenching and uplifting. The little girl is fantastic as is the rest of the cast. Very violent, definitely not for kids, but a very excellent movie. Still pretty limited release but if you are in an area where you can see it, I highly recommend it. It's listed as "horror" and I can see why, but it is not a horror movie as in a gratuitous slasher flick AT ALL.


Tomatometer = 96%

There are a lot of people speaking up in the "rate the last movie you saw" thread. They tend to like/love it.

I liked it and thought it had some awesome parts, but it also had some slow and unconvincing parts. For what its worth, when it was good, it was damn good, but it wasn't consistent. The CG was a few years behind the curve, however the gore was delightfully graphic and realistic. In the beginning, you just have to trust that the story is going to take you somewhere good, so it takes a while to get rolling.

In the end, you'll be thankful that you saw it, but its not a flawless movie by any means.

Agreed it is not flawless but what movie is ?
I do think this is a very good film, and something Hollywood would never make in a million years. It is well worth watching and the acting is very good. If anyone wants to see something totally different to the usual films that get pumped out then this is a good choice to make.

I have no idea what you mean by CG being "behind the curve" but I thought I heard the special effects were done by Weta (who did the Lord of the Rings movies). I thought that they were pretty hot stuff?

WAIT I have a labrynth and noone ever told me about it?????

DAMN!!!!!! Well, now I know and there will be hades to pay when I find who knew and wouldn't tel me.....

Oh wait you're talking about the movie....... boy is my face red.....carry on.

Dont mind him... he hasnt had his medication. (Love you honey)

The whole movie is in Spanish with just subtitles, I would still like to see it one day though.

I might have to catch it when I'm in the city this weekend. I doubt it will make it to my small mountain town theater, especially since it's subtitled.

*Sigh*, makes me miss my old independent theater.

Brilliant. Beautiful. Very hard to watch.

Super depressing movie, but I still liked it.

Pretty much, yeah. :thumbsup:

Pan... you got a good chuckle out of me, there. :lol:

I went to go see the movie with my girlfriend some time ago, and although I liked the movie I was expecting more of a fairy tale as the trailers seem to imply. Thinking about it I guess it is still a fairy tale during the “realistic” scenes, because the film can be seen to serve as an allegory against fascism. I thought it was interesting that Doug Jones who portrayed not only the Pale Man, but the Faun as well had to memorize not only his own lines in phonetic Spanish, but as a result of the loudness of the servos in the head piece that made the facial expressions and ears move of the Faun costume he had to learn Ofelia’s lines as well… or so I read.

It was good, but the non-fairytale storyline was pretty boring. When Ofelia wasn't doing the tasks to fulfill her destiny, the movie really was dragging.

* mini spoiler alert *

But the monster with those hand eye things was really really really cool.

I saw a preview for this last night when I was shooting pool - this movie looks incredible. I didn't know it was in Spanish until I read this thread though; couldn't hear anything in the bar.

I think it will be kind of interesting to see a movie influenced by Spanish mythology.

-Tamerlain

I saw this this weekend. Great show, probably the best movie of Guillermo del Toro's that I have ever seen. It was not quite what I expected from the previews, but that was not a problem.

Does anyone know why it's called Pan's Labyrinth in English? And not "The Faun's Labrinth"?

I did not expect the theater to be as full as it was, but it made sense when the teenagers next to me said "Is the whole thing in Spanish?"

You'll notice the faun is never given a name. Pan is the name of the most recognizable faun in the mythology that americans are taught. My guess is they dumbed down the title, not trusting the word "faun" to the american public. Instead of calling something what it is, they call it by the name of something that represents it. Kinda like how everyone now calls a clownfish "Nemo."

That makes sense. I didn't realize Pan was a name of a faun (shows my knowledge in mythology). I figured that if they named it "The Faun's Labyrinth" Americans would pronounce it "The Fonz' Labyrinth" and go to the movie yelling "EHHHHHHH!!!!"

While I loved the movie in question, I would also, without hesitation, go to see a movie called "The Fonz's Labyrinth" and pay good movie to do so.

Gonna watch this movie through the week. The trailers on recent dvd etc make it seem very interesting.

I saw it. I really liked it. Damn the ending though.

Hal, I was wondering what your source was on the Pan/Faun thing. I wanted to read more about the decision and link a friend to the article. If you could point me to it, I'd much appreciate it.

The ending was brilliant - most films you know the ending, but in this one it took me by surprise. Anyway, for those who have not seen it yet, please take a break from the usual dross Hollywood chucks our way and see something like this which is original and different.

Sadly enough, I'm in the party that was more disappointed with this film, as I was hoping for more of the fairy tale; if I wanted to go see a "history" film I'd go see a history film. I was not really all that thrilled with the first scene of brutality as well (the rabbit hunters). I just think I expected more of what I usually like to watch, and less people shooting each other for a while.

I liked this movie a lot. I came into the movie not expecting anything in particular, so I wasn't disappointed.

Very interesting movie.

I think the reason I'm not exploding with joy after seeing this movie is because I thought it was an "Alice in Wonderland" deal like everyone seems to be saying. The thing is, this movie has about 15 minutes total of "fairy tale and dream" scenes, and the rest is the dark, gritty realism of fascist Spain circa WWII. Totally didn't expect that. I expected something along the lines of "first 10 minutes of the movie, girl enters some sort of 'labyrinth' and is wisked away into a new, amazing universe with Neverending Story-esque creatures that are either friend or foe, she finds her way back at the end, is changed for life, etc." but it's definitely 100% not that. It's 85% realism, 15% fantasy. I wish it were the complete opposite.

The movie was great, just not what I expecting - I know you can't rate a movie on "expectations" as far as the storyline goes, but the advertising is really misleading, me thinks.

I agree with Halx, as well - some of the CGI was a little out of date. Guillermo doesn't enjoy using CGI (most of the monsters/creatures, including the guy with no eyes, and the faun, were costumes), but when he did in this movie, 50% of it wasn't up to par - close, but could've been better. I'm particularly reminded of the huge frog (alternated between good cuts and bad cuts of the CGI frog) and the scene at the end with the emperor or whatever (sitting on the high-up seats). Ophelia seemed to in a CGI world, similar to Attack of the Clones (which was a travesty in filmmaking), instead of immersed in a "real fantasy" world. Short scene, but could've been much more effective if they used real props.

I give the movie 8.5/10. Pace could've been a bit better in the "real world." Wonderful acting. Needed more of the "good stuff" (fantasy). Not a LOT more, just a bit more to speed things a long in the movie. I recommend it.